Why are call centers so successful? Because they make businesses like yours successful. For the uninitiated, a call center is a centralized location where multiple service representatives field inquires via phone. These inquiries are typically related to product support. If your business has flirted with the idea of contracting a call center helper to better service your customers but you’re not sure if that juice is worth the squeeze, keep reading! Below, we share a handful of signs to watch out for that suggest you should absolutely start integrating a call center into your business.
1. Your Business Is Growing
As your business scales, so too will your customers and their questions. How will you provide that additional support? Through call centers! Call centers tend to have huge volumes of representatives that are always at the ready as your company needs more hands on deck. That unique ability to expand or contract is a massive benefit that will make it so your company’s service is never outpaced by its growth.
2. Hold Times Are Getting Longer
How long does the average customer that calls into your business wait on hold? If you’re noticing that your average hold times are expanding, that can create a PR issue. Through social media, it’s easy for people to immediately call out your company for making them wait inordinate amounts of time for what they perceive to be a simple request. The best way to combat issues with hold times is to invest in a call center that will make you more reactive to requests and in certain cases, available to customers 24/7
3. Digital Chat Doesn’t Connect With Your Audience
We’re seeing a lot of companies emulate call center benefits by investing in digital chat. These chats are essentially website-hosted boxes people can type questions into which then spur discussions with support agents. The idea of chat support is a good one but only if your audience is comfortable with that medium. If your audience’s age, lack of internet access, or other features makes it so they prefer phone interactions, you need to double down on call center technology. While that may be less convenient than chat, it’s important that you always meet your customers where they are.
4. Accessing Information During Calls Is Challenging
When you’re on a support call, you’ll need access to a variety of information to be helpful. That information might include order information, customer banking data, addresses, and everything in-between. How capable are you of pulling up that information as customers call into your company? If you’re struggling, call centers can help. Call centers use cutting-edge call center software that can integrate with your systems and give support agents instant access to details about customer concerns. That makes for more productive conversations and happier customers.
5. Cost-Cutting Is a Corporate Focus
One of the most obvious benefits of call center outsourcing is that it saves companies money. If you’re paying a couple of internal employees to field calls as they come in, you’re likely paying their hourly rates, healthcare subsidies, time-off, and more. When you outsource customer service to a center, you pay a low, flexible monthly fee that is all-encompassing. That can net you instant savings, better service, and can make your monthly business expenses more predictable.
6. Your Team Is Spread Thin
If you’re having your CFO take customer service calls, you need to get your priorities in order. The reason why you bring specialists onto your team is because they’re experts at what they do. Diluting their expertise by making them focus on menial tasks they’re not good at hurts your company. The moment you find your high-skilled labor is spread too thin because they’re managing customer service tasks is the moment that you know you’ve waited too long to contract a call center.
7. You’d Enjoy Robust Data on Your Calls
Call center reporting practices provide your company with a bevy of data on customers that call in, common complaints, and more. With that data, you can improve product instructions, launch information campaigns, and do other things that can increase customer satisfaction down the road. We can’t begin to describe how valuable that can prove to be as your organization continues to expand into new markets and holds on in your current ones.
8. Compliance Isn’t on Your Radar
There are certain practices you’ll have to abide by when fielding phone calls in your business. If you violate any of those practices, you’ll be liable to pay fines. If business phone compliance isn’t something that’s on your radar, put extra consideration into hiring a call center. When you do, you move liability to them and can rest assured that they’re well versed in what they can and can’t do over the phone.
You’ll Wonder How You Ever Lived Without a Call Center
Businesses that are scrambling to keep up with customer service need to at least experiment with a call center. If they do, we’re confident they’ll wonder how they ever lived without the additional support. We hope our post has helped you better identify things to watch out for that beg the need for call center support. If you’d like additional insight on topics surrounding call centers or business topics, we welcome you to browse more content on our blog.
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