Best Practices to Improve Customer Experience in a Call Centre

Enhancing a call centre’s processes may seem overwhelming, but the results will always be worth it.

All it takes is the implementation of a few practices and you can see remarkable changes in your agents’ engagement with customers. Here are a few best practices to follow to see constructive changes in the way your customers’ experience can improve.

1. Have your customers segregated

With the help of IVR (interactive voice response)  and an auto-dialler, you can have your customers segregated according to the issues/problems they’re facing. IVR helps customers solve their own minor queries by using automated information which can be stored and accessed by cloud infrastructure maintained by the company.

Moreover, improving the routing of your IVR will enable the auto-dialler to match the right kind of customers with the most suitable agents in your call centre. This will improve customer satisfaction as they get the correct information from the correct person, and also improve job satisfaction for your call centre employees as they convey the right information with utter precision to the clients at all times.

2. Evaluate performance and encourage agent empowerment

Now, since we spoke about routing the right calls to the right agent, how will you evaluate whether the task done is completed correctly or not? This can be powered by simple performance management software where you track and evaluate every agent’s performance from time to time. According to McKinsey, a performance management tool will help identify the best performing employee more accurately than real-world evidence may show. Eventually, this will help you work on customer experience.

3. Turn customer feedback into tips for performance improvement

Just focusing on the agents is not going to help completely. Feedback can come even from outside the company, e.g. from the customers. They may be the best source of honest and reliable feedback. Generally, during online surveys or feedback tests, customers tend to be more honest and upfront about their experiences, while others choose to ignore the test itself. Thus, the information generated from these tests and surveys can be used to improve customer experience.

4. Focus on minimising on-hold times during calls

Nobody likes being put on hold for too long, especially when they’re calling customer service. For an informal call it may be tolerable, but that isn’t the case here. Thus, minimising on-hold time during calls is something of a necessity, and a company must focus on it. Customers typically don’t realise the depth of their problems or queries and always want instant answers and solutions. Well, cutting wait time may be difficult, but it is not impossible. According to Huffington Post, about 85% of callers are frustrated if the agent does not have information they need. To minimise this problem, agents could have access to a cloud infrastructure that contains all the relevant data so they could answer the question more quickly. This will save the agent’s as well as the customer’s time as data will be available instantly, thus improving customer experience.

In summary, the best thing you can do to improve your call centre performance is follow these practices. With patience and willingness to change, everything can be achieved.

Thanks to Maggie Kensington writing for Aspect Software. For more information on Aspect please visit their website

Maggie Kensington is a Senior Technical Writer. She has close to 5 years of diversified ITES experience, including managing technical support and project teams, transitioning strategic business processes and projects, leading high-impact process engineering projects, partnering with globally located cross-functional teams and delivering high-level business performance analytical solutions for an executive leadership team.