Five Contact Center Outsourcing Mistakes
The contact center is one of the most important departments in any organization. Contact center agents have the most direct connection with your customers, the people who ultimately determine whether your business succeeds or fails. Considering how important the contact center is to business success, plenty of mistakes are still being made on a daily basis in call centers around the world. Here’s a list of the five contact center outsourcing mistakes that you should avoid:
1.) Improper agent training
Whether a contact center agent has prior experience or they are brand new to the field, they will need to be properly trained before they start interacting with customers. Many contact centers fail to adequately train agents because they don’t want to make the investment given the high turnover rate in the industry. However, contact center training should be an ongoing process. A one week training session at the beginning of employment just isn’t enough to cut it. Your agents need to be continually trained on your systems and, most importantly, on sales and call handling techniques to produce more happy customers!
2.) Not properly analyzing data
Modern call center technology is great, but it’s useless if it’s not being used efficiently. Modern call centers have greater access to data…but what they do with the data is what really matters! Call centers must have a system in place to ensure that data is properly analyzed in order to incorporate insights into new business plans.
3.) Not focusing on the customer
Many contact center services have become obsessed with scripting, agent utilization, and call resolution time. However, they often forget that the focus should on developing happy customers. It seems obvious, but the customer should always be made to feel like they are the top priority, and not just a figure on a stat sheet!
4.) Clinging to legacy technology
Modern call center technology including speech analytics, call mining, call recording, data mining, and real time reporting solutions have revolutionized customer support. Modern agents and managers now have access to immediate data. This information can be used to make important business decisions in regards to agent training, marketing, sales development. Clinging to technology of the past can be a serious mistake. Outsourcing can be a great way to leapfrog your competition by employing the most advanced technology overnight.
5.) Outsourcing to the wrong call center partner
There is nothing wrong with outsourcing. In fact, this is often the most cost effective solution. However, finding the right partner can be tricky. Please research a variety of options and get proposals from several potential contact center partners. Rarely will the cheapest or most convenient agency is the best option. Today, many contact centers are industry specialists that develop agents with significant knowledge to share with customers in that niche. Take your time, do your research, test multiple agencies, and try to find the best outsourced call center possible.
If you are ready to enhance the performance of your business, contact Worldwide Call Centers today at +1.719.368.8393. Our senior consultants are ready to discuss your situation in depth. Then, we can explore the contact center outsourcing options available from the US and Canada to Eastern Europe, Asia or Latin America.
