When you decide that your business requires assistance in some particular task, what is your approach? Typically, business owners respond in two ways:
- They either decide to fix the problem on their own.
- They hire some expert firm to take care of the issue.
Either way, the purpose is to make business profitable without a single glitch. Customers should be every business’s first priority as whatever you are doing ends up providing an outstanding experience to your patrons. Hence, when your organization requires a stupendous customer service department, you should leave no stone unturned.
Customer service can be offered on varied channels today. Mediums like web, social media, chat support, email, etc exist, thanks to the technological revolution that is undergoing. However, the most effective and the most preferred channel among all these is still the voice. As per stats, around 60% of the customers still find phone call as the most convenient and preferred way to discuss their issues.
This is the reason that so many companies are hiring customer service call center to smoothen their business operations. Yes, you can do it internally too but that brings along a number of challenges.
Challenges with an in-house customer service facility
No doubt, having an in-house call center for your customer support is the best way to provide an unparalleled experience to your patrons. You can take full control of what’s happening and can customize the solutions accordingly. But, there are certain bumps in the way, the big ones!
Setting up and maintaining an in-house call center means two things:
- You have to set up an advanced infrastructure with modern technology to assure uninterrupted assistance.
- You require to hire deft agents and offer them timely training on the regular basis.
For both the tasks, you would be required to invest a good sum of money. And it’s not just the money but the time that you have to give in overall supervision of division counts. If your business is serving an international audience, rotational shifts have to be implemented for your business, which means more investment to hire extra agents. Plus, you would need to update the technology and tools time-to-time so as to ensure the smooth running of the call center. Apart from the monetary load, you would also be distracted from the core task of your business.
Therefore, hiring a competent customer service call center is what makes sense for a business. Now, while you are on a hunt to find a suitable call center for your customer support division, some tips need to be followed.
Tips to hire a perfect customer service vendor
Customer support department holds the most delicate and prestigious nerve of your business. If you are offering lousy customer service, your business gets a negative impression that directly hampers your sales. So, you have to be extremely choosy while finalizing the call center for your customer service segment. Here are tips that would help you make a rational decision:
Assess the repute
Customer service is all about building up a strong and positive image of the brand in the market. The call center that will do so should have an indisputable reputation of its own. If the vendor itself has a bad name in the market, you should never tie up with it.
To inquire about the status of the vendor, you can always ask up for the previous clients’ list. Make sure to go to the social media channels and see what sort of feedback has this particular customer service call center has acquired. Along with this, you should also visit the website of the vendor to see the testimonials its clients have written.
If you want to dig deeper, you can always see the current client of the vendor and give a test call as a customer. This will offer you a raw picture of how the agents respond to the customers and whether your business’s objective aligns with the given service standards.
Be assured of the offered service
There are typically 3 kinds of call centers that exist in the market today; inbound, outbound, and contact centers. Make sure to tie up with an inbound call center since you want assistance for customer support division where inquiries, queries, and grievances’ calls come in. Also, look out if your business has a future requirement for outbound assistance. For an instance, if you know that your business will need a telemarketing team in the near future for expansion, tie up with a vendor that offers both inbound and outbound assistance.
Pricing lookouts
There are different customer service call centers that offer varied pricing ranges and criteria. For an instance, businesses that do not have an around-the-year requirement, choose a pay-per-agents plan where they would spend just for the agents. This type of payment plan is good for businesses that have a seasonal requirement for customer support. In addition, if your business experiences voluminous customer queries throughout the year, a fixed cost plan is recommended.
Agreement check
What most of the people do ignore while hiring a call center is thoroughly reading the agreement. Your vendor may be good but going through the written agreement in-depth will be beneficial for you only. Sometimes there are some hidden costs that are included in the agreement. Clarify everything, from head to toe with your business process services partner so as to avoid any future conflict or disappointment.
