Main mistakes when setting up a call center

Who is the champion compared to all other ways of implementing a multifunctional customer service and sales platform? Surely, call center software. But, as in any other industry, call center solution providers aren’t the same and some of them can’t provide you with the expected quality of software or its maintenance. Thus, before setting up a call center technology, write this article to find out what pitfalls may await you.

What is call center software?

Call center software has two main types of infrastructure models. On-premise call center solution is an outdated and inefficient solution that requires you to buy all the infrastructure on your own, including servers, hardware, landlines, and so on. Our today’s favorite is cloud call center software, or CCaaS (Contact Center as a Service) – a cheaper, more effective, productive, and modern solution.

Anyhow, the call center is a department that includes a call center team that uses the call center software to handle customer requests, perform outbound calling campaigns, and other activities related to customer service and sales.

What are the main mistakes when choosing a call center?

Ignoring a features list

Features are the main part of a cloud call center capability – the more features you get, the better your call center customer experience is. Some contact center software companies don’t provide a full feature list on their website, or use too blurred wording to confuse you – but don’t pay attention to these tricks. Learn more about call center features, find you required ones, and answer for these features.

Ignoring integration capabilities

Do you know the power of third-party software integrations? CRM systems, billing platforms, workforce management software tools, and help desk tools – these are just a few examples of the tools you can integrate. Keep in mind that switching between tabs consumes around a month per year (that’s not a joke, really) – and think of do you need a CCaaS without integration options.

Ignoring scalability prospects

Scaling up is vital for any business, and it is the strategy you have to create and follow months before each scaling-up stage is reached. That’s why buying software that has no scaling-up opportunities is a mistake – you buy the thing that will be useless in a few months, and it means not only one-time money loss but double – you’ll have to buy another tool. That’s also why we don’t recommend an on-premise call center solution – it is complicated to be scaled up.

Ignoring Business Continuity Prospects

Have you ever written down a business continuity plan? If not, that’s bad. The call center is a department that provides customer service permanently – sometimes even without weekends, and this means that for some businesses losing a day or two on recovering all systems may cause a massive negative impact – lost deals, frustrated customers, lost leads, money, and so on. Business continuity planning is vital also because all call center team members have to know what to do in an emergency situation.

Ignoring the importance of timely updates

What is important for each cloud-based software? Its ability to be updated and meet the needs of user and its business. Some vendors just don’t update their software, don’t remove bugs and ignore massive imperfections in their solutions which are generally known and identified by users. Such approach proves that the company has cost saving as a main priority – even if it harms you and other customers. Is it worth to purchase such a tool?

Ignoring thoughtful hiring strategy

Who will build customer loyalty, customer retention and provide seamless customer experience? Your agents, who will be onboarded by your team leaders, and all the processes will be controlled by your call center managers. Some business owners still think that everyone can be a call center agent, but that’s a lie. Agents have to have or gain some essential skills, and most people rather can’t become real customer service specialist.

Ignoring the role of CRM system in your communications

What’s the CRM system? Only an endless storage of customer data, without any purpose and practical use? No, it is much more – CRM system is a key to understanding customer expectations, providing excellent customer experience, providing proactive customer service and personalizing the service. Moreover, CRM system is a key to understanding the touchpoints where you can successfully cross-sell or up-sell – and this is only a part of a long list of its benefits and advantages.

Ignoring a fact that price isn’t the main thing

You know what we mean. Quality of a product or a service and its potential ROI don’t depend on the price. If something is 20% cheaper than the competing offer, ask yourself why. Look at the number of active users, or even on the number of real reviews on independent websites – if one offer has over 1000 reviews and they are mostly positive, and another one (cheaper) has 20 reviews, even if they’re also positive, but there is no feature lists, and no social proofs of real cases – maybe it worths to pay more?

Ignoring importance of appropriate number of staff

We have severally seen cases, where business owners invested in a contact center setup, bought a great solution, rented an office, but hired five agents with an estimated call volume over five hundred calls with a normal number of calls per agent near fifty calls in average. Won’t you agents burnout and get frustrated? Won’t they leave the job? Won’t you customers be upset?

Ignoring the difference between omnichannel and multichannel call center

We live in the digital era, and that means all processes are digitalized – call centers aren’t the exclusion. Calls become only one, even not the main contact channel, while emails, messengers, and social media gain weight and become more and more preferred. In this case, the appropriate understanding of multichannel contact center and its difference from omnichannel contact center plays an important role. Spoiler – most of software vendors also give you wrong definitions of both omni and multi channel call centers.

Ignoring the uniqueness of each contact center

The rule “one size fits all” doesn’t work. Really, it doesn’t work almost anywhere, but especially in the case of setting up a call center. We’ll try to explain: for instance, you can’t purchase a PBX system for a big firm that has over 1000 calls per day and think that this software is equal to a cloud-based blended call center. Or another example: you can’t buy an inbound call center and make one agent process outbound calls manually and think that this agent will bring you millions of sales per week. Understand your requirements, set your goals, and find a solution that meets your needs.

Conclusion

As you see, neither great staff nor massive investments don’t guarantee your success. By the way, the only way to set up a successful call center is to follow the rules above – and great software is also necessary. As we have helped you with some tips, we can help with software – check this ultimate call center software solution that can cover all your needs. Don’t believe? Check it out!