Company call centers are at the core of companies’ interactions with customers. When customers encounter problems before, during, and after purchases, they reach out to customer service agents for guidance and support. Providing customers with a pleasant call experience can increase customer satisfaction, which can lead to customer retention, referrals to new customers, and increased sales.
Customer service interactions can be the deciding factor that influences someone’s choice to make a purchase or end business with a company. As Peppers & Rogers Group reported, indifferent salespeople cause 60 percent of customers to stop doing business with companies.
To avoid the problem of employee indifference and improve salesperson interactions with customers, companies should prioritize employee satisfaction and implement workforce management (WFM). WFM tools can decrease labor costs while increasing profit. WFM and workforce optimization (WFO) solutions integrated with Bright Pattern’s innovative technology enable company call centers to analyze customer interactions, maximize call center agents’ performance and consistency, and improve the quality of calls.
The critical components of implementing WFM in call centers are the enabling of efficient agent training, forecast scheduling, agent flexibility, quality management, and improvement of key performance indicators.
Efficient Agent Training
WFM and WFO enable companies to track agents’ interactions with customers, allowing them to identify agents’ skill deficiencies. Using WFM and WFO, managers can evaluate agent performance and customer satisfaction. Managers can provide efficient training tailored to agents’ weak spots when they know their strengths and weaknesses.
Call center agents must receive training on how to handle challenging customer interactions and personalities, and how to use technology implemented in call centers. Agents working for companies that use Bright Pattern contact center software will find that such robust technology is easy to use and provides pleasant calling experiences for customers and employees. The innovative, artificial intelligence-backed technology from Bright Pattern, the leading provider of enterprise call center software, optimizes inbound and outbound calling capabilities.
Bright Pattern’s omnichannel software, the first of its kind, outperforms multichannel software offered by competitors. This powerful technology compiles and updates data, allowing customers and call center agents to experience seamless connections via telephone, live chat, email, text, SMS, and other communication channels. Such software prevents leaving customers on hold or making them wait to speak to multiple agents across different departments.
For outbound call centers, businesses can use free ringless voicemail drops offered by Stratics Networks, the creators of such technology, to optimize customer outreach. Voicemail drops allow companies to reach more telephone prospects while using less time and fewer resources. This technology enables call center agents to leave voicemail messages without placing calls. Stratics Networks lets companies send an unlimited number of nondisruptive voicemail drops with unrestricted delivery days and times, increasing productivity by maximizing the number of calls a call center can make.
Forecast Scheduling
When generating schedules, managers must consider agent availability and work preferences, vacation times, and agents’ unique skills. WFM tools use historical data to forecast incoming volume, enabling companies to ensure there’s enough workforce capacity to handle the predicted call volume. Scheduling enough call center staff to handle the rise and fall of peak call times helps companies reduce incoming call abandonment rates, and minimize operating costs. Accurate scheduling can reduce unplanned overtime, vacations, and decrease transition times.
Flexibility For Agents
WFM enables companies to hire remote call center agents to work from any location. Bright Pattern offers software that allows companies to create a virtual call center, if necessary, enabling agents to match customers’ geographic diversity.
Quality Management
WFM tools can optimize business planning and prevent managers and call center employees from spending time sifting through call recordings manually. WFO solutions provide tools for analyzing, monitoring, and managing customer service interactions, whether they take place over call or text.
KPI Improvement
Key performance indicators (KPI) are statistics that help companies determine the status of their call center operations and measure if companies are meeting goals and business objectives. WFM and WFO analytics can identify KPIs that need improving across all conversation channels, allowing companies to focus on goal achievement.
Business owners can use critical metrics such as sales figures, profit margins, and ROI to determine their business’s success. When consulting sales figures, entrepreneurs should keep in mind how much customer service operations and call center productivity can influence their company’s bottom line. WFM is a necessity for call centers to evaluate agent performance, customer interactions, and customer satisfaction, and improve productivity.