Are your clients ready to implement a full-time remote call center? Give them a few tips to make the transition easier and recommend your great services at the same.
Call Recording
Call recording remains a critical component of the call center system, even more so in a remote call center workplace. Call center supervisors won’t be able to hear or see agents answering the questions in real-time, so they’ll need to listen to recordings to ensure a proper level of service and knowledge on each call.
Metrics & Reporting Competitions
Gamification has always been an element in call centers to encourage the team to work quickly and efficiently. In a remote setting, games keep the agents interacting with each other while meeting goals and targets for the department.
If you have a large team, try a “survivor” style game with the group broken down into smaller teams. State the goal the night before (improving customer feedback metrics, quality scores, or shortened hold times), so teams can strategize over chat or video before the shift starts. The winning team for that day receives points or a reward, while the remaining losing teams must eliminate a player. Eliminated players form a new team for the next day.
However you decide to gamify your metrics, team-style games are great for remote workers. They spend their days at home taking calls from typically unhappy or confused customers. They need to see their teammates’ faces during the day, too.
Don’t Overwork the Agents
Metrics work well here, too. Scheduling is essential for a successful call center. Carefully look over the metrics for peak call times, long hold times, and call times for each agent so you can schedule accordingly. Stressed agents can’t take the time necessary to solve a problem for the customers, and that frustration grows when the customer has been on hold for a long time.
Keep happy agents and happy customers with proper scheduling to manage workload and budgeting.
Don’t Rely Solely on Phone Calls
Modern call centers have great features that give customers a better experience and meets the caller where they want to be.
Callback Assist is a must for today’s call centers: the customer can choose to have the agent call them back instead of waiting on hold. This feature makes the customer happier while lowering abandon rates (when the caller hangs up) and repeat calls (when they call back a few minutes later to see if the wait time is lower), which ultimately strain the call center.
SMS Messaging: No, your agent won’t be handling in-depth customer service over text, but it can provide context for a callback. If the customer asks a simple question, then the templates you already have should cover the answers. If the messages become more complex, your agent can suggest a callback and offer a time window for the phone call.
Webchat: The benefits of web chat are the same as texting, and many times a bot will direct the customer to a self-explanatory support page if possible. Again, there’s always an option for a voice call if the topic is too complex.
Be Personable
As a remote call center supervisor, you need to check in on your agents more often simply because they don’t see you around the office throughout the day. Ask about their personal lives and simply be friendly.
Even though agents talk to people all day long, the conversation is one-sided and difficult. Make sure their home set-up is conducive to great work and that you’ve solved for the distractions you can control.
Viirtue + Xima
Viirtue recently integrated with Xima to offer the best call center tools on the market. With this tool white-labeled as your own service, your clients will have a robust call center and all the metrics they need to communicate efficiently.
With Viirtue’s call center tools, businesses can quickly add phone numbers, utilize custom wallboards for metrics, chat between agents, and offer skills-based routing and supervising. Set up your clients for success with the best tools in the industry and tips and tricks to help their business run well.