You're struggling to boost customer satisfaction in your call center. What strategies should you consider?

I started a saying with my people, “Hearing” vs “Listening”. When we are “Hearing” our customers, we are picking out key words and not “Listening” to the underlying keys to provide customer service. When “Listening”, we hear the tone, frustration and every word coming from our customer to better understand the urgency in which our customers deserve.

To boost customer satisfaction in your call center, focus on improving agent training to enhance their communication and problem-solving skills. Implement regular monitoring and feedback sessions to ensure consistent service quality. Consider utilizing customer feedback to identify pain points and make necessary adjustments to processes or policies. Additionally, streamline workflows and invest in technology that helps agents resolve issues more efficiently, ensuring customers receive prompt and effective support.

It goes without saying that to be an effective call center representative you need a proper and thorough training on the system but as most systems have annual or even quarterly updates/releases it is important that you frame these updates in such a way that the call center representative understands them and is comfortable with them so that the caller has confidence in what the representative is telling them and will score the representative high in customer service and knowledge on the post-call survey.

I agree wholeheartedly. I believe that there should be monthly sessions to make sure our people are up to date on all the latest developments in our business as well as refreshers to ensure vital processes stay fresh.

I have always been an advocate of the saying “Work smarter, not harder.” When we are able to limit the number of applications our people have to use in order to resolve an issue, it builds customer trust as it takes less time for a customer to have their issue resolved. This builds brand loyalty.

Everyone would much rather prefer take care of the issue they are having on their own. Not saying AI should take over the industry but if it can make the customers life more convenient and provide less stress on the work force, then it’s a win/win for everyone.

Numbers tell a story. Do I think that an associate should be solely based off of these numbers, no. But it gives us an indication of what to look for and what areas of opportunity we may have.