What comes to mind when you think of a call center and how your company might use one? The typical image is the old-fashioned “boiler room” approach in which customer service agents are packed into a crowded, noisy room, staring at workstations as they mumble through scripts.
But if your goal is to develop a state-of-the-art call center capable of supporting and powering your strategic decisions, you’d be wise to look closely at how today’s business process outsourcing (BPO) companies are using technology and specialized knowledge to handle calls.
BPO Call Centers Are 24/7
One of the biggest decisions companies have to make about their call centers is hours of operation. While your company’s business operation hours may follow traditional practices – perhaps yours are from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. – the people who are likely to call with problems will expect skilled help, whether it’s 3:00 a.m. or 3:00 p.m.
If they don’t get help quickly or are forced to endure long hold times while an understaffed contact center tries to keep up, they’re going to have a negative impression of your company.
Because BPO call centers handle business for multiple companies whose customer service needs peak at different times, they can spread the workload out across more agents 24 hours a day. No matter when your customer or employee reaches out, they’re assured of a quick response and expert help.
BPO Call Centers Hire & Train Well
If you’ve managed a call center for customer service or other purposes, you know how difficult it can be to hire, train, and especially retain high-quality staffing. Today’s leading BPO call centers offer advantages on several fronts.
First, they can deliver a steady workload to agents because a shift’s calls will be spread out over many client companies.
Second, top BPO companies emphasize ongoing training, increasing the percentage of calls in which the customer’s problem is successfully resolved. A happier customer experience means happier agents.
Finally, unlike in-house call centers, which are limited to hiring employees from a specific geographic area, top BPO companies like ours tap into a geographically diverse labor pool. This allows us to leverage a broader range of talent and expertise, ensuring the best possible support for your needs.
To achieve the best results, Netfor utilizes each approach: Scaling up and down our agents based on volume, using Netfor University, where agents can learn how to handle different clients’ calls, and being a fully remote company with employees in 11 U.S. states.
The Secret Weapon: Knowledge
Innovative BPO call center providers like Netfor understand that having the right people is only part of the solution. No matter how intelligent and friendly those call center agents may be, they cannot solve callers’ issues if they don’t have access to the right information.
Netfor’s customer support service approach is built upon a knowledge base that contains thousands upon thousands of articles, each written to identify issues using the words and phrases callers are likely to mention. When someone calls with a problem, the agent has instant access to step-by-step instructions. The caller has no idea the agent’s answers come from a library – all they notice is that the agent understood their issue and quickly offered the right solution. That makes your company look helpful.
Powerful Technology Tools
The other way top BPO call center providers are transforming call centers is through powerful technology. A great example is the innovative AI-based tool called Real-Time Interaction Guidance (RTIG) that Netfor’s team developed. RTIG “listens” to calls to spot trigger words and immediately identify potential solutions.
Even more important, it pays attention to the emotional state and actions of both agent and caller. If it notices the caller is becoming irritated, it can alert the agent to adjust the way they handle the call. Similarly, if RTIG notices that the agent is frequently interrupting the caller, it can send a gentle reminder to talk less and listen more.
Technology like RTIG improves customer satisfaction by allowing more issues to be resolved more quickly and heading off situations that can result in frustration and anger. That’s not just a marketing claim – our statistics clearly define improvements in the quality of service and satisfaction.
Security & Compliance
Finally, industry-leading BPO providers grasp the critical importance of cybersecurity and compliance. By turning to BPO companies with well-established procedures for your call center, you can reduce the potential for data breaches, legal liabilities, and customer dissatisfaction. Having the right BPO call center partner means having fewer things to worry about, allowing you to focus on making your company everything it can be.
