Customer support and sales are the two main areas of expertise in a call center. In this article, we’ll find out:
- What are the key functions of a call center?
- What types of customer support services are available in a call center?
Call center: What are the key functions?
Firstly, some call center tasks are designed to increase sales opportunities. Outbound call center employ sales people who call to generate leads or prospects. Customer relationship management experts aim to generate new sales and revenue while expanding the company’s customer base. Typically, call center include sales targets and quotas to be achieved for each employee or team within a specific timeframe.
Secondly, call center offer personalised customer service. Customer service and assistance is one of the main functions of a call center. This function consists of providing the best experience for each of the company’s customers.
This is achieved by harnessing conversational skills. Providing customer service is not limited to a phone call; CRM experts also provide these services via email, live chat or social networks. Customer ratings are the indicators used to assess the performance of each call center agent.
Thirdly, the purpose of using a call center is to help the company optimise its resources. Companies either want to increase revenue or minimise costs in all aspects of their business. To minimise costs, the call center will emphasise values such as effectiveness and efficiency. Average handling time is the evaluation measure used in this scenario.
This is essentially the time taken by a customer relationship management expert to complete a sale in the case of an outbound call, or to resolve a customer problem in the case of an inbound call.
Finally, customer retention is an important part of the call center function.
Customer retention involves ensuring that a customer makes regular purchases and then becomes a brand ambassador. Customer retention is particularly important for small, growing businesses, as they cannot afford to lose customers.
What’s more, retaining customers is more cost-effective than investing in new promotional activities to attract new customers. In order to provide a positive experience, it is imperative that customer relationship management agents make follow-up calls to monitor the customer experience and resolve any issues that may arise.
Call center: What types of customer care services are there?
Customer care is a solution that most call center offer their customers. Whether a customer needs relevant information about certain invoices, wants to unsubscribe from a service or needs assistance using a product, the use of customer relationship management experts is essential to respond to every request made by the user.
As a general rule, customers who purchase products or services from a company communicate mainly with the company via the customer service division of the call center. The type of service a customer receives from a customer service center can be detrimental to the organisation in question. Therefore, it becomes imperative for call center to provide their customers with the best possible services.
Of the many services a call center can offer its customers, customer support is at the forefront. Customer support is one of the most complex areas of customer care expertise, requiring an agent to apply their best communication skills. That’s why it’s crucial for the company to be able to recruit the best customer relationship management talent.
Customer acquisition is another popular service that call center offer their users. Customer acquisition not only involves cold calling, but also enabling consumers to get in touch with an agent to make a purchase.
In this context, direct response is vital for any business looking to generate new customers and prospects. Direct response services require call center experts to be available to help customers through the sales process.
These consumers may contact the agent because they have found the product through promotional channels such as catalogues, television, the Internet or radio. Direct response generally requires agents to be able to generate sales when potential customers contact a company to buy a certain product or service rather than calling the customers themselves and convincing them to buy.
This type of service is often staffed by the best-trained agents who have a solid knowledge of the company’s products and services. What’s more, these professionals are also skilled in services such as up-selling, soft-selling and cross-selling. On the other hand, many call center are outsourced to provide a host of other services to businesses.
Indeed, these days, various important business functions are outsourced to call center. This allows companies to focus on their key operational areas and allows customer relationship management experts to take care of other tasks.
If you are looking for a call center to meet the new needs of your growing business, don’t hesitate to contact us. Advancia Teleservices will be your ultimate ally in customer relationship management ?