Your business needs a call center where customers can make contact about buying products, resolving queries or disputes, and getting help for using your products. 

Running an operation like this efficiently and without wasting funds can be challenging. Nevertheless, it is entirely possible. Here are some steps to set up a thriving backend call center for your business:

Equipment

To present your company favorably to clients, a call center must be professional. Having agents who cannot hear what others are saying can be very frustrating for customers, who might take their business elsewhere. 

In busy call centers, background noise from other agents talking can interfere with an employee’s ability to hear and understand the client’s needs. However, with equipment from HeadSetPlus, this is unlikely to happen. The company sells a range of headsets and speaker phones that allow agents to talk to clients hands-free. 

Location

As a business owner, you have options about your backend call center and how it should operate. One of those is its location. Many companies run on-site call centers at their premises. However, this can be an expensive way of going about the process. It entails renting office space, hiring and paying agents, and becoming responsible for additional benefits employees are entitled to. 

You might consider a remote call center where agents work off your premises, from their homes. It saves some money on overheads but makes training and management of agents logistically challenging. 

Many companies are not opting to outsource their call center function to overseas locations where wages and operating costs are lower. They work with business process outsourcing (BPO) operators who include logistics, salaries, and equipment in their monthly fee. 

Additionally, there are no training obligations or employment benefits to worry about paying for. Outsourcing can be effective, provided you work with reputable companies and enter contracts that make each party’s obligations clear.

Hiring the right people

Not everyone is cut out for call center work. It requires great people skills, communicating and empathizing with customers, and maintaining high service standards. A company with a lackluster client call center will lose customers regardless of its best efforts in other business functions, such as marketing. Therefore, hiring call center staff should not be done on a whim. 

Establish a set list of criteria that all call center agents should meet. As you might be hiring many at once, keep the list specific. Interview questions should be styled to determine whether a candidate meets your company’s requirements and will work well within the organization’s existing culture and ethos.

Customer relationship management (CRM) software

CRM software makes a call center employee’s job much easier as it gives them access to the company’s client database. With customer information at their fingertips, agents can offer better service while engaging in meaningful interactions with clients.

Customers value being seen as individuals and not just faceless buyers. They appreciate being addressed by their name or having someone acknowledge their purchases. This is an invaluable tool for securing repeat custom. To achieve this, call center agents need good CRM software that integrates with the company’s computer system.

How to monitor productivity

Supervisors need tools to accurately monitor call center agents’ productivity and effectiveness. Consider software that monitors how long agents spend on calls and tasks, how much time they spend idling at their workstations, and customer reviews of their service. 

Such data is essential in determining employee performance. Where employees are struggling to meet the company’s standards, data-driven intervention strategies can be implemented to ensure that agents have the knowledge and skills necessary to do their jobs well.