Maximizing your service level in your contact center comes down to aligning your team’s technology and actions with your company’s goals. For that, we believe that it is necessary to take a step back and analyze the current situation, where the company intends to get, and how to get there.
Although it’s pretty simple, quite a few contact centers are getting stuck trying to take control of the level of service. The dynamics of changing customer expectations and behaviors have changed the game’s rules. The customer experience is based on the customer service department.
But, how do you calculate the service level?
The service level has two key elements: percentage – the rate at which a request is accepted and a set of standards regarding the service levels set by the company’s management.
The ratio between them is 80/20 – when 80% of requests are accepted within 20 seconds.
Let’s see some ideas for improving service level and meeting targets in a contact center.
In the following, we will show a series of relevant statistics on the contact center industry, grouped by pillars of interest.
1. Don't think of it as a call center, but as a contact center
First, let’s set the definitions for call center and contact center. A call center is an office used to host a team of agents who will handle customer calls. Contact centers, on the other hand, are the modern version of call centers.
Don’t limit customer service to calls only. A wide range of services offered will increase customer satisfaction (CSAT) and improve the entire customer experience (CX). This will be reflected in the agent’s performance, ergo, the whole company’s performance.
2. Manage the attrition problem
An essential aspect to consider is the reduction of the attrition rate. There are several ways to reduce this:
- Making career progress a priority and individual discussions,
- Establishing clear expectations regarding the role in recruitment,
- Learning from exit interviews and building an action plan.
Also, consider optimizing your work schedule.
3. Support provided to agents in managing their programs
With such a measure, you solve two things: reduce absenteeism and increase agent engagement. This can be done through an intraday self-programming technology solution. At the same time, all forms of self-service are excellent for driving agents to take control of their schedule – which is very important given that some companies have chosen to continue working from home.
4. Listen (actively) to what your customers have to say
Pay attention to the customer’s voice, but for real. Let’s see how you can do that:
- You can integrate the most common internal systems in one place;
- You can use AI-based tools to analyze speech and text and identify emotions to know your clients’ needs in more detail;
- You can set alarms triggered when certain real situations arise that can be proactively resolved – for example, issues related to privacy regulations.
5. Don't forget to take a look at the data
Every customer interaction is an opportunity to improve the CX. The information and insights gained from data analysis can be pure gold in terms of above and beyond customer experience delivery.
These tools can provide the proper framework for easily tracking data, identifying trends, and identifying new business opportunities.
6. Don't forget the happiness of your employees
The happiness of your employees brings with it the satisfaction of customers. It’s that simple. So, don’t forget this when thinking about service level performance.
7. Find ways to improve your agent's productivity
To improve the level of services, you can seek to increase productivity by increasing the number of agents, which will bring immediate effects. Here are some ideas on how to do this:
- Providing a set of appropriate tools so that agents do not go back and forth between platforms to solve a customer problem;
- Embrace omnichannel and self-service solutions;
- Sharing good practices.
In Conclusion
A good relationship between the client and a company is based on the latter’s ability to solve the client’s concerns efficiently.
Losing consumer confidence can completely disrupt the company’s growth plans. If we look at the statistics of TalkDesk Research, we can see the following:
- The engine of consumer loyalty is the ability to solve customer service issues in the first interaction.
- 49% of consumers have given up the services of a company that has delivered low-quality customer service.
- The effort made by customers (waiting times, contacting repeatedly, lack of communication) to solve their inquiries can cost a company a lot.
The good news is that a well-developed plan can improve the service level, and you can deliver to your customers’ expectations. And why not, more.
