如何在2021年运行呼叫中心

Customer service has changed. Technologies and other conveniences have elevated both customer and employee expectations, and service centers — like call centers — are expected to follow the tide.

毫无疑问,客户expectations are higher than in the past, and customers are also smarter and more informed than ever.

Customers have a plethora of channels they can use to research reviews, compare products … and contact companies and their service teams.

But, when it comes to service, the one channel that hasn’t budged from popularity and efficiency is thephone。Most consumers will admit that, when they're in a bind,they’d rather talk to a real personthan chat with a bot or skim a knowledge base article.

这并不是说多渠道客户服务存在isn’t important (and we’ll talk more about this later), but this still stands to show how important call centers are to customer service — and customer retention.

That’s why we created this guide. Call centers remain a crucial ingredient in the customer service recipe, and by the time you finish this article, you’ll know exactly how to run one that supports both a successful business and your customers.

Call centers can be organized to serve a number of business purposes, including inbound and outbound calls for sales and marketing, lead generation, customer service, IT support, and more.

Why are call centers important?

Despite the rise of digital service and support channels, call centers continue to be integral to companies worldwide. Why?

一个，几乎75％的客户喜欢语音交流— via a phone call — over any other customer service channel. This is especially truewhen customers are dissatisfied。

Additionally,73% of customers “fall in love” with a company由于友好的客户服务代表的经验。（另一方面，over 82% of customers经过糟糕的客户服务经验，已经将业务带到了其他地方。）

Call centers areextensions of your brandand present more opportunities to interact and attract loyal customers. They’re also extensions of your marketing —72％的客户will tell at least six other people about good customer service experiences. Now that’sword-of-mouth marketing如果我听过它。

没有什么可以取代与人聊天的，尤其是当您遇到紧迫的问题时。

As helpful as live chats, knowledge base articles, and forums can be, offering your customers the option to talk live with an expert can make the difference between a sporadic customer and a loyal one.

在下一节中，我们将扩展如何运行高效，有效的呼叫中心。

Call centers involve more than a room full of phones and people to answer them.

Effective call centers that contribute to your company’s bottom line require a balance and blend of many important components, most of which will require constant development. Let’s review these components below.

1. Establish the purpose of your call center.

Before you dive into hiring, training, and technology, start with this simple question: “Why?”

Setting your mission and goals ahead of time will help you address any changes and issues that may arise in the future. Ask yourself and your team these questions.

• What’s the purpose of your call center? What does your company need from it?
• 你的是什么目标和目标？
• What does success look like, and how can you measure it?
• What’s your mission, and how does it align with the mission for your broader team and business?

这se answers will serve as a valuable blueprint as you scale your call center team, hire new representatives, andmeasure your business impact(which we’ll talk about later).

2. Prioritize your call center staff.

A company’s customer service is only as good as its customer service staff. Therefore, in order to prioritize the customer, your call center must first prioritize your staff. Here’s how to do this.

A high-quality call center team starts with hiring. While you can’t always avoid turnover, you can establish a seamless hiring process that makes it easy to add new agents and staff to your team when needed. Before we go into that process, let’s review the different types of staff needed to run a successful call center.

• 这呼叫中心经理监督呼叫中心，并作为更广泛的客户服务团队和公司其他成员的联络。bob全站app他们负责建立呼叫中心的使命和愿景，并确保团队达到其目标和绩效目标。他们还与团队负责人合作，建立呼叫中心流程，政策和战略。
• 这队长manages teams of call center agents and representatives and serves as a liaison to management and the broader customer service team. They manage the day-to-day call center operations and ensure that agents stick to the established processes, policies, and strategies. Team leaders are also literate on company products and services in case they need to field calls or receive direct inquiries from customers.
• 这代表（或者agents）每个呼叫中​​心过程和目标接收和实地客户电话。他们可以专门从事产品支持，技术支持或客户服务的其他组件。代表还负责验证客户信息并记录软件中的任何和所有交互。bob电竞官方下载（我们将更多地谈论呼叫中心技术之后。）
• 这call center trainermanages new call center representatives and is responsible for training new staff on the call center objectives, policies, and processes. The trainer could be a veteran representative or team leader, or companies may choose to outsource their call center training process. This person is also responsible for keeping call center teams up-to-date on customer service and technology trends.
• 这call center analyst, like the trainer, is well-versed in the customer service process and can scrutinize call center performance to identify where and how it can improve. The analyst may forecast customer demand and report on anticipated call volumes, determine what specific resources are needed to receive those calls, and provide other statistical feedback on call center activities. The analyst helps call centers meet performance goals and objectives.

Regardless of position, all call center employees must possessexcellent communication skills。这y must also be able to retain and explain information about products or services and display exceptional patience and discipline. Watch for these skills whenrecruiting and hiring for your call center。

考虑2019年: A remote call center team. Technology has allowed for more virtual call centers — cloud-based platforms (likeHubSpot Service Hub），实时消息工具（例如Slack), and other technologies keep employees connected to customers and each other. Additionally, remote teams reduce overhead and allow you to employ talented folks from all over the world (who can better serve yourCustome卢比from all over the world). Of course, this requires greater discipline and self-accountability and can make it harder to build a cohesive team, but we’ll talk more abouthow to combat this with trainingandteam-buildingtechniques.

Hiring is critical, but it’s merely half the battle. To build the best call center team, you must invest in training, too. Working in a call center can be difficult, and turnover can be detrimental to consistent, high-quality service. It’s no longer enough to hire good employees; companies must work hard to train and retain them, too.

客户服务和支持培训can be a lengthy process, but it’s well worth it to develop and motivate your employees.

在培训您的呼叫中心员工时，请记住以下一些重要的事情。

• Start training your staffbeforethey start working. Upon hiring each new staff member, send along your call center handbook or在线培训视频so they can be prepared when they walk in the door their first day.
• Practice with role-playing and fake calls. This gives new staff a chance to test their customer service skills and knowledge of your products or services.
• 将新员工分配给现有代表或团队负责人。鼓励员工遮蔽现场通话，记笔记，并最终接到真正的客户电话。
• Repeat your training regularly to keep your staff aligned and up-to-date.

Once trained, how can you incentivize your call center staff to work hard and stick around? Here are some ideas.

• Encourage staff to maintain their mentor-mentee relationships beyond training.
• Prioritize team morale. Sponsor team-building activities and consider providing a regular lunch or another opportunity for your team to bond outside of their day-to-day jobs.
• 提供有针对性的教练来发展特定的技能并解决个人问题。安排每周一对一的会议，以便您的员工可以私下表达他们的需求和不满。
• Gamify daily activities and incentivize staff when they hit goals and objectives. Display leaderboards or goal charts so employees can share their wins and encourage each other.
• Clarify each employee’s potential career path once you hire them. Explain how they can progress in their role and at your company.

Training and retention is an iterative process. We recommend testing a few methods to see what works best for your company needs and team structure and goals. As always, include your call center staff as they can provide valuable feedback about what’s working and what’s not. After all, they are your priority.

3. Organize your call center processes.

因此，您已经建立了呼叫中心任务，并雇用了一支出色的团队。您准备开始接听电话，对吗？

Not quite. Like we said above, call centers involve more than phones and people. Successful and efficient call centers run smoothly because they follow an established process. Processes reduce wait times and help solve issues quicker — which leads to happier customers.

Your call center process is comprised of the internal procedures and practices that your team will follow each day. Here are some questions that your process will answer.

• What will happen when the phone rings? When your representatives answer, what will they say?
• What will happen if a representative can’t answer a question? Who or what will they turn to?
• How will representatives track each customer inquiry and whether or not it was answered?
• What will happen after a call is complete?
• 您如何确保您的日常程序满足您的整体呼叫中心目标？

首先，确定您将如何接到电话。使用我们的指南建立入站呼叫策略here. Determine how your customers can contact you and how your representatives will field those calls, and how many they’ll receive.

Once you’ve established that strategy, build your call center scripts. Scripts are pre-written prompts that your representatives will follow when talking with a customer. Excellent scripts are:

• 以顾客为中心
• 会话
• 自信的
• 灵活的

建立成功的脚本,与你的整个工作team — from managers to representatives — to outline relevant, on-brand language. Ask your representatives to weigh in on what they’d like to say and practice the scripts by reading them aloud. Avoid creating robotic, unnatural language … your customers will recognize it immediately.

Also, notice that we said excelled scripts are灵活的。As important as call center scripts are for providing consistent, thorough service, they can’t always predict what customers will say or ask. Encourage your team to go off-script if necessary and ensure they know all about your products and services in case a question or issue can’t be addressed in the scripts.

If your representatives can’t answer a question (or a customer asks to speak to a higher-up), outline a process for how representatives can escalate an issue. Make sure this process is communicated to your entire team and conduct a few practice runs to work out any snags or gaps in service.

（另外，请确保您的团队知道您公司的其他自助服务选项，例如bob全站app知识库, FAQs, videos, and forums, and have them share these with customers.)

最后,您的团队将如何建立过程record calls and customer inquiries. Whether you use manual or digital process (which we’ll talk about next), be sure your team is aligned and consistent in your tracking process. Consistency is key when reviewing performance, understanding business impact, and analyzing where your call center can improve.

考虑2019年: Call center outsourcing. If opening a call center is outside your budget, consideroutsourcing your call center。如果您确定它非常适合您的业务，那么外包可以节省资源并提供更多灵活的客户服务选项。bob体育苹果系统下载安装

4.实施呼叫中心技术和设备。

没有现代技术，呼叫中心将无法运作 - 我们谈论的不仅仅是电话。当今最成功的呼叫中心为他们的团队配备了多种软件和设备选项，以确保他们无缝运行并提供最佳的服务。bob电竞官方下载

Make your team comfortable with equipment like computer monitors, keyboards,舒适的耳机, and ergonomic chairs. Also, technology likeVoice over Internet Protocol (VoIP)systems, automatic call distributor (ACD) systems, and interactive voice response (IVR) systems help representatives easily receive and conduct customer calls.

What sets excellent call centers apart, though, isexceptional customer service software- 像HubSpot服务中心一样。

This kind of software can …

• 保持团队的联系，尤其是如果您有远程员工队伍。
• Help your team personalize customer inquiries and avoid repetition by accessing recently tracked calls and detailed customer profiles.
• Track your team performance and help you identify what’s working and what’s not.
• Your customers to help themselves instead of relying on your call center — thus relieving pressure from your team.

Consider investing in dedicated customer service software for your call center. Once you hit a certain amount of call volume, not having a CRM to track engagements or productivity tools to maximize your team’s output will ultimately lead to a bad customer experience. Also, this type of software provides tools that keep your employees happy and customers happier.

考虑2019年: Omni-channel engagement and updates. Whether a customer contacted you via live chat, email, or phone, customers don’t want to repeat themselves … they expect service representatives (just like salespeople) to be familiar with any and all touch points. Sound difficult?HubSpot Service Hubcan help.

5.了解您的影响和报告。

Customer expectations are always changing, so, to provide the best possible service, your call center shouldalways不断发展。一个季度有效的方法可能不起作用。您怎么知道什么以及何时更改？通过常规评估您的呼叫中心的性能和目标。

Create a process for your team to consistentlytrack important call center metrics, like customer satisfaction, contact quality, and abandon rate. (Hint: Customer service software can help tremendously.)

This will uncover important trends and patterns that will show you what’s working and what’s not.几乎80％的企业use customer satisfaction metrics to analyze and improve their own service.

Wondering how your metrics stack up? Here are some baseline metrics as established by呼叫中心帮手和国际财务委员会。

• 90% of calls should result in a satisfied customer. [Customer Satisfaction]
• 70-75% of issues should be resolved during the first call. (Note: “Resolution” is subjective depending on how your call center team defines it.) [First-Call Satisfaction]
• Call centers should have 80% of calls answered within 20 seconds. [Contact Quality]
• Only 5-8% of calls should be dropped before resolution. [Abandon Rate]

监视性能并了解呼叫中心的影响的另一种方法是询问您的客户。人们毫不犹豫地分享他们的客户服务经验 - 实际上，英国研究found that 57% of customers will give negative feedback to a business, and 37% will share it on social media.

让你的客户更容易分享他们的experiences by offering a customer service survey. Conduct the survey over the phone or via email. Not only will this help you monitor your call center performance, but it will also help your customers feel like they’re being heard and respected.

Collecting first-hand feedback (like your净启动子得分®) puts your customers in the center. It completes your flywheel loop — turning customers into promoters that effectively market your business for you.

Put Your Call Center to Work

呼叫中心是永恒的客户服务工具。即使出现了其他客户支持渠道，他们也永远无法取代电话的即时性和真实性。

Successful call centers can also support your business’s overall brand and bottom line. Representatives are extensions of your company brand and have the ability to turn your customers into promoters and marketers.

Use this guide to build and run an efficient call center that keeps your customers happy. And, remember, as long as you prioritize your people and processes, you’ll keep your customers at the center.