In today's diversified global marketplace, where face-to-face customer service is increasingly rare, creating a dynamic call center staffed with capable, enthusiastic employees is absolutely essential for any company looking to expand its clientele while simultaneously maintaining a high level of satisfaction among current customers.
According to the Technology Marketing Corporation, up to 75% of customers surveyed will refuse to continue doing business with a company that they feel has offered them sub par service. With customer service such an important element of your business, and the call center as your main tool of providing that service, how can you make sure that your call center is up to the task of representing your brand to the public and taking care of their concerns? Are there special challenges and concerns that arise when you decide to outsource your call center to a different location than your primary offices? What are the keys to outsource call center success?
The first consideration that must be addressed in order for a call center to flourish is, naturally, staffing; taking care to hire the best agents available for your call center will make an enormous difference in how much time and energy you'll need to invest in agent training and management down the road.
Look at the quality of education received by your prospective staffers. Did they attend prestigious universities, or schools with strong customer service training programs? Did they perform well in school? Do they have the necessary degree or certificate? Are they already knowledgeable about the products or services your company provides?
Obviously, details of your specific product can and will be taught in training, but hiring staffers who already have some background in your field could be a huge advantage. When outsourcing, it helps to make sure the offshore company you're intending to work with has educated employees who are committed to high standards of quality, and that the company itself comes recommended in your industry.
Another one of the most important elements in creating an effective call center for your business comes down to simple psychology. Do you understand you customers? Can you put yourself in their shoes? What would you want from a customer service experience?
Many customers will be contacting you call center with questions or complaints, which means that they're already frustrated and upset before they even dial your number; how they feel at the end of the call is entirely in the hands of your call center agents. Customers want and expect your company's representatives to behave thoughtfully and with empathy, to ask pertinent questions, to speak with authority on the matters at hand, and who take control of the situation without seeming domineering or rude.
When you've outsourced your call center, keep in mind that cultural differences may mean that your offshore employees will not necessarily know what customers expect of them.
What, then, is the answer to this customer service conundrum? Thorough training and meticulous management! Employ all of these keys to success and you'll be unlocking the secret to customer satisfaction in no time.
1. Exactly what documents you need to have ready for the meeting depends on the state you live in. At the very minimum you will need a meeting sign-in form, something to take minutes on, a copy of parental rights and, if it is an IEP meeting, enough draft copies for every two people to refer to during the meeting. You will need additional documents for evaluation meetings, referral meetings and so forth.
2.Two or three days prior to the meeting, make contact with all team members either by phone, in person or email. This is just to remind them of the meeting and confirm that they are ready with their input. Don't forgot to touch base with the parents, too.
3.Prepare and make copies of an agenda. If the room you are meeting in has a whiteboard, writing the agenda there will save a tree. For me, an agenda basically serves one function, which is to set up some parameters for discussion. An agenda helps you keep the meeting moving forward. It's your responsibility to make sure everyone gets a chance to speak, that you don't get bogged down in a topic and that you end on time. Everyone on the team appreciates a meeting that has a set ending time.
4.Make sure you know (and reserve) your meeting location. If your school is like mine, space is at a premium. Be creative. Can you use the art room at a certain time? The library? The 4th grade classroom? Nearly any space in the building is a potential meeting place so long as confidentiality can be maintained.
5. So, now you've gotten your space reserved, confirmed time, date and place with the other team members, and all of your paperwork is finished. At the start of the meeting you may need to go over ground rules for behavior. Some teams can be quite contentious and get into things like personal attacks. If your meeting might veer off in that direction, take a precautionary measure and remind participants that the meeting will be civil, including speaking one at a time, no swearing or personal attacks, or whatever you think needs to be stated.
6.About a half an hour prior to the meeting start time, let the office know where to send people as they arrive. Put a box of tissues on the table where you are meeting, just in case.
7.As people filter in, have them sign the attendance sheet. Acknowledge everyone.
8. Be sure all the team members know each other. A good way to do this is just have each person introduce him or herself and their role. If someone has forgotten who someone else is (even though they may recognize them), this introduction gets them off the hook without being embarrassed.
9. After introductions, move on to the meat of the meeting. Quickly summarize the agenda and ground rules and the time you'll be ending.
10. Near the end of the meeting, with maybe 10 or 15 minutes left, start steering the meeting to a natural stopping point and let the team know time is running out. You may need to schedule another meeting if you can't get to every topic in your allotted time.
11. When time's up, collect the draft copies, make sure all of your paperwork is signed and thank people for coming.
12. Running a meeting can be difficult. Preparing what you can in advance leads to a less stressful meeting (at least for me) 9 out of 10 times. When I first started teaching and holding meetings, I wasn't really comfortable in that role. Over time, with practice, meetings aren't so scary anymore. Just remember, nobody is born knowing how to run a meeting.
13. If you didn't take notes during the meeting or have someone else do it for you, jot down what was said and decided before you move on to something else. This way you'll have something to go by when you sit down to type the minutes out.
Both Adir Le & Deborah Walker, M.ed. are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.
Adir Le has sinced written about articles on various topics from Family, Golf Guide and Home Improvement. Adir Le writes on the topics of ,. Adir Le's top article generates over 5400 views. to your Favourites.
Deborah Walker, M.ed. has sinced written about articles on various topics from Family. Deborah Walker teaches special education to middle-schoolers with significant disabilities. She lives in northern New Hampshire with her husband, middle-schoolers, 2 dogs and 3 cats.. Go to. Deborah Walker, M.ed.'s top article generates over 480 views. to your Favourites.