iStaff.ph | Essentials of Contact Center Management: Call Handling

There are instances when call center agents get a rough time handling customer calls. With the variety of phone connectivity available, numerous troubles, concerns, and complaints need to be addressed accordingly. There’s always the option of contact center outsourcing, and there’s always room for improvement; here are some steps to implement with your teams. Let your teams work on these strategies, improving the overall call handling performance of the agents.

Answer Incoming Calls Immediately

If you want to convert customers, answer their calls. Even if you think it’s only a complaint, every call you receive is worth the company’s income. Through this fundamental gesture, your customers feel valued. If the roles were reversed, you don’t want to be on the other line, waiting for someone to pick up the call even though it has been ringing nonstop. Make sure that your agents answer the calls properly and on time. This is a great start to help you convert more calls into customers.

Ask for Contact Information

When the consumers call, it’s possible that they are considering doing business with you. In this case, you better train your team well and provide an effective system that helps them collect the name, email address, and contact number of each potential customer. This is an essential step in contact center outsourcing, knowing how to follow-up on consumers for possible leads or other special offers, even if you have multiple agents receiving the calls. After all, you don’t want to lose a lot of information in the shuffle of different people answering the phone.

The Art of Putting Calls on Hold

Remember that the longer you keep a caller on hold, the less likely that customer stays on the phone. With this in mind, train your agents to have a clear understanding of how to keep callers on hold for the shortest time possible. In fact, it can be observed that the average waiting time of most callers is more or less within the 50-second range. It is best to make the most of the customer’s time by moving with a comprehensive system of gathering information, providing solutions, and the like.

Developing dynamic, efficient contact center outsourcing involves equally effective methodologies. Stay on top of processes, and don’t hesitate to apply feasible ways of improvement. You’ll know the teams are doing well with significant decrease in complaints, and increased rate in customer satisfaction.