In the Call Center Industry, there are many software and systems that promise to help us boost performance. We can be overwhelmed by the amount of services companies offer and some of them can be quite expensive.

We might think that we need all those tools to reach the performance we want or, on the contrary, we might think we don’t really need those systems at all. Well, we can recommend 5 basic tools every call center should use to boost performance. We hope this will help you decide on which tools you should invest or help you realize that you already have what you need for your call center. Because you might be spending money in a sophisticated system and missing an essential one.

Here are our recommendations:

Customer Relationship Management (CRM)

Probably the most indispensable tool in a call center is a CRM and we are pretty sure you agree with us. Agents take a lot of calls and speak with several customers and it is almost impossible for them to recall all the information about all customers all the time. But you need a CRM if you want to offer a great customer experience. Customers expect agents to know their information and problems, but it also helps agents make better decisions on how to help the consumer, thanks to the information you document from past experiences with them. For this, a CRM is a must. A CRM can collect and store all kinds of information about customers: their personal information, their stage in the customer journey, past or current problems they are having, notes on every communication, or even their preferences. With this tool, agents can access this information every time they contact a person, feel more confident and give a better service.

Call Recording Tools

The best way to learn is from our own mistakes. Giving call center agents the opportunity to hear their own calls can improve their performance considerably. Showing real calls in coaching sessions will help to better understand what you are explaining. When you listen to something in real-time, you may miss some details. But if you are listening to it several times and have the availability to go back to a specific phrase, you can get more insights about the call. Call recording tools let you boost your call center performance. This tool, as obvious as it sounds, records calls, the full conversation, and stores them to listen to them whenever you need. These calls can be used for whatever you need: for agent feedback, to teach new employees on what to do and what not do with real examples, or even for legal purposes.

Real-time Monitoring Software

Sometimes, supervisors or managers need to make a decision on the moment. There might be an issue they don’t know an agent could have, that the agent has spent much more time in a call than the average time or that an agent is having a high abandonment rate. This can be solved with real-time monitoring software. These systems track agents calls, display metrics like call rates, handle time, customer holding time, abandonment rates, which agent is on a call or who is out for lunch or off station without the need of walking by. All this in real-time. This means supervisors and managers can act on the moment, make observations and coach when needed to improve performance.

Workforce Management Software

One of the problems call centers face is at the time of creating agent schedules. Sometimes, if it is not organized correctly, we might be overstaffed or we might keep customers waiting when we have a high call volume. Luckily, there is software that can help us create accurate agent schedules to have the correct amount of staff on each day, hour and season. This lets you increase performance by managing more calls on time and reducing costs. With workforce management software, you will have the people you need to avoid frustrated customers and bored agents.

Automatic Call Distributor (ACD) or Dialers

Even though it is not recommended for all kinds of processes, a dialer can be helpful to boost performance by managing the call flow, which is faster and sometimes more effective than doing it manually. When having high volumes of calls, a dialer can automatically assign each call to a specific agent. Some systems not only distribute calls but messages and emails. This way you can offer a better omnichannel experience, resulting in happier clients and better performance.

These basic tools should help you increase the performance of your call center operation, offer better customer experience, and reduce costs.

What call center tools do you use? Are you already using these tools? What tools do you think we are missing on this list?

If you are using these or other tools, your nearshore call center would be using them too. CCSI integrates with your current operation and all the processes and systems you use will be used as well in your Mexico operation. Want to learn more about our business model? Contact us! (877) 399-3419 This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.