How To Improve Call Center Agent Performance 

How To Improve Call Center Agent Performance 

Key Points for Improving Call Center Performance

  • IVR is a tool that collects information from the caller before they’re connected to an agent to improve call center performance and increase customer satisfaction.
  • Blocking undesirable phone numbers and using comprehensive IVR menu options are two ways you can improve call center agent performance.
  • Outsourced contact centers that offer continuous training for their employees increase productivity and agent performance.
  • Another way to improve call center agent performance is motivating agents with user-friendly technology, including sales software, productivity metric reporting systems, CRMs, and help desk tools.
  • Service level, average abandonment rate, average speed to answer, first-call resolution rate, and average call duration are important metrics call centers should keep on their radar to improve call center agent performance.
  • You can improve call center agent performance by rewarding successful agents with bonuses, increased salaries, or tokens of appreciation.

Improve Call Center Agent Performance With These Tips

Whether you’re already using an outsourced call center to help grow your business or looking for a new center to help with your needs, here are a few ways that quality companies improve call center agent performance. That way, you can look for key indicators that you’ve chosen the right company:

Use Interactive Voice Response To Segment Customers

Poor inbound call distribution can harm call center performance. That’s why it’s common for contact centers to implement interactive voice response (IVR) to increase call center productivity. IVR is a tool that collects information from the caller before they’re connected to an agent. The information is shared with the agent in real time, so when the customer connects with a live representative, they get a solution faster and agents are free to resolve more complex customer problems.

Eliminate Avoidable Calls

Another way to improve call center agent performance is eliminating avoidable calls by:

  • Blocking undesirable phone numbers
  • Publishing FAQs on your website
  • Using a comprehensive IVR menu

When you eliminate calls that don’t require immediate attention, agents have more time to make customers connections on calls that benefit your business, increasing call center productivity.

Offer Continuous Training

Outsourced contact centers that offer continuous training for their employees increase productivity and agent performance. Many continuous training programs give team members the resources they need to resolve customer service issues—like how to communicate with angry customers—and grow their product and service knowledge. Training programs are also an opportunity to provide agents with individual feedback using call monitoring tools.

Monitor Calls and Share Best Practices

Call monitoring tools allow new and experienced agents alike to learn best practices for resolving customer problems. Many centers hold training sessions where they offer good and bad customer engagement examples to reinforce positive customer interactions, pushing team members to improve performance.

Empower Agents With the Best Technology

Another way to improve call center agent performance is motivating agents with user-friendly and innovative technology, including sales software, productivity metric reporting systems, CRMs, and help desk tools. Using the best technology that’s easy to navigate eliminates IT-related frustrations and motivates agents to excel in their roles.

Monitor and Analyze Your Metrics

Monitoring and analyzing productivity metrics is an excellent way to increase productivity and performance. For example, service level, average abandonment rate, average speed to answer, first-call resolution rate, and average call duration are all important metrics call centers should keep on their radar to make sure performance and productivity are always improving.

Reward Successful Agents

Research shows that 69% of employees would work harder if they were recognized for their efforts. You can improve call center agent performance by rewarding successful agents with bonuses, increased salaries, or tokens of appreciation for their hard work, like a gift certificate to their favorite coffee shop or fast food restaurant. Even a small gesture goes a long way.

Make Data-Driven Changes

The final way to improve call center agent performance is to make changes based on real-time data and metrics. By reviewing data regularly to uncover problems related to agent performance, you can help employees adjust their customer service approach, resulting in improved performance and productivity.

There are different types of call centers that operate in unique ways to help businesses grow, from inbound and outbound to automated centers.

Using Call Center Performance Management To Increase Productivity

ListenTrust uses call center performance management to increase productivity for your business. Our performance management process starts at the recruiting level, where we take the time to find employees who have what it takes to be successful as a call center agent.

During the hiring process, each candidate is asked to complete a personality and skill assessment so we can get an idea of their work ethic, skills, and behavior to make the right recruitment decisions. Our efficient process ensures that by the time an agent begins training and onboarding, they already have the foundation to succeed at ListenTrust—that’s where ListenTrust University comes into play.

ListenTrust University: Our Call Center Performance Management Training Program

ListenTrust University is our company training program that connects team members with coaches and trainers who provide feedback and areas of improvement for call center agents. This program also gives our employees the opportunity to understand specific clients and business needs.

Other ways we improve call center agent performance include QA processes like live and recorded call audits and email reviews. We point out the good and the bad, using examples of best practices executed by successful agents and not-so-great customer interactions to improve call center performance in the future. Contact us today to learn more about how we increase call center productivity to help your business succeed.

How To Improve Call Center Agent Performance 

Different Types Of Call Centers: Inbound, Outbound, Automated — What They Are & Which Is Best For Your Business.

Different Types Of Call Centers

A call center is often the first contact a customer has with your business, and it’s critical that you choose the right kind of call center for your needs, and the needs of your customer. There are many different types of call centers, key among them inbound, outbound and automated call centers. What sets each type of call center apart, and how do you choose the right one? Let’s explore each type of call center and how they operate.

Inbound, Outbound & Automated Call Centers

Inbound call centers are commonly used to answer calls from customers as they come in. Tasks associated with inbound call center agents include payments, follow-up, tech support and basic help questions and answers.

Outbound call centers are responsible for outreach to customers, often with a specific purpose, and are sometimes called telemarketers. Using an outbound call center is great in situations where you need more lead generation, cold calling or even survey data from customers. This is also a great option if you want to do proactive outreach to customers.

Automated call centers greet customers with recorded messages and funnel them through a series of easy questions, in an effort to send them to the right representative or department of the company

Examples of Call Center by Industry

Every industry has different needs , and choosing the right call center is critical to meeting those needs. For example, the airline industry typically needs customer service agents with access to flight status, frequent flyer balances and a while array of information for each call. Healthcare call centers need to be able to set appointments, direct customers to the right physician, and know when to direct patients directly to the hospital. Retail needs agents who can facilitate a refund or return, or answer questions about company policy. No matter the unique needs of your particular business or industry, there is a call center to meet them.

The Importance of Call Centers

A Microsoft survey found that 90% of Americans factor in customer service when choosing a company to do business with. There are many reasons a company might choose to work with a call center. Perhaps they aren’t able to deliver the customer service that they want too, or they are getting too many calls per day, monopolizing time and resources. Call centers can free up staff to focus on more productive tasks, over fielding calls. In addition, most call centers operate 24 hours, meaning customers will always have a basic level of support. After you’ve decided what type of call center you will employ, it’s time to decide which service is right for your business . There are several elements to take into account when choosing a call center.

  • Size – Does the call center have enough staff to meet your business needs?
  • Security – Does your chosen call center have a good reputation and security practices to protect both company and customer data?
  • Cost – How much will the call center cost, and will you see a return on your investment? Will you use dedicated or shared agents, and how does this affect your business?
  • Experience – How long has the call center been in business and what industries have the worked with in the past? How does the call center handle reporting and data regarding day to day operations?
  • Location – Is your call center on-shore or overseas, and what languages will your call center agents speak fluently? Will agents be able to effectively communicate with your customers, leaving them satisfied after the call?

For more information on call centers, and how you can use them to boost your business and productivity, contact ListenTrust today.

Common Call Center Challenges & How to Overcome Them

Common Call Center Challenges & How to Overcome Them

Call Center Challenges

Call centers can be tough to manage, with an array of agents, scripts, clients, hours and languages. They are also a quickly growing market, expected to peak at $496 billion by 2027. When considering implying or building your own call center, it’s important to look at the common challenges associated with call centers, and how others have overcome them to create a successful and productive work environment that customers and staff appreciate.

A call center is where you expect to get answers, fast. Agents should have access to your data, and the answers you need – and they need it fast. In short, there are two main reasons to create a call center: Customer service and satisfaction and to generate more revenue. Let’s explore some of the most common call center challenges, and how they can be overcome!

1. Technology Issues

There is so much technology available for the modern call center, it’s hard to know where to start. CRM systems, management tools, auto or predictive diallers, and IVR solutions are just a few of the options you have when setting up a call center. It’s important to get the right, complementary technology that works together seamlessly, with no delay. Many call centers find that they have deployed too much technology without testing its usability, or that they aren’t making effective use of the technology they do have. The solution is simple – test out all technology thoroughly before deploying it, and work out all the bugs before your agents start using it with customers.

2. Customer Satisfaction

You could say that if your call center is suffering from low customer satisfaction, you don’t have a good call center. Customers dislike many things about call centers. Sometimes the scripts are uncomfortable and unnatural, technology slow or staff unprofessional. Sometimes staff simply isn’t trained well or doesn’t have access to the data they need to please customers and answer their questions. To fix this issue, train your staff carefully, and consider running customer satisfaction surveys, to see where you can improve. Ask your staff and customers for feedback to identify problems early.

3. Absenteeism & Unreliability

Call centers are tough places to work. You are presented with unhappy customers and issues daily, and it takes an endless amount of patience and empathy to get it right. This stress creates an environment where staff call our or leave frequently. This has become an especially big issue since the “Great Resignation” of 2021. To fix this issue, enforce strong policies around absenteeism. Be flexible with your employees with family or health issues that might cause them to be out. Some are even setting up call center employees in their own homes. Use the same empathy that you expect of your call center employees, when dealing with their personal issues (that we all deal with).

4. Productivity

A common issue with call centers is agent productivity. With a large staff, some potentially working from home, how do you track agent productivity and how do you encourage your staff? Some are overcoming this issue by establishing clear key performance indicators, or KPIs, or deploying remote agent management tools. Finally, you can’t ignore the importance of moral on a productive work environment. Find ways to motivate your staff to give excellent customer service each and every time by offering rewards, accommodations or even prizes. Recognize excellence in your staff, and elevate that person to train others.

Consumers are trending toward a huge appreciation of good customer service, with so much bad customer service available, and 80% of Americans say that a positive customer experience depends on speed, convenience, knowledge and friendliness. We are relying on call centers more and more, but without equipping your staff with the right technology and the best policies and management, you are setting yourself up for failure. Ultimately, all that matters is that you are pleasing your customers, and solving their issues – and prioritizing your customers means focusing on your staff and internal practices first.

For more information on common issues call centers face, and how to overcome them, contact ListenTrust today.

Looking Back at 11 Years of Call Center Expertise: What We’ve Learned and How We’ve Grown

Looking Back at 11 Years of Call Center Expertise: What We’ve Learned and How We’ve Grown

As ListenTrust enters its second decade, we’re reflecting on what we’ve learned and how we’ve evolved throughout our first decade in business. Here are some of our favorite takeaways from the first 11 years. 

  1. Company culture is key: Culture is the foundation of ListenTrust because we believe that a fun, creative environment fosters more engagement and dedication from our employees.
  2. People are our best asset: We know that without our Managers and Agents, the work could not get done, and we continuously ask them for feedback to make positive changes within the company.
  3. Philanthropy is a driving force: We saw employees improve sales when their “reward” was donated to a good cause. The philanthropic spirit we’ve ignited has allowed us to take employees on trips to build schools in Haiti and raise funds that have helped us donate over $590,000 to the nonprofit, buildON.
  4. Negative experiences give us opportunities to improve: Over the course of 11 years doing business it’s natural there would be challenges along the way, but having an open mind and being flexible in how we respond has been the key to overcoming them. We’ve learned to focus on the things we can control and have even pivoted significant aspects of the business to do things we haven’t done before, helping us increase profitability and gain new clients.
  5. Interactive leadership is vital: Being on the ground, easily accessible, and listening to our Managers and Agents, reminds them that we are invested in their future and care about their personal success.
  6. Recognition and rewards are strong motivators: Through rewards, we remind our employees that their work is valued. It also keeps them motivated and inspired to improve when they see how well their peers are doing.
  7. Personal accomplishments drive sales: We’ve learned that when people have the support to reach their personal goals, they are happier employees who perform better. After we implemented our DreamTrust program we saw many of our Agents increase their sales and also saw a decrease in turnover.
  8. We’re not a vendor, but a true partner to our clients: For us to be successful and deliver results to our clients, we work with them every step of the way. We want to know what has worked for them previously and where the areas of opportunity are so we can make the changes and improve the success of their campaign.
  9. Scripts matter, but rapport matters more: Even though we write great call scripts for our Agents, we understand that personal connections are more important to truly convert the customer into a loyal brand advocate. We even have in-house tools that help our agents better connect with customers by building rapport quickly on a call.
  10. Open door policies produce results: We want our employees to reach out to us, and if that means walking into the CEO’s office to talk, then that’s great. Whomever an employee needs to speak with to discuss a project or provide feedback, we want them to go straight to that person no matter what the org-chart says.
  11. Be positive and fun: Throughout the years, we’ve learned that you can be serious when it comes to business, but you can have fun too. This is why we focus on creating an exciting and positive work environment where people can excel.

Ready to Work With ListenTrust? Contact Us Today

 

For more information, contact Tom Sheppard, VP Business Development, at: tsheppard@listentrust.com.