Not all call centres are the same. With over 600 call centre businesses currently operating in Australia, how do you decide which one is right for your business? One of the most important considerations should be whether the provider you choose can successfully integrate with your business’s existing systems and processes.
1) Integration allows your call centre to offer your customers real solutions
Integration is critical because “call centre operators cannot do much beyond answering calls if the necessary systems and integrations are not in place.”
So how does integration allow the call centre to provide practical solutions beyond merely answering the call?
- The right systems enable the agent to inform the right people of the inquiry or problem and allow complex calls to be handled efficiently.
- An effective process enables urgent calls to be escalated to the necessary people immediately through various communication channels such as direct phone contact, live transfer, SMS or email. This communication can be tracked, and the customer can be informed of the outcome as soon as possible.
- A well-integrated one can:
- Monitor relevant company data necessary to solve your time-poor customer problems at the first call efficiently by using services like a live answering service.
- Identify solutions because they have a thorough understanding of your business.
- They need to correctly understand each client, what their customers’ needs are, common problems they face, as well as the solutions. Alex suggests investing time partnering with your call centre provider to “build matrixes for each customer problem that point to the best resolution”.
- According to Nikita Arora from Ameyo in the US, high-quality ones need “to focus more on first contact resolution and provide their customers better solutions to their issues”. The operators need to stay informed and provide practical solutions immediately where possible.
2) Integration allows for complete transparency and accountability
Call centres need to have openness inbuilt with their systems and processes then they can be accountable and provide a whole picture of what your centre is doing on your business’s behalf and the customer experience this engenders for your brand. Call centres need to have transparency inbuilt with their systems and processes to be held accountable and gives you a complete picture of what your call centre is doing on your business’s behalf and the customer experience this engenders for your brand.
- Well, integrated call centres can develop customised client portals so that you can access critical data from your centre at any time from your own office.
- Reporting systems can be put in place to make call centre data easily digestible. You can have these reports automatically delivered to you, so you have a consistent, transparent view of all relevant activity.
- It is critical that all of this data and reporting comes directly out of the call centre’s back-end systems – not third-party tools. This is vital for your business because “it means that you get the data with the highest level of transparency.”
- By having a well-integrated call centre partner, you will be able to move beyond the transactions and into drawing on business intelligence gleaned from them, adding further insights into areas where both partners can improve the customer experience and the bottom line.
3) Your call centre can transform into an all-encompassing business support provider
When call centres genuinely partner with their clients, they can become more than just an answering service. They can become part of your daily business operations. Business systems become streamlined, and you can not only deliver much better experiences for your customers, but you can also uncover savings through greater efficiency.
