Strategies to Successfully Improve Customer Service Through Outsourced Call Centers

Customer satisfaction is a growth driver for companies that want to expand exponentially. Companies can achieve this by delivering world-class customer service and improving customer satisfaction through call center business process outsourcing (BPO).

BPO firms use customer experience strategies to promote and support their clients’ products. Call center BPO clients see numerous benefits, including improved customer interactions and a positive customer experience. Improved experiences generate positive word of mouth for the client company, provide a competitive advantage, and raise brand visibility.

This article identifies actionable strategies for improving customer satisfaction through call center BPO.

Ways To Improve Customer Satisfaction Through Call Center BPO

So what is BPO? This approach involves outsourcing call center-related functions to a third party. Call center BPO has the same goals as in-house operations (to improve customer experience) and additional ones of its own such as the following:

• Running the client’s contact center under agreed-upon standards is more affordable than if the client were to run it internally
• Reducing customer churn rate by consistently delivering effective customer support and following service-level agreements (SLAs)
• Gathering and reporting customer feedback to the client company

Companies can leverage outsourcing firms to improve the call center workflow, increase the number of returning customers, and provide a better overall customer experience. Companies can use strategies to improve their customer satisfaction rates through call center BPO.

1. Choosing the Right Call Center BPO Partner

Selecting a reputable outsourcing firm is the first step to improving your call center customer experience. The right BPO partner can handle various areas of your operations to enhance customer satisfaction and foster long-lasting brand loyalty. A vendor’s services usually come with better cost savings and revenue opportunities.

A third-party service provider handles various tasks, with customer inquiries just the tip of the iceberg. It can assist with other front-office operations, such as sales, dispatch, customer support, and outbound calls.

A reliable vendor will act as an extension of your team and have specific expertise in your industry. They also track customer history and behavior and provide actionable insights for support.

At the outset, the benefits of working with a call center BPO include:

• Significant labor cost savings of up to 70% for offshore solutions,
• Fewer contact center agents to pay,
• Global access, round-the-clock coverage, and the ability to scale up or down based on demand and high-impact service times,
• Minimized customer efforts during the interaction,
• Practical solutions for your call center operations’ pain points,
• Increased efficiency and speed in issue resolution, positively impacting customer satisfaction rates, and
• Streamlined customer journey.

2. Using Effective Agent Training and Development

Every BPO worker undergoes thorough and adequate training for the roles they are employed to perform, and contact center agents are no exception. Outsourcing firms train agents appropriately to encourage exceptional customer service delivery. Even remote agents undergo training using cloud-based training software.

The better the agents are at their jobs, the better the customer experience in your call center will be. According to a report from American Express, 62% of customers find agent knowledge and resourcefulness a key to a positive experience.

A customer service agent who lacks knowledge about your brand and products will hamper customer satisfaction. Hence, BPO firms cannot afford untrained agents to handle calls. Instead, they provide rigorous and continuous training to ensure compliance with your call center standards.

Well-trained agents have expanded skill sets and are up-to-date with industry changes. They treat buyers compassionately. They are also more confident and comfortable with their jobs, increasing productivity and employee engagement.

3. Continuously Improving Call Center Strategies

Improving customer satisfaction through call center BPO is more accessible than in-house. Your BPO firm helps you constantly improve customer service. Even leading brands can fall behind their rivals and customers without regular improvement.

Regular improvement must cover all stages, including brainstorming and implementation. Here are the steps in making improvement strategies in call centers:

1. Gathering insight: Customers are the best source of information for improvement areas in the buyer’s journey. Your BPO partner establishes ways to gather feedback, from surveys to focus groups. Listening to your customers during self-service, social media, or email interactions is also crucial. 
2. Identifying opportunities: Improvement also includes looking at areas where you could innovate to bring benefits and value to customers. This step includes prioritizing changes that impact existing customers’ loyalty. To acquire new customers, looking at new ways to reach target audiences is also necessary.
3. Planning: After identifying an opportunity, the next step is rigorous planning to ensure the improvement strategy delivers the expected results.
4. Implementing strategies: All frontline agents and management must be involved for your improvement strategy to succeed. Hence, they should feel that it is their project. Having measurable, straightforward deliverables and objectives helps clarify what team members can expect from the project.

3. Streamlining Interactions with the Latest Technology Solutions

Call center technology is vital for improving customer service. Most agree that technology is fundamental to creating a better customer experience.

Call center tools include software and hardware that manage customer relationships, automate processes, analyze data, and predict behaviors. It includes any technology call centers use to oversee daily operations, complete tasks, and interact with customers.

Here are examples of call center technologies you can access when working with a BPO partner:

• Omnichannel solutions: Customers must be able to reach you how they want, when they want, and on the communication channel they want. However, that is just the bare minimum. They want a consistent experience across all platforms, meaning they can avoid repeating themselves when switching between channels and agents.
• Analytics and reporting: Manual monitoring and observations are a thing of the past. Advanced analytics provided in real time helps you quickly make adjustments as needed.
• Cloud contact centers: Cloud and remote-based contact centers are more affordable and flexible since your operation is not in a single location. With cloud-based solutions, you can expand beyond time zones and geographical borders to access a wider talent pool. Mobile functionality is also a perk.
• Artificial intelligence (AI): Although unlikely to replace human agents, AI and automation are essential tools. AI helps you understand your customers better, while automation handles straightforward requests without human input. The key is to leverage AI along with human agents, not replace them.
• Speech analytics: Speech analytics combines speech recognition software with text analysis and pattern spotting. It uses established rules to record customer conversations and translate them into machine-readable text. The system then detects performance issues in each interaction.
• Self-service options: Ninety percent of customers globally expect companies to have an online self-service option. Consider creating an online knowledge base that answers your frequently asked questions (FAQs). It should be available anytime, anywhere. Your customers will appreciate the option to find information without agent intervention.

4. Evaluating Performance with Key Metrics

Strategic outsourcing is critical to success in customer service. Using metrics and data is also helpful because it allows you to understand your call center’s daily operations and set and track goals.

Although each call center has a unique way of measuring performance, common standards for KPIs and metrics apply. Those metrics generally fall under specific areas and show critical insights into the customer experience, highlighting quantity and quality equally.

Best practices recommend measuring the following key areas to maximize satisfaction and maintain a high-performance call center:

• Call initiation
• Agent productivity
• Customer experience

Handle time and talk time are two factors that significantly affect customer satisfaction scores and indicate your call center’s overall productivity and efficiency. Here are standard call center performance metrics to track:

• First call resolution
• Average speed of answer
• Average time in queue
• Service level
• Percentage of calls blocked

Each customer call can make or break your brand, so making each call center interaction count is vital.

The Bottom Line

A great experience begins with your customers’ interactions with call center agents. When customers reach out, they want more than mere issue resolution. They expect a courteous agent who respects their time and empathizes with them to greet them. You can follow the strategies above for improving customer satisfaction through call center BPO.

Unity Communications can help you set up an external call center at a fraction of the cost. Let’s connect to find out more.