Signs it's Time to Upgrade Your Contact Centre

Having a reliable contact centre is one of the keys to running a successful business. Unfortunately, some organisations end up feeling too comfortable with their current contact centre solutions that they fall behind once their technology becomes outdated.

Remember that you never know when your organisation’s contact centre will require an upgrade, so it’s best to be prepared. If you want to make sure your company can consistently deliver the best customer experience, you should look into a reputable cloud contact centre in the UK to see your upgrade options.

As with other major changes to your company’s operations, it’s crucial to be aware of the signs that it’s time to consider an upgrade for your contact centre. The following are some of the most common signs that you should keep an eye out for.

Long on-hold times

Customers nowadays have high expectations for today’s contact centres. With this in mind, it’s crucial to deliver top-notch service. After receiving poor service, the majority of customers will most likely switch to a competitor. In most cases, customers claim that having to wait on hold can make their contact centre experience a negative one.

Increasing number of customer complaints on social media

Many people voice their concerns and vent their frustrations on social media. Most customers complain about being placed on hold for extended periods of time.

When facing numerous complaints on social media platforms, you might consider increasing the number of agents to cater to the extensive volume of calls. However, if this isn’t viable for your company, consider call-backs and digital self-service options as a feasible solution.

Poor call quality

One of the factors that can have a negative impact on a customer’s experience is poor call quality. A call session should not be a source of more stress for both the caller and the agent. When a customer fails to connect or needs to repeat their issues to an agent, it can lead to a lot of frustration, eventually pushing them to abandon the call and switch to the competition.

A good way to check for this is to regularly make a few test calls to your contact centre’s numbers. Doing so may help pinpoint potential issues that the centre is facing. Once issues are identified, prompt action can help prevent further problems with poor audio quality, reducing the need for call-backs and improving the overall customer satisfaction and retention.

High abandonment rates

Many callers will hang up if a contact centre has a long wait time. Generally, some will resort to continuous redials, while others are more likely to switch to the competition.

One way to lower the waiting times is to hire more agents, which results in a drop in the abandonment rate. However, employing more agents can bring about a significant strain on the budget. Implementing call-backs is one of the best ways to reduce the abandonment rate.

Lack of other communication methods

Some customers prefer email, chat, or social media posts when voicing their concerns. Avoid overlooking the importance of these alternative communication channels for your customers and ensure that your operations are focused on catering to these channels. It would be best to designate the right workforce with training to handle these channels effectively.

Inadequate disaster preparedness

When it comes to software, it’s critical to be prepared for unexpected issues such as power outages, network disconnections, cyber-attacks, or hardware damage caused by various factors. Even with the most cutting-edge technologies, problems can develop when you least expect them, rendering you unable to respond to customer queries.

With this in mind, it’s crucial to plan out the necessary upgrades to ensure your system is ready for any disasters along the way, such as using a data backup plan to protect your company from data loss and announcing instructions on how to reach your company while repairs and recovery is in progress.

Complicated integrations

If the current system in your contact centre doesn’t seamlessly integrate with other systems, it can make changes to your operations difficult and costly. Consider upgrading to a system that allows for seamless integrations in the future. Switching to newer systems is also the perfect opportunity to standardise equipment.

Missing out on tech trends

While your call system was well capable of catering to the specific needs of your business years ago, the passage of time can quickly bring about new technology that raise the standard of customer service; this could turn your contact centre from advanced to outdated.

To avoid missing out on technological developments, you should always keep yourself updated on current technological trends, as well as what solutions your competition is using. The latest software, more capable hardware, and even changes in protocol could help your customer centre be a notch above the rest.

Final Thoughts

A contact centre that provides superior customer service is essential if your company wants to stay ahead of the competition. Once you find tell-tale signs that it’s time to upgrade your contact centre, make sure your company has already made preparations to implement changes without compromising productivity.

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