The Vital Role of Call Centers in Business Today

Does Your Company Have a Call Center?

Just like any Kenyan, I have engaged different call centers for assistance over the years.

A few weeks ago though, I had the chance to visit a call center and I got to fully understand how they work. This particular call center was for one of the major e-commerce companies in Kenya.

As you would expect, it was a huge hall full of agents wearing headsets and busy engaging customers. I came to learn that this was an outbound call center. We will get to learn more about the different types of call/contact centers in this article.

For most of us, when we visualize a call center, what comes to mind is exactly what I’ve described; a large office with many desks and agents who endlessly pick up calls. Granted, this was the case at the inception of call centers and for a long time, this has been happening but today things are a little bit different.

 

Digital Transformation and Call Centers

Digital transformation has revolutionized the call center landscape in these modern times which has been influenced by customers’ ever changing needs and the advancements in technology.

A good number of businesses in Kenya have incorporated a call center to deal with customer inquiries and complaints in relation to the product and/ service that a company offers.

 

Should Your Company Have a Call Center?

A Call Center is an office environment or a centralized location which has a team of customer service agents who handle incoming and outgoing calls from both existing and potential customers.

The primary focus for a majority of call centers is to provide extensive support to its customers as well as customer satisfaction. The standard duties of a call center include:

• Offer customer care and technical support
• Acquire new customers
• Market research
• Lead generation
• Streamline payment and order processing
• Telemarketing: Up-selling and cross-selling products and services

 

Call Center or a Contact Center? What is the Difference?

These two terms are often used interchangeably but they do not mean the same thing. Initially, Call Centers were designed to handle incoming and outgoing calls via analog phone lines and nowadays, VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) is now greatly used.

Modern times have evoked technological developments that have led to the birth of multiple digital communication channels and customers expect to interact with organizations across these channels. E.g. Email, social media, live messaging etc.

A Contact Center differs from a call center in that it manages communication with customers across these various channels, in addition to the telephone.

Contact centers promote an omnichannel approach to customer service by offering businesses a 360-degree view of their customers across the multiple channels and customer touchpoints.

By integrating these channels, companies can now track and manage customer interactions from a centralized standpoint.

Some companies may have different types of call centers that cater to the different needs of the organization. Let’s have a look.

 

1. Inbound Call Center:

This type of call center primarily handles incoming calls from existing customers or potential customers. Most of the calls at inbound call centers deal with support queries, issues and complaints from customers.

Some companies have incorporated technology in the telephony system which may give a prompt to the customer to say “account information or pay a bill” or click on a certain number on their keypad for various services.

When the system understands the customer’s inquiry, it can then hand off the call to the appropriate call center agent. Inbound call centers are focused on customer service to ensure the best customer satisfaction.

 

2. Outbound Call Center:

In this type of a call center, the agents make calls to existing or potential customers who have opted-in to communications with the company. A list of such customers can be extracted from a company’s customer relationship management (CRM) platform.

Outbound call centers agents might make calls for promotional campaigns, customer service surveys, market research, or to follow-up on a previous inbound call. Outbound call centers are sales focused.

Majority of the contact centers combine both types of operation in a hybrid call center in order to serve the different functions of the business.

Different types phone systems or call center software are available depending on the type of call center that a business operates.

For an inbound call center, it would be ideal to have a software that has features such as Interactive Voice Response (IVR), call recording or advanced call routing. Some software are able to manage customer requests without requiring the intervention of an agent.

For instance, with automation, the system is able to reroute a call if a customer prefers to speak to an agent. A customer could also call, state their address and get an update on the status of their purchase.

For an outbound call center, it would be ideal to have a system that has a dialer or call monitoring features for making outgoing calls.

 

Virtual Vs. Office- Based Call Centers

Traditionally, call centers were mainly office based but with recent advancements in technology –  fast and reliable internet; a good number of organizations now have virtual call centers.

They operate similar to a regular contact center but instead of being office-based, the customer service representatives work remotely, from different countries and time zones across the world, facilitating a 24/7 customer support service.

The virtual call center agents only need a computer, a headset and reliable network service inorder to work. With technology that has VoIP, agents can get access to cloud calling, email and messaging.

With modern CRM software all the agents and managers in a virtual call center have access to customer interactions and updated account history from anywhere because customer information is stored in the cloud.

 

 Roles of a Call or Contact Center

Traditionally, call centers main duties were to receive incoming calls and make outgoing calls to existing or potential customers. Now in modern times, the call center roles and responsibilities have greatly evolved and agents now handle more tasks beyond just picking or making calls.

Let us now explore these roles in detail:

1. Answering Inbound Calls

Customer service representatives generally respond to incoming calls from existing or potential customers.

The calls could be potential customers making inquiries about a product or service, an existing customer seeking guidance on how to use a product they purchased or trying to find out about the status of their order.

The calls that come through a call center vary depending on the nature of the business, industry, the size of the call center as well as the complexity of issues raised.

To ensure phone conversations are effective, it is important for customer service representatives to have great phone skills such as politeness, active listening, clarity of speech and diction.

Customer service representatives need to have been trained on how to handle calls from customers such as how to answer a call and if needed, how to put a customer on hold as well as transferring a call, and how to close the call on a good note.

 

2. Managing Customer Complaints

One of the unpleasant and unavoidable duties of a call center is dealing with unhappy customers. However, with each complaint lies an opportunity to turn around the unwanted situation to a more suitable one.

To make sure that a call center is delivering exceptional service and ensuring customer satisfaction even when dealing with a complaint, the customer service agent should:

• Ask the right question in order to establish the root cause of the problem which makes the problem-solving process faster.
• Identify the type of the customer- their behavior. Establishing the character of the customer will aid in recognizing how to respond and calm them.
• Show empathy by being humble, using empathetic statements which makes customers feel seen and respected.
• Give a clear solution. Customers who are annoyed are not keen to listen to excuses. So it is important to offer a solution and confirm the issue is solved.
• Escalate – If a customer representative is not able to offer a solution on the first contact, they should escalate to someone with the right skills or authority to resolve the problem.

 

3. Processing Orders and Payments

One of the most essential and basic duties of a call center is taking and processing orders. The call center agents require detailed knowledge of a company and its products and/ services because they need to answer inquiries from prospective and existing customers.

If a customer decides to make a purchase, they need to place the order for the customer and offer any additional information needed.

Customer service representatives are also tasked to track orders, handle any order cancellations and exchanges, address shipping problems, resolve any payment issues as well as manage returns or refunds.

 

4. Follow up on Customer Calls

A good number of calls that come through the call center are not resolved on the first call. Take for instance a business that sells tech items, some of which can be very complex. In cases where it has to do with technological issues, often extensive troubleshooting or escalation is required.

As a result, agents need to make follow up calls to find out if the previous solution offered worked or to inform customers about further steps.

 

5. Selling, Upselling and Cross-Selling

Call center representatives are encouraged to look out for sales opportunities and through the available data, make cold calls to prospective customers; offering them the company’s products and/ services.

These outbound calls could also be aimed at telemarketing sales, validating leads, charity fundraising, appointment setting and proactive customer service notifications.

The representatives are also encouraged to seize opportunities for upselling or cross-selling when communicating with customers. Upselling happens when a call center agent proposes an enhanced or an additional product or service that is greater in value to the customer.

Here is an example – you walk into a shop to buy this phone you have in mind but the sales representative suggests that if you spend a few more thousands shillings, you could get a superior phone with a better camera and more phone storage.

Cross-selling occurs when the customer is offered a related or complementary product or service. For instance:

Have you noticed when you make an order on your favorite food app and before you complete your purchase, you receive a suggestion of other food items that go well with that burger? Perhaps some extra cheese, soda or some fries? Now that’s cross-selling.

 

6. Carryout Market Research

Market research is important in any business for the purpose of sales or when a business is developing a new product or service and before rolling it out. Research helps businesses understand customer’s behavior, potential market as well as competitors.

This allows businesses to make informed decisions based on the information gathered in regards to what customers want, how they act and may be what they prefer in the competitors’ products or services.

 

7. Updating and Managing Customer Database

Call center representatives are responsible for logging and storing customer information in the customer relationship management (CRM) system. After an interaction with a customer, call center representatives are required to review and update customer data for future reference.

This information includes customers’ contact information, shipping and billing preferences, purchase history as well as all previous interactions with a company. This information is key in supporting the agents when it comes to delivering a personalized customer experience.

 

8. Collecting and Reporting on Customer Feedback

Call centers are invaluable for organizations because they are in direct contact with customers and as a result, they are in a great position to pick up on any recurring issues or feedback from customers and report the same to management.

Companies can then identify issues in good time and fix them before they cause any damage.

As customer representatives have their day to day real time conversations with customers, they can seek to get more information from customers in regards to their product/ service offering.

This could be finding out what they really feel about a company’s product/ service, what is not working or they struggle with and what the company can do to improve in order to better meet their expectations.

 

9. Training and Onboarding New Call Center Agents

Call centers house a wealth of knowledge and information. For a call center to operate effectively, the call center agents need to have a deep understanding of the company’s products/ services as well as the company policy inorder to effectively serve the customers.

In this regard, call centers are used in training and onboarding new call center representatives joining the team.

A call center plays a vital role in the success of a business and with the right software, the call center provides a great foundation for the agents to offer timely and efficient customer support and service.

 

In conclusion…

In these modern times, we have seen emerging trends in the field of customer service and telecommunication.

As a result of the constant changes in consumer behavior, we have seen an uptake on omni channel communication in the quest to cater to customers who expect businesses to interact with them on their preferred platforms.

In order to stay competitive and ensure success, businesses have had to make themselves available on multiple platforms such as messaging, voice, social media, email, live chat among others.

To facilitate consistent and personalized customer experience across multiple touchpoints, managers are empowering their employees by ensuring they have the right tools and strategy as well as training them so that they can efficiently and effectively manage a customer’s journey.