Call centers are increasingly the main source of jobs and business opportunities in the modern world. Once upon a time if you bought something and needed advice on it, you’d go back to the store or give them a call.
More recently, businesses have seen it as being more financially sensible to locate customer service in one place. The biggest companies will often have one or more centers handling all calls. Different departments deal with complaints, orders, customer advice and product enquiries.
In the fast-paced world of business, a company can be taking thousands of calls a day. While a significant portion of those calls will be simple queries handled in under a minute, some will not. Some of those calls may be complicated and attritional. A customer calling in to complain about a minor issue may feel their call has been mishandled and wish to escalate their complaint.
Equally, when someone handles a call well they should be rewarded and people who are doing the job well should be valued. Their skill in that job may mark them out as someone who can move up the ladder. In that fast-paced world, it is important to be able to reference how people handle calls and where processes could use some fine tuning. And this is why call analytics are an essential part of modern business.
If you’ve spent much time on the phone to a customer service department, you’ll have heard hold messages. Often this message informs you that “all calls are recorded for monitoring purposes”. Of course, recording all calls is not the same as listening to all calls. It would be impossible to listen to and log every call. You would literally need as many people doing that job as were handling calls. And that’s where analytics come in.
When a customer raises a complaint, or seeks more information on a prior call, analytics software allows you to pull that call. You can listen to it and see if what the customer has reported matches the recording. This process also allows for random sampling of calls for the purposes of staff evaluation. In many companies this is essential for pay rises and bonus awards. Analytics also allow you to track a customer’s journey with your business.
Providing the best level of customer service, handling all complaints efficiently. Having the right information to ensure that all staff are trained to the requisite level. All of these are things a company needs to stay on top of these days. Customers, who have been told that their calls are recorded, will demand that you listen to those calls. There is no rowing back on the advances made in service provision.
In summary, if you wish for your company to thrive in an era where processes are becoming more streamlined by the day, it’s simple. You have to ensure that you know what your call center staff are doing and saying. You need to know how it can improve and who has a natural flair for the job. To ensure that you’re hitting it out of the park, you need solid call analytics software and to keep track of every call.
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