What’s the number one reason why customers give up on a company? Poor customer service. Companies that make it through tough economic times are the ones that keep a sharp eye on the bottom line but refuse to cut back on those extras that attract new customers, keep repeat customers from straying and entice the prodigals back into the fold.
Customer relationship management (CRM) strategies and products allow companies to prioritize their customer base while at the same time enhancing overall customer experience—but without sacrificing efficiency. New integrated call center software solutions allow businesses to make the most out of every call in an optimal amount of time.
Traditional call centers are on-premise data centers that rely heavily on PBX equipment and local-area office networks (LANs) owned and hosted by the call center operator. By the time you get done calculating the capital and operational expenses, you might be tempted to call this arrangement a loss center rather than a call center: there’s the rent and maintenance of the premises, the investment in hardware and software and the expense of keeping a full-time IT person on staff to deal with the breakdowns in technological infrastructure that invariably occur. All this has to be in place whether your call volume is 500 calls per hour or 20. And what if your customers prefer to contact you through email, Web chat, Twitter or text messaging? From the customer’s point of view, customer service should be platform-agnostic. For you, however, that’s an additional cost.
In contrast, CRM contact enterprise solutions offer an on-demand delivery model and flexible, subscription-based technology access, both of which work to eliminate huge up-front costs and reduce fixed monthly bills. Call representatives can work from home, and personnel can be added or subtracted to fit the needs of your business. Many CRM contact solutions are vended not as systems but as modules, which means you can deploy those features which seem useful without paying for something you won’t ever use. Your call routing system can reflect your own business priorities. And most CRM call center solutions offer performance monitoring, analytics and workforce optimization tools to optimize your investment.
Hosted call centers can also be easily blended with on-premise call centers to minimize the risk of new technology. When Allegiant Air, a small Las Vegas-based air carrier specializing in leisure travel and charter flights, decided the time had come to retool their on-premise call center, the flexibility promised by on-demand call management software was what made them decide to go the hosted call center route.
Critical to the airline’s success is the ability to ramp up capacity during peak travel seasons, like holidays and school vacations. Supplementing the 40 reps in their Reno call center with 14 remote agents working from ticket counters, and using a hosted application that utilized Voice over Internet Protocol, allowed the company to meet peak demand without outsourcing. The new system also provided Las Vegas management with a way to check queues and metrics, and otherwise monitor their Reno-based staff and remote agents alike.
A cloud-based call center technology system will give your customers the best customer service by giving your call center reps an optimal work experience.
