Ensure a 5 Star Inbound Call Center Outsourcing Experience
By Melissa Werth, Customer Service Supervisor, Quality Contact Solutions
Author note: When I use the term inbound calls, I am also referring to other customer contacts like text, chat, and email. In today’s inbound customer service model, all of these customer contact types are viewed interchangeably.
You’ve made the decision to employ inbound call center outsourcing to save money, improve service or both. Inbound call center selection is not easy. There are lots of call center options. And after you’ve made the decision, you need to be prepared to make a heavy investment of time with the new team to ensure they are successful. Many executives and managers overlook the importance of the time investment when they are developing the plan.
To ensure your outsource initiative is successful, here are some keys to ensure success.
Inbound Call Center Outsourcing Requires Excellent Training
Training is the key to successful inbound call center outsourcing initiative. You want to instill in your team what you expect out of them as well as what the client is expecting. You want to make sure that your team provides the best customer experience with each interaction. Put the customer first. Make sure the experience is so positive that customers promote your brand. I recommend training on every possible common scenario and then layer the training with common sense policies with some built in flexibility. Let the team help the customer and fix their issue.
Monitoring Calls with Your Inbound Call Center Outsourcing Partner is Key
Call monitoring is key to ensuring consistency across the different customer contacts. Call monitoring and call calibration will help guide you in making sure your team is providing the best customer service to your customers. I recommend listening to a mixture of live calls and recorded calls. It is also critical to coach the team in near real-time to ensure the team gets meaningful and timely feedback.
Invest in Meeting Your Team
When you’re onboarding a new inbound call center partner, it is very helpful to everyone for you to travel to the call center and spend some time on site. By investing in meeting the team, you will build a relationship that will enable better communication. You can share your vision with the team, set expectations and provide the all-important motivation for the team on why their role is important in the grand scheme of things.
With the right inbound call center outsourcing relationship, and the proper investment of time spent training, monitoring calls and meeting the team, you will be creating a 5-star experience for your customers for years to come.
Melissa Werth is a Customer Service Supervisor for Quality Contact Solutions. Melissa is responsible for the day to day operations for the work-from-home Inbound Customer Support and Technical Support team for multiple clients. Prior to joining QCS, Melissa was a sought-after 10-year call center veteran with demonstrated experience in handling highly technical customer service calls with ease