Call Center Software

In 2012, Facebook picked HTML5 as the chosen web technology to scale its website. It took two years for Mark Zuckerberg and the team at Facebook to realize that it was a terrible mistake. They quickly switched to React Native which proved to be more productive and also fast, as was proven by Facebook’s hypergrowth story.

However, the wrong choice of HTML5 had already put Facebook two years behind its schedule. Two years is quite a lot of time for a company on the scale of Facebook. For a small-scale business that is just starting its growth story, the price of two years is immeasurable.

In business, a single wrong choice of technology can wreak havoc for years to come. Sometimes the wrong choice could prove fatal itself. This is particularly true for business software that is used for customer relationship management, internal collaboration, customer service, etc.

Every business that provides customer service through phone support needs call center software. Make one mistake in choosing a call center software and your business productivity and ultimately, customer satisfaction goes down the drain.

The right call center software can help run your call center — be it inbound or outbound, like a well-oiled machine.

Let’s look at some benefits you will definitely reap by choosing the right call center software.

Do more with less

There is approximately 226 call center software available in the market today. The trouble is most of them want you to be an expert in telephony just to understand the technical specifications. They have a complex set up that requires an expert to come down to your place to install and get the system up and running.

The right call center, on the other hand, would be straightforward in its approach. It lets you do more with less. Implying, you don’t need complex infrastructure or experts to get going. The good news is, there is cloud-based call center software available in the market that is unbelievably easy to set up.

Segment calls

Even on the slowest day, call center agents to take anywhere from 40 to 50 calls. During the holiday season and other peak days, the count could treble or increase fourfold. If it is possible for the agents to know what type of calls are coming their way even before picking it up, faster resolutions can be delivered.

That calls for call segmentation. Call segmentation is basically grouping calls based on their origin, purpose or custom attributes of the call. For instance, calls coming from Chinese numbers can be routed to agents who are well-versed in talking Chinese. Or calls coming to emergency support numbers can be connected to specialists who are trained to resolve it faster. Call segmentation also makes it identify areas that can be automated with new call flows.

Manage unexpected spikes

As a business grows, the call flow to its call center will also increase proportionally. In fact, when you have a new product feature release, or an offer going on, the call flow pertaining to these topics will also increase unexpectedly.

The right call center will help you manage any unexpected spike with ease. It will help enable you to add more agents or create custom call flows to ensure equitable distribution of calls to all available agents. In scenarios when agents are unavailable to take calls, the call center software should be able to take customers to voicemail menus where they can leave recorded voice messages of their issues.

Monitor wisely

Telephony conversations are the best form of interpersonal communication. It is also the most difficult of them all. In a telephone conversation, we don’t have the speaker or the listener in front of us. That makes it doubly difficult to convey the message in the right manner sans facial expressions or personal touches.

Also, not all agents would have the same level of expertise when it comes to handling sensitive calls. The call center manager must be able to monitor how such calls are handled to keep a pulse on the call quality.

The right call center software will have call monitoring calls that will allow the manager to discreetly listen to calls. If required, they should also be able to use call whispering to instruct the agent on what to do without letting their voice be heard by the customer. Alternatively, the same feature of a call center software can be used to train new call center agents.

Keep agents happy

A decade ago, if you were a call center agent, you would barely get a few minutes to step away from your desk and the phone. You would literally be chained to the desk as long as the calls kept coming. That is a sure recipe for unhappiness and unproductive work in the long run. Also, sitting for long hours at your work desk is considered to be the new smoking that comes with a long list of perils.

Call center operations, like with any other industry or operation should change with the times. They should be run by call center software that provides agents ample flexibility and facility to work even while they are on the move. They should allow call center agents to divert calls when they are not available to attend them. Or they should provide the facility of mobile apps that will enable agents to attend calls even when they are on the move.

Final thoughts: Should you invest in call center software?

A call center is a worthy investment for any business that wants to orchestrate elaborate telephony operations. Why am I terming it as an investment? If chosen wisely, investments bring you positive RoI. A well-chosen call center software can help your business do more with less (or zero) telephony infrastructure. Also, it will augment your agents’ productivity immensely. Not to miss mentioning that it will empower call center managers to have a bird’s eye view as well as a ground-level view of the real-time call center operations.