Customer Call Centers

One of the fastest-growing trends in business today is the call center. Outsourcing calls can raise profits, improve the quality of customer service, streamline business operations and save money. With virtual accessibility, call centers have become a possibility for any business, large or small.

What are the benefits to a business owner of using a call center?

(1) Staying Up-to-date. Call center agents are on the job 24/7 to handle calls and keep business owners informed about what`s going on in their client base. Some call centers even furnish statistics about customer calls.

(2) Fewer Personnel Issues. Agents are recruited and trained by the call center, which also conducts payroll and other personnel responsibilities.

(3) Efficiency. Incoming calls are automatically transferred to the appropriate agent, making the best possible use of an agent`s knowledge and expertise. If one agent cannot rectify a problem, the call can be transferred to a more knowledgeable agent. Calls are always taken despite the ebb and flow of business call volume.

(4) Accessibility. With 24/7 coverage, agents are always available to place orders, resolve problems or complaints, offer technical support, answer inquiries and schedule appointments, all at the customer`s convenience.

(5) Savings. outsourcing calls to a call center eliminates the need for office space, furnishings and equipment for customer service representatives. Also, it`s less expensive to outsource calls than to hire agents on all three shifts.

(6) More Freedom. Call centers handle the customer base, freeing owners to expand their business.

Conversely, there is liabilities to using call centers.

(1) Irregular Service. The quality of customer support depends upon the skill and expertise of a given agent and abilities can vary greatly between agents.

(2) Communication Problems. Customers are frustrated by not being understood and not understanding agents from call centers in non-English speaking countries, with accents and/or insufficient ability with the English language. Some customers report that these agents are inadequately trained, unable to solve problems, answer questions or take appropriate actions.

(3) Lack of Knowledgeable Personnel. Some call centers have inadequate supervisory personnel to solve problems an individual agent cannot deal with. This can leave a customer`s trouble indefinitely unresolved.

(4) Unhappy Agents. Some representatives report feeling dehumanized at call centers due to inadequate pay, lack of privacy, inability to leave their work areas and the stress of constant incoming calls. This can produce apathetic agents who are impolite to customers.

(5) Having to Call Repeatedly. Some customers say that, due to the great variability of skill among agents, they must contact the call center more than once to find an agent who has the skill to solve a given problem or to address a particular question.

Call centers are the trend of the future and most businesses are at least considering outsourcing their calls. Ultimately, the success of outsourcing will be a result of the caliber of customer service provided by the call centers themselves.

This entry was posted on Friday, December 12th, 2008 at 10:19 pm and is filed under Call Center. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.