For a contact centre to perform strongly, the entire system must be working to maximum efficiency. The human factor is of prime importance when dealing with customers. The contact centre is often the sole or prime point of contact for the customer so how they are treated and the experience they receive will reflect directly on how they view the company.
A strong contact centre will focus on building positive relationships with each customer. A satisfactory experience results in valuable word of mouth recommendations that can cost-effectively grow the client base.
The Basics
The first step in ensuring that calls are answered promptly and customers provided with the information they are seeking is to ensure that the foundations of the call centre are working as they should.
To perform at their best your agents need a healthy and efficient working environment. Check that air-conditioning and lighting is adequate, desk space is sufficient and seating is comfortable. Are your agents fully trained in all equipment and technology? Are noise levels conducive to providing clients with their best experience?
Technology
If you are not regularly adopting new contact centre technology, you can be sure your competitors are.
Avaya Contact Centre systems provide not just advanced technology but also provide a managed service that both monitors and provides deep analysis of the performance of the system and the agent performance. This gives companies an effective tool to increase efficiency and create a strong contact centre while allowing the business to focus on customer service and the product.
Avaya Contact Centre systems offer extensive solutions that can be scaled to suit any sized enterprise. These include Avaya’s Aura Experience Portal that deals with IVR, Avaya Enablement Services for outbound diallers, CTI, or screen popping, and the Call Management System which provides the ability to manage agents, routing, skill sets, and visibility while on-call.
Monitoring
Avaya Contact Centre systems use a third party system to provide comprehensive monitoring outside of the simple self-monitoring tools present in all systems. The benefits of this are manifold, with the ability to detect any potential issues that can be fixed in advance, such as voice quality, potential oversubscriptions or licencing issues.
Contact monitoring software can help determine if any steps can be removed to shorten calls and increase the number an agent can handle, improving shift management.
People Skills
A strong contact centre with a great culture starts at the top. An effective manager is one who is visible, accessible and assists agents to perform. Effective management techniques range from positive reinforcement, making changes when mistakes occur and being in tune with agents concerns and issues.
Being accessible to staff goes alongside regularly reviewing metrics such as call numbers and lengths to ensure targets are being met and offer assistance to any who might be falling behind. The manager has a responsibility to create equally effective team leaders who are consistent, work together, are well trained, and create a bridge between agents and management.
Clients can rely on an Avaya Contact Centre system to continually seek the most effective way to increase performance and enhance the contact centre customer experience.