24/7 Support
customer support services

Tips to Reduce Cost per Contact in Your Call Center

Searching for ways and means to reduce cost per contact is a constant process for a call center that is looking to increase revenue. Simultaneously, there is a need to keep clients satisfied and ensure that they do not face losses due to poor customer service which are currently estimated to be about $83 billion per year in the US alone. Outlined below are a few important tips that go a long way in bringing down cost per contact, while ensuring customer service quality is not adversely impacted.

  • Improving Training for Agents

    Costs per contact are calculated after including salaries of agents, software used and rent for facilities. Reducing costs therefore includes hiring agents with the right customer service skill set and training them about the products or services they deal with, which will result in time spent handling a call going down.

  • Streamlining Interactive Voice Response

    In contact centers, at times push becomes too pushy – i.e., consumer may get a feeling of being manipulated -- and get your executive in wrong book of the customer. The trick to cross-sell or up-sell effectively is, every time the customer should get an impression that you are only sharing the information and making them educate about new launches or existing needful products so that it drives them to buy rather than get a feeling of being pushed up rigorously to buy something.

  • Employ a Predictive Dialing System

    Using a predictive dialing system, that disregards busy signals, disconnected numbers and more allows for agents to easily reach customers when they are available during the day and not waste time.

  • Call Back Option in Queue and IVR

    Providing a call back option to people who are waiting in a queue to speak to a customer support representative or are still stuck in the IVR menu helps reduce telecom fees. This option also helps customers reach agents quicker without waiting for several minutes. Ideally the IVR should in addition to routing callers, be able to disconnect unresponsive callers who are a silent drain on telecom charges.

  • Provide Live Chat Facility

    Live chat is becoming extremely popular as it helps customers reach agents faster and even goes a long way to improve satisfaction levels. Investing in live chat therefore is a must do for any call center if it is not already functional.

  • Route Customers Based On Skills

    Reducing time needed to handle each caller is heavily dependent on skills based routing. Under it calls, chat and emails are routed to agents who have the right skills sets to deal with the issue and this results in them being resolved faster. Once agents reduce the time spent on a call, they can spend it on making more calls and even take advantage of revenue generating possibilities.

Put in Place Tools to Optimize the Workforce

Setting up and using tools to automate the workforce within a call center is a boon as it allows for historical data pertaining to call volumes to be analyzed. As a result schedules of agents can be mapped out based on predictions made by the tools. Workforce Intelligence is another tool which routes calls based on an agent’s skill level and proficiency with a certain product or service.

Hunting down tips to reduce cost per contact does not have to cause sleepless nights for those managing call centers. In fact the first step you need to take to ensure that customers calling in get the best service is by outsourcing your customer service needs to ExpertCallers. We have the necessary tools, software and staff to run a call center like a well oiled machine.