What's your call center strategy?

1 Define your goals and metrics

Before you start designing your call center strategy, you need to have a clear vision of what you want to achieve and how you will measure it. Do you want to increase customer loyalty, retention, or referrals? Do you want to generate more leads, conversions, or revenue? Do you want to reduce costs, errors, or complaints? Whatever your goals are, you need to align them with your business objectives and define specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART) indicators. For example, you can track metrics such as first call resolution, average handle time, customer satisfaction, net promoter score, or sales conversion rate.

2 Choose your channels and platforms

Another important element of your call center strategy is to decide which channels and platforms you will use to communicate with your customers and prospects. You can offer phone, email, chat, social media, SMS, or video support, depending on your audience's preferences and needs. You also need to select the best software and hardware solutions to enable your agents to handle multiple channels efficiently and securely. For example, you can use a cloud-based contact center platform that integrates with your CRM, ticketing, or analytics tools and provides features such as IVR, call routing, recording, monitoring, or reporting.

3 Train and empower your agents

Your agents are the face and voice of your call center and your brand. They need to have the skills, knowledge, and attitude to deliver excellent customer service and meet your goals. Therefore, you need to invest in their training and development, both initially and continuously. You can use online courses, webinars, coaching, or mentoring to teach them the best practices, policies, and procedures of your call center and your industry. You also need to empower them to make decisions, solve problems, and escalate issues when needed. For example, you can give them access to a knowledge base, a feedback system, or a reward program.

4 Monitor and improve your performance

Finally, you need to constantly monitor and improve your performance and quality in your call center. You can use data and analytics to track your metrics, identify trends, and evaluate your results. You can also use tools such as surveys, reviews, or ratings to collect feedback from your customers and agents. Based on your findings, you can adjust your strategy, processes, or resources to optimize your outcomes and customer satisfaction. For example, you can implement changes such as adding or removing channels, updating your scripts, or hiring or training more agents.

5 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?