7 ways to make your call center times faster

Call centers can range in size from medium to large depending on the size of the corporation. Call centers are designed to handle both incoming and outgoing calls, also known as inbound and outbound calls. Most companies hire people strictly for inbound or outbound calling rarely do they cross train their employees. Companies that do not have a large call center often cross train their employees to help reduce the over all costs of the company.

Companies are always looking to try to reduce costs and improve their performance and call centers are no different. You as a manager have probably been told to look and see how you can improve the call center process. The good news is there are ways to improve your call center times, which will help keep your customers happy and it can also help reduce your overall costs for the call center

Tip one:
Reduce time spent talking. Some customers problems can be solved in one minute, others can take up to an hour to solve. A lot of this depends on the type of business you are running and what the customer's needs are. For example a tech support phone call can take an hour to fix the problem those problems require a lot of hands on experience. But a simple billing question can take a minute to answer. The key is to handle the customer's problem in the shortest amount of time possible. Once you have answered their question you can then politely say "Is there anything else we can help you with?" This can limit the small talk that might happen by not being professional.

Tip two:
Know who the customers are. A lot of time is wasted on identifying the customer's information before moving on to the actual call. Identifying who your customers are is important because of identity theft, but there is computer software available that will help identify who the customer is. A lot of the time before a customer reaches a customer service representative they are going through an automated process that requires them to enter in their account number. Based off of the customers account number the computer should be able to pull up a client's information therefore saving you time from having to enter in the information yourself. To help protect their identity you can have them verify the last 4 digits of their Social Security number or the last four digits of their account.

Tip three:
Cut back on the time that a customer spends on hold. A large portion of your call times are spent from customers waiting on hold. If you can cut back on that even by ten to twenty seconds you will be able to cut down on your overall call times.

Tip four:
Keep your manuals updated. These manuals can provide valuable information to your call center employees. If the manuals are updated and organized your employees can find the answers for the customers faster than if they have to flip through the manual numerous times in search of the answer. The key to a good organization is to separate the manual by call types and include tabs that identify the different sections. This can also help cut down on the time that your customers are waiting on hold. If the employee has the answers in front of them they can find the answer without having to put the customer on hold while they ask somebody to help them.

Tip five:
Have an automated screen that includes all of the customer's information such as products purchased, serial numbers, makes and models, etc. This might have to be input the first time the customer calls in, but if it is available for future calls it will cut down on the call time because you will not have to obtain this information again, your employee has it right at their fingertips.

Tip six:
Cut down on the time your customers are kept waiting for an answer. By providing good customer service training and providing your employees with the right tools they can address the customer's problems in a timely manner thus eliminating how much time customers spend waiting.

Tip seven:
Use computer self-help programs or automated systems for basic questions. This is where a customer is calling to check their account balance, when their payment is due, or how much their payment is. These questions do not require human interaction and if you can implement a system that will answer these questions and other basic question you can cut the number of phone calls your call center receives.

Increasing your call center times is important in many aspects. It not only cuts down on your overall costs to run the call center, but it helps improve your customer service.

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Categories: Technology Management,

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