Call Center Best Practices

Use an "All Hands" Approach During Peak Hours to Reduce Staffing Costs

Best Practice (Good)

Use an "all hands" approach during periods of increased call volumes (peak hours) in which all available call center representatives, support staff, team leads and managers are available to field incoming calls. Supplement the "all hands" approach by deploying a fixed number of flexible full-time specialists, part-time specialists with adjustable hours and on-call specialists to offset heavy call volume periods while mitigating potential inefficiency.

Typical Practice (Bad)

During periods of increased call volumes (peak hours), staff additional call center representatives or use outsourced representatives to handle the increased demands. Any increased overhead costs are seen as inevitable - "the cost of doing business".

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Benefits:

Using an "all hands" approach during periods of increased call volumes (peak hours) not only drastically reduces staffing costs by increasing the utilization rate of the employees the organization already has staffed, but it also reduces abandonment rates and hold times since all available call center employees are fielding calls. The "all hands" approach, furthermore, uses employees who have direct knowledge of the organization's products and services (as opposed to hiring new or outsourced call center representatives who may not has in-depth knowledge of the organization) to mitigate any potential inefficiencies and improve overall employee understanding (and overall versatility) of core Call Center functions.

Use Incident Resolution Systems to Efficiently Resolve Repetitive Customer Issues

Best Practice (Good)

Use incident resolution systems, such as those provided by customer relationship software (CRS), to both share information concerning customer issues across multiple teams and automatically capture all activity and communications between call center teams. This allows call center representatives to quickly perform research on similar issues and quickly collaborate with escalation representatives and subject matter experts (SMEs) if needed to drive up first contact resolution rates and enforce a culture of collaboration within the Call Center.

Typical Practice (Bad)

Ensure that call center representatives escalate all calls they are unable to resolve to managers, escalation representatives and SMEs. Ensure that call center representatives provide the employees calls are being transferred to with all pertinent customer information (customer name, issue description, etc.) in as clear and concise a manner as possible to reduce call handling and holding cycle times.

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Benefits:

While it's typical for multiple Call Center teams to work together to resolve more complex customer issues, an increase in call escalations bogs down managers, escalation representatives and SMEs with issues that are repetitive and already have documented solutions. By combining customer issue resolution guidance with automated information sharing (done through CRS and communication systems such as instant messages, emails, etc.), call center representatives are able to easily perform research and/or communicate with more knowledgeable representatives to quickly and efficiently resolve repetitive customer issues. This allows managers, escalation representatives and SMEs to perform other tasks (such as fielding more complex customer issues) which directly influences increased first contact resolution rates, high customer satisfaction levels and promotes a culture of collaboration within the Call Center.

Develop an Online Knowledge Base that Answers Common Questions and Issues to Improve Customer Experience

Best Practice (Good)

Create an easily searchable internal knowledge base for the organization that let's end-users (the organization's employees) find quick resolutions to easy problems. Add a section for the most commonly encountered problems that end-users can resolve themselves. Ensure that these resources are user-friendly, with images and step-by-step instructions where possible.

Typical Practice (Bad)

Ensure that Call Center Technical Support representatives answer and resolve all inquiries and issues, no matter how mundane the issue may seem. Ensuring that a customer (the organization's employees) can interface with a live representative increases customer comfort and satisfaction.

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Benefits:

Creating an easily searchable and understandable internal knowledge base allows users (the organization's employees) to resolve issues themselves, thus reducing the number of tickets in the queue and increasing end-user satisfaction. This also frees up Call Center Technical Support representatives and allows them to focus on more challenging issues.

Use a Set Number of Focused Metrics to Efficiently Measure Call Center Representative Performance

Best Practice (Good)

Use a set number of focused and clearly defined metrics that reflect functional efficiency, effectiveness and strategic value (Calls Handled per Representative, Average Handle Time, etc.) to measure the performance of the organization's call center representatives. Provide frequent (daily, weekly), potentially even real-time, updates on performance levels across the organization's Call Center.

Typical Practice (Bad)

Have Call Center Training & Coaching managers hold ad hoc weekly or monthly 'huddles' to discuss the performance of the organization's call center representatives. Use standardized checklists to track as many call center productivity metrics as possible.

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Benefits:

Using a set number of focused and clearly defined metrics ensures the efficient measurement of individual call center representative performance and allows call center managers to identify key differentiators between high and low performing call center employees. Ensure that only a set number of relevant metrics are being measured at the same time; measuring too many metrics bogs down the process (i.e., "analysis paralysis") and prevents managers from analyzing and resolving issues in a timely manner.

Reorder IVR/VRU System Menu to Improve Relevance to Customer Needs

Best Practice (Good)

Ensure that the IVR/VRU menu is reordered based on collected data that illustrates the specific needs of the Call Center's customers. Arrange the menu by the number of calls received for each menu option/call reason, from the most commonly received call reason to the least to keep menu options relevant to customer needs. Provide clear and concise up-front messages to ensure that the span between the welcome message and the final prompt does not exceed 30 seconds. This not only reduces the overall time customers spend within the IVR/VRU system, but also reduces customer abandonment and attrition rates.

Typical Practice (Bad)

Ensure that the IVR/VRU prompt menu is organized either generically or alphabetically. Give the caller a description of the company, a marketing pitch and provide them with the website address before they get to any substantive audio prompts. This allows customers to be fully informed on the organization's business goals and reduces the likelihood that customers will get confused when faced with the prompt order.

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Benefits:

Organizing the IVR/VRU menu according to the needs of the Call Center's customers reduces the overall time customers spend in the IVR/VRU and reduces the system's abandonment rate by making common reasons for calling easier to access by the customer. Furthermore, clear and concise up-front messages work in conjunction with the reordered IVR/VRU menu to improve the overall customer experience by making the system more user-friendly which further reduces abandonment and attrition rates.