Call center: what is it? Organization of a call center from scratch: from developing a business plan to choosing a work scheme.

An organization called the "call center" plays a huge role in providing advice to the population. This is a very popular activity today. The main thing is to know all the features and nuances that can only relate to such an association. It is not that simple. After all, call centers have many purposes. What should you pay attention to first of all?

Description

A call center is a place where employees work "on the phones". To be more precise, this is a place for processing calls. Here, people inform customers (including potential ones) via voice communication channels and process incoming requests.

On the this moment call centers have grown in popularity. It is hard to imagine most companies without them. This organization may be a separate firm or be just a small "offshoot" of any corporation.

In order not to get confused, we can conclude that call centers work with voice communication. The process performs a variety of functions. There are also contact centers. In addition to calls, they work with Internet resources (e-mail, social networks, return forms and regular mail.

Services

What can you get from this organization? What is her purpose? The answer is not as easy as it seems. After all, call center services are diverse. It is difficult to single out just one area of ​​activity. This is simply wrong.

Previously, the call center was intended to provide consultations. But over time, the range of services has expanded. Now we can single out the following points among the main activities of such organizations:

• advising clients (current and potential);
• questioning;
• coordinating companies with clients;
• informing about promotions / services of certain organizations;
• making sales;
• conducting advertising campaigns;
• performance of the "hot line" function;
• customer technical support.

The so-called telemarketing has become in great demand. This is the implementation of telephone sales, that is, the offer of services to current or potential customers. Usually, in this case, the call center is contacted by an organization that represents a particular product. It is promoted by the described association. Most often, large corporations have divisions that perform the functions of call centers. It is very comfortable.

What are they like

What else should you pay attention to? The call center is a multifunctional voice information processing center. The main directions of its activity are already known. But now you need to understand what call centers are. They can be completely different and use a variety of technologies to carry out their activities. Can be distinguished at the moment:

• corporate center;
• outsourcing association;
• home center.

Each item has its own distinctive features. They help to decide which voice data processing option to choose. What does the organization's data include? What features do they have?

Outsourcing

An outsourced call center is an individual corporation's voice processing location. Operators are trained here, after which services are offered to various companies. In fact, such a center is an intermediary between the seller (corporation) and the organization.

It usually consists of a large number of subordinates, aimed at queuing. If a company needs the work of 20 operators or more at the same time, it is advisable to contact an outsourcing call center. It's convenient and efficient. In practice, such associations are very common, they are in great demand.

The number of the call center, if it is not a "branch" of the corporation, cannot be found out. Operators represent themselves on behalf of the employing company. Therefore, sometimes there are complaints that organizations receive dissatisfied reports about the importunity of companies.

Corporate

The next option for call centers is corporate. Under them it is customary to understand the units that exist within an organization. Most often, this model is used in small companies that do not require the work of a large number of operators.

Usually such a center requires costs. The bulk Money allocated for the purchase of equipment, as well as for staff training. It is recommended to create corporate call centers when you need the work of several operators. In practice - up to 20 people. Otherwise, it is proposed to contact the outsourcing centers for processing voice information.

at home

But that's not all. V Lately home call centers are starting to appear more and more often. It's not that hard to guess what it is. Such "organizations" are created exclusively at home.

A home call center is a separately trained operator who works from home. This option is suitable for small companies and individual entrepreneurs which do not have any subordinates. All you need is a computer and a headset with a microphone. Minimum cost, maximum efficiency.

A call center at home can also be of benefit to large companies, although in practice this phenomenon is rare. After all, it is difficult to control such an employee. Despite this, remote call centers are in demand. Most often, this type of work is used to hire employees for part-time work.

Equipment and communications

Of course, call centers need to be provided with some kind of equipment. In the case of the home version, everything is clear - you can only be content with a computer and a microphone with headphones. But what if there is an outsourcing or corporate association?

Similar. To work, you only need the so-called workplace. Typically, for an operator, it consists of:

• personal computer;
• phone;
• microphone
• headsets;
• desk with chair.

This is quite enough to ensure the performance of the employee. Not always even phones are at hand. Indeed, in this case, the call center can be called a contact center. Most often, these concepts are not distinguished.

Call center operators work different ways. They have only one means of communication - a computer (or telephone). But there are more than enough programs designed to work with calls. It can be a variety of utilities or familiar to all "messengers" with voice support. Skype has become very popular. As soon as you install software designed for call centers on your computer, you can start calling customers.

About working as an operator

What is it like to be employed in a voice processing job? How happy is this profession?

It all depends on which center you work in. There are no complaints about the home. Especially if you work for yourself. But in corporate and outsourcing associations, the picture changes slightly.

In general, the position of "call center operator" receives good reviews. This is not the worst job, the conditions are usually comfortable, office. But only the work of such subordinates is not easy, because every day you have to constantly communicate with customers. If you offer any goods and services, most often you have to listen to the dissatisfaction of customers that they were disturbed.

It turns out that you can work as a call center operator when you are ready to communicate a lot, and also if you have high stress resistance. Otherwise, it will be extremely difficult to master the profession.

The call center is a relatively new phenomenon for Russian reality, but it has already become part of the style modern life. All hotlines, technical support phones, taxi, fast food and restaurant order numbers, friendly calls with reminders of discounts and promotions - this is all the work of the contact center.

Structure purpose

Call-center (call center) - what does this concept mean? In fact, this is an uninterrupted feedback from consumers or customers, which also performs the functions of promotion (telemarketing), technical support, voting and surveys.

The call center phone number is:

• control center for incoming and outgoing calls;
• statistical processing of incoming and outgoing calls;
• processing messages received via phone, website, e-mail, instant messengers.

The activities of such organizations are primarily aimed at working with clients. There are also centers that provide internal corporate support for employees. The call center services of one company are often rented by another company that does not have such a division.

Physically, the contact center is an office where employees - operators work on processing incoming and outgoing calls. As a rule, the workplace of each of them is a PC with open access to the Internet, special software for processing calls and messages, a telephone, and headphones.

Contact center capabilities

Call center - what is it in terms of opportunities? What does the workflow look like?

1. Registration of all calls and outgoing calls.
2. Call routing.
3. Recording of communication between the client and the operator.
4. Storage of data about the consumer or user with their subsequent analysis.
5. A visual representation of the work of the entire department and each employee in particular - diagrams, activity graphs, statistics.
6. Call queuing, auto messages, call forwarding, standby activation.
7. Distribution of calls and messages within working group depending on specialization.

Today, the call center phone number is indicated in their contact details by all companies whose work involves communication with customers - banks and other credit organizations, providers, taxi services, online markets, insurance companies, etc.

As practice shows, the success of such corporations is influenced by a well-established relationship with the consumer of their products and services. The client always prefers those companies in which the call center number is always available, where they will quickly process his request, give intelligible advice, politely and clearly answer even the most tricky question.

Call center tasks

The key tasks that both the office and the call center at home set for themselves:

1. Error-free and efficient processing of incoming and outgoing information.
2. Efficiency of work, quick reaction to any changes.
3. Relevance of both operating principles and software.
4. Training and advanced training of personnel.
5. Productive work with the client base: creation, updating, storage.
6. Work statistics.
7. Routing calls based on their specifics.
8. Relationship with other structures of the organization.
9. Maintain a high level of service, minimizing negative reviews About work.

Types of contact centers

A call center (what it is in the general sense, we have already sorted out) can be of two varieties:

1. Outsourcing. A contact center whose services are rented by a company. The staff is being trained in a new profile. This type of work is effective when the constant activity of a large team of operators is required. Sometimes the services of call center specialists are rented by companies from time to time - when there is a need for feedback.
2. Corporate. Call center, which is the internal structure of the corporation, working with employees, customers and partners. Such a system is more expensive: recruiting and training them, purchasing software and equipment, renting and re-profiling the premises.

Organization of activities

Call center - what is it, based on the areas of activity? This is a working structure for processing either incoming or outgoing calls (there are also combined organizations).

The contact center specializing in incoming calls deals with:

• client consultation;
• prompt assistance in solving any problems;
• order processing.

The call center for outgoing calls sets itself the following tasks:

• telemarketing, sales;
• informing customers about new offers, promotions, changes;
• conducting surveys;
• collection activity.

The work consists of four components:

1. Ring Time - the period between when the call is automatically transferred to a free operator and how he answers the call.
2. Talk Time - communication between the operator and the person who applied to the call center.
3. Hold Time - the time during which the client's call is on hold.
4. Wrap-Up Time - handling the call after talking with the caller.

All these elements make up Average Handling Time - the average duration of contact processing, which characterizes the performance of the call center.

Contact centers with a large team of specialists have a multi-level organization - first, operators of primary, general specialization work with information. In case of difficulties or lack of competence, the call is forwarded to more highly qualified specialists.

Call center today and in the future

Many people answer the question: "Call center - what is it?", mistakenly answer - the dispatch service. But today it is a multi-channel structure that can work with clients at all levels: phone calls, e-mail, instant messengers, chats on websites, communication in the company's mobile applications.

In the future, its capabilities will only expand:

1. Integration with the functionality of more than 26 billion communicative and other devices (for example, autorequest of a refrigerator with a "request" to replace a broken part).
2. Cloud deployment work.
3. Repurposing from voice to chat (60% of users prefer the latter).
4. Communication with customers in social networks (Xbox, Nike have already successfully tested this communication).

Leading call centers

List of the largest outsourcing (providing their services for rent) contact centers in Russia:

1. "Telecontact".
2. teleperfomance.
3. Telecom Express.
4. Comus Contact.
5. beeper.
6. new contact.
7. "Grand".
8. infotell.
9. "Audiotele".
10. Comfortel.

Call center operator - requirements for an employee

According to statistics, the vast majority of operators are girls. Men - only a fifth of the total number of specialists. 75% of call center workers are under 30 years old. The share of operators with higher, secondary education and university students is approximately the same. foreign language only 8% are fluent.

This profession does not require special education - it is enough to complete a short course (from several days to 2-3 months) of training and internships, which are usually organized by the employing company itself. In principle, at many colleges and universities courses of telephone operators are open as an additional specialization.

Requirements for the future employee:

Some employers additionally list completed higher education, knowledge in English, high speed typing on the keyboard, work experience from six months.

The call center (reviews of applicants confirm this) offer one of the most relevant and sought-after professions. This profession is popular among young people. The contact center operator mainly works in these areas:

• reference services, "hot lines";
• technical support;
• telemarketing department in provider companies: Internet, mobile communications, satellite TV;
• trade, sociological, consulting organizations.

Call center operator job

The call center operator performs the following functions:

1. Receiving and processing incoming calls, letters, messages.
2. Consultation of applied clients within the framework of their competence, if necessary, redistribution of appeals to narrow specialists.
3. Receiving and processing incoming orders.
4. Telemarketing - presentation of goods and services of the company, surveys.
5. Maintaining client base and related documentation.
6. Work with claims.
7. Analysis of the work done, compilation of statistics.

The salary of a call center operator depends on many factors: the region where he works, experience, the size of the employing company. In many centers, the workload of the employee and the efficiency of his work affect the remuneration - bonuses for the successful promotion of products are added to the fixed salary, or an additional payment is made for each processed call.

The average salary of an operator in the capitals is about 20-25 thousand rubles, in the regions - 10-15 thousand. The wages of newcomers range from 12 to 20 thousand in Moscow and St. Petersburg to 7-10 in other cities.

Today, by the way, so-called call centers at home are often organized. The essence of their work and the main tasks remain the same. But operators can answer calls and chat messages without leaving their own apartments. Such a support service is created mainly by small firms and online stores.

The activity of the call center is already becoming a familiar and integral part of our lives, and its integration with the reality surrounding the consumer will only expand. Like the type of activity itself, the specialty "call center operator" is also becoming widespread and in demand.

Despite the growing popularity of messengers and social networks, the majority of people, namely 79%, prefer to communicate with support services by phone. Such data is provided by the software company for call centers Spoken Communications (2016). At the same time, 69% plan to continue doing so in the coming years.

By creating a call center, you not only provide customers with improved service, but also unload specialized employees: managers, marketers, service specialists - to perform their direct duties. What do call center employees do?

• advise on products;
• register for services;
• resolve conflict situations;
• conduct marketing research;
• call potential customers and expand the customer base;
• provide technical support.

However, organizing a call center from scratch is a serious expense that start-up entrepreneurs do not always have. Today many people use outsourcing companies. But how to understand which is more profitable just for you? We propose to study comparison table before making a decision.

Despite the fact that an outsourced call center saves a company from many problems and routine tasks, it is not suitable for every business. For example, if you have a narrow specialization, then third-party call center operators will not be able to provide a quality service to your customers. To do this, they will have to be trained in the same way as operators for their own call center. Does it make sense to hire a third party company in this case? Unlikely.

If you still decide to organize your own department, then we will tell you how to do it.

Creating a call center from scratch: attention to employees

Before you open a call center from scratch, you need to think through a lot of questions. And the first one is .

Find and train

Even if you hire experienced operators, you will need to train them. Irina Velichko, consultant in the field of building and managing contact centers and Natalia Izmailova, head of the Ukrsibbank contact center, in an article for callcenterguru.ru recommend dividing the training of new employees into three stages:

1. An introductory course in technology. Even before you open a call center, give agents enough time to master the hardware and software so that during real calls there are no technical problems. Introduce them to business processes. It is better to do this not in words: visit different divisions of the company with them, introduce them to employees.

2. Studying work instructions. Provide an algorithm: what issues operators are authorized to solve on their own and to whom in what situation they can transfer the call - to technical specialists, the sales department, and managers. Provide employees with scripts for typical conversations.

3. Thematic courses"Ethics of telephone conversations", "Work in stressful situations”, “Sales by phone”. These can be both online trainings for one employee and group sessions with an invited trainer.

At first, it will be more effective to personally supervise the operator - an experienced sales manager can do this. He observes how the operator works with the call and then works on the bugs.

Who to look for as an operator?

Put real plans

When opening a call center from scratch, track call statistics for the first time and only then set plans for employees - otherwise they may not come true. For example, in the call center of Alfa-Bank, one operator handles 150-170 calls per shift, but in your business everything may be different, and the employee will not physically be able to make so many calls, since communication with each interlocutor will take more time. Evaluate the capabilities of staff soberly.

Motivate

A great way to increase motivation is to explain to operators how their work affects sales. But usually this is backed up by the payment of bonuses for meeting and overfulfilling the plan in terms of the number of calls, appointments and high ratings from customers.

How to make the work of employees easier: a couple of life hacks

• Advise customers to use self-service systems: help information on the website or voice menu. This will reduce the number of calls with easy questions and leave employees more time to make calls where the help of the operator is really needed.
• Find out peak times. More often it is morning and evening, and in the afternoon there is a decline. If agents make scheduled calls to customers, schedule it for freer hours. And during the period of increased employment, hire additional employees on a part-time basis.

How to organize a call center: technical questions

In order for the efforts and costs of preparing and training operators to give a result, it is necessary to create all the conditions for the team to comfortable work- competently organize the space, purchase modern technology and install convenient software.

How to make a call center office

Allocate a spacious bright room for employees and either leave it in the form of open space, or zone it into small compartments using low partitions. It is possible to determine the size of the office on the basis of SanPiN - at least 4.5 m 2 of space should be per employee. The minimum furnishing is a table and a chair for each employee.

A call center can mean:

• Operator line for processing - including statistical - incoming and outgoing telephone calls;
• Software and hardware control center for incoming and outgoing calls;
• Contact-center - a center for processing messages received through any communication channels (telephone, Internet, etc.)

The standard organizational chart of a call center is usually an office where operators work to process incoming / outgoing calls. Each operator in the office is provided with a computer connected to the Internet and local network with the necessary software and a phone with headphones and a significantly expanded range of features. In the vast majority of cases, such centers are used to communicate with existing or potential customers, but there are also examples of internal corporate call centers. The need to create such usually arises in very large companies with a huge staff. Recently, the popularity of providing call-center services by one company that already has its own center, by another as part of a one-time promotion or consumer survey, has increased. As practice shows, in 70% of cases, the company that rented such services acquires its own call center.

Call centers in Russia

Types of call centers

Call centers are of two types:

• Outsourcing call center (outsourcing call center);
• Corporate call center (inhouse call center);

Outsourcing call center

An outsourcing call center is such a scheme for organizing a center when its services are rented out with comprehensive training of operators in the specifics of advising customers precisely on the range of goods or services required by the renting company. In the course of analyzing the effectiveness of constructing feedback from the supplier with the customer, it was revealed economic expediency use of just such a model in the case when the simultaneous work of less than twenty operators is required to receive calls. The second case is when the organization of mass communication does not occur on an ongoing basis, but once or from case to case.

Corporate call center

A corporate call center is an internal full-time division of a company that performs the functions of working with clients or partners. The main costs of deploying your own call-center fall on the purchase of the hardware-software complex system itself (there are turnkey solutions with a wide range of options), recruitment and training of personnel, rental and renovation of premises.

Tasks of call centers

The main tasks of call centers include:

• Correct reception and processing of incoming information;
• Responsiveness to changes in the call system;
• Creation, storage and modification of databases on applied clients;
• Updating software and hardware;
• Continuous staff training;
• Maintaining statistics;
• Routing calls according to their specifics;
• Maximum use automatic system interactive interaction (IVR) to save time;
• Interaction with other departments of the company;
• Improved customer service;
• Reducing the number of "unserved" calls.

Interactive Engagement System (IVR)

The interactive interaction system (IVR) is a software package aimed at rationalizing the operator's working time by providing the call center client with the opportunity to listen to an already recorded, pre-installed answer to the most frequently asked, typical questions. To do this, a context menu is created, which the user can navigate using touch-tone dialing on the telephone keypad. Usually this menu combines background information about the company and services. IVR accounts for up to 70% of all calls to the call center.

Work organization

Call centers have two priority areas of work: incoming and outgoing communications. When processing incoming messages, the main goals are, as a rule, to provide customers with information or to obtain information about the problems that the client has encountered when using the company's services / products. Outgoing calls or messages have the following purposes:

• Selling something.
• Informing about the innovations offered by the company to the target group.
• Conducting various surveys.
• Performing collection functions.

Often, a call center has a branched or multi-level structure, where first-level operators provide a common set of information. When the topic of the appeal goes beyond their specialization, the client is redirected to the specialist who can solve his problem - to another department or to a higher level. It is the norm to record calls between the caller and the operator to identify new, more effective counseling strategies, to track errors made by operators in their work, and to conduct general monitoring.

Call center capabilities

• Call registration.
• Storing customer information using analytical approaches to call history.
• Call routing.
• Recording conversations.
• Graphic (graphs, charts, diagrams) display of the work of each operator, department, the entire center.
• Display on the operator's monitor information about the incoming call.
• Forwarding, creating a queue of calls, turning on the standby mode, automatically informing about the waiting time for an answer.
• Distribution of calls within a group of operators depending on the status.

Functionality of a modern contact center

The functionality of a modern contact center is not what companies offered 10 years ago to customers. A functioning contact center will help consumers ask a question in an online chat, write to representatives on a social network, call from a mobile application, and all this, as a matter of course, it is so convenient for them. Customer behaviors and expectations are changing, prompting organizations to fundamentally rethink how they interact in pursuit of customers.

Large contact center, 2013

Email, mobile apps, chats, Skype and video calls have turned call centers into multi-channel contact centers that have become an important point of interaction with the client - they play a significant role in creating a positive experience.

The contact center of 10 years ago is a cost item, but in 2015 it becomes an important asset that directly affects customer loyalty and the company's image. Depending on the scale and industry of the company, it includes online communication, the possibility of contacting mobile applications and personal online accounts.

To provide High Quality services, in addition to contact center operators, specialists from other departments are involved in customer service. So, for example, a certain Israeli bank optimized the contact center: it "integrated" managers from branches into it - a bank client, when contacting, connects with an operator from the branch where he is served. The result is an imitation of a personal manager.

The place of the contact center in business processes

The integration of any new communication channel should be planned based on the company's business, its development opportunities, and not only and not so much because the channel is "worth using". Often, the integration of new channels of communication with customers into the overall communication strategy of the company is nothing more than visibility for management. A common example is social networks run by a marketing department or, even worse, an external SMM agency.

In fact, planning, operating, and evaluating the effectiveness of a contact center should be based on the organization's business objectives, current business processes, and customer service strategy. Without a doubt, it all depends on the specifics of sales and service in each case. Nevertheless, it is worth recognizing that social networks have long been not only marketing, but a channel for contacting a company. Not only with requests, but with complaints. These requests or complaints should ideally be handled by a contact center employee and stored in the customer's history.

It is worthwhile to understand whether a standalone function is being implemented or the service is being extended to new channels, fully integrating them into the overall system.

Multiple channels, platform and integration

Consumers are increasingly communicating with organizations via email, websites, web chats, social media, mobile apps, and more. Increasingly, interaction with organizations occurs through several channels at once, when customers organically change the communication channel, moving through social networks to direct communication with the operator via web chat, depending on the type and detail of the required information. And every time the company must clearly define what technologies, business processes and staff skills are needed to ensure such interaction.

Forward-thinking executives have already begun (or are making) the transition from a traditional PBX or ACD infrastructure to Session Initiation Protocol (SIP)-based systems that support not only voice communication, but the transmission of video and other file formats over IP networks. Many Western and leading Russian companies use universal platforms for interacting with consumers not only in contact centers, but also across the entire enterprise, communicating through all channels and at all points of interaction. They increasingly involve multiple departments of the company, including marketing, sales, technical support and customer service, for which the integration of the contact center infrastructure and software and hardware systems of the respective departments is carried out. Thus, the contact center must support the ability to integrate, scalability and advanced facilities complex analysis, especially in the face of an increase in the volume and complexity of the data sets processed by it and their connection with other divisions of the company.

This means that at the time of creating a contact center, it is necessary to pay close attention to the platform - it must support the optimization of work resources and centralized routing of all calls and work tasks with the preservation of interaction history, helping organizations achieve their goals in all areas, including self-service, service by agents and communication with the client at the initiative of the organization.

Performance indicators

Once you have chosen a contact center solution that will fulfill your business needs, you need to decide what to measure and what the metrics should be.

Priority communication channels and key performance indicators need to be correctly identified. In a number of organizations, they are abandoning the established methodology for quickly processing incoming calls. They came to an understanding - it is impossible to build an effective contact center on the desire to process as many calls as possible and free the line as quickly as possible. Experience has shown that such a strategy does not contribute to strengthening relationships with consumers and improving brand perception.

Leading organizations have shifted their focus to goals such as successfully resolving a customer's problem, selling more expensive or complementary products and services, and being able to get the customer to recommend the company to friends and family.

The consumer loyalty index (NPS), which reflects the likelihood that a consumer will recommend a product or service to another person, has gained particular importance. Such recommendations are powerful tool, allowing to significantly increase the degree of customer satisfaction.

Having defined the measurement parameters, it is necessary to pay attention to the inclusion of not only statistics and analytics, but also a deep analysis of the quality of service and how it will affect the relationship of customers to the company in the long term.

How to sell more

Realizing the full potential of a modernized contact center requires a versatile, full-featured, and affordable platform that can be deployed in the cloud, on premises, or as a hybrid solution. When evaluating vendors and their solutions, there are a number of things to consider: important points and get answers to the following questions:

• Does the system monitor the availability and skills of key personnel, and does it analyze tasks performed through different channels?
• Does the system provide service personalization using business rule-based routing, customer data and context, can it change the rules itself if necessary?
• Does the system support automatic access to analytical data in dynamic mode through dashboards?
• provides a system for an optimized and centralized distribution of the entire volume of interactions across all communication channels?
• Is this platform easily customizable to meet unique industry requirements?
• How does it integrate with existing systems and applications such as customer relationship management, enterprise resource planning, inventory management, and other solutions that support request processing?
• Does the system support the optimization of human resources based on analytical data, integration with the infrastructure of the entire contact center in order to ensure that calls are transferred to personnel with the necessary skills at any time?

The organization of the work of the contact center implies the tight integration of workflows with customer relationship management systems, resource planning and other applications that support the activities of the enterprise. Being able to get any information about customers in real time, the contact center staff can not only identify the subscriber, but quickly get the history of relationships with him.

Regardless of the communication channel, be it a company website, social network or a regular phone, the contact center employee must have access to all customer information, including customer interaction history and past purchases, company value, potential future needs, or eligibility for special offers.

To obtain this kind of analytical information, a platform is required that is integrated with customer databases, CRM and other systems that support the company's business processes.

Attentive attitude to the needs of each specific client in interaction with him through all channels of communication, fixing and timely use of this information will help to appropriately and unobtrusively offer the client what he is interested in.

How to create new model contact center? It is necessary to get away from the routine, "fine" and often ineffective settings various processes and comprehensively evaluate: what decisions will bring a significant effect.

Then integration: setting up the interaction of the implemented systems for managing, routing, reporting and optimizing work resources with the call processing center through multiple channels (the usual understanding is the contact center) - this will be a modern and efficient contact center of the new model. It will provide a high level of individual customer service and customer loyalty.

What is the average call handling time?

Here are a few trends you absolutely need to be aware of to get your contact center ready for 2020.

In 3 years, 26 billion different devices will be used by people every day. As technology advances, these devices will connect to the Internet and to each other to collect and share data. This phenomenon is called the Internet of Things.

Consumers prefer to use mobile and personal devices to communicate with brands and companies. This allows them to interact with contact centers when, where and how they want. Therefore, you need to identify opportunities for IoT integration with your contact center. It will also greatly benefit from the collection, analysis and use of data from these devices to provide better customer service. Let's take for example household appliances A: The smart refrigerator will be able to identify the part that needs to be replaced and will be able to send data to the contact center. Thus, the manufacturer's contact center will contact the customer and subsequently send a new part.

The days of businesses investing millions of dollars in massive technology adoption are long gone. That's why the cloud is quickly becoming the deployment of choice, especially with its ability to scale and connect contact center workers even in a distributed office environment.

Contact center buyers say they prefer the cloud, with 16% saying they will move their contact center there in the future. There is a steady growth in cloud deployment in contact centers. And this is not surprising, because many contact center employees are becoming increasingly decentralized. This makes it possible to interact with customers through any type of channel or device at any time of the day. Cloud - secure and cost effective effective method Easily integrate a contact center and quickly scale it up to increase the number of employees and expand technology.

3. Chat will become very important

Only 29% of customers rely on calls when it comes to communicating with a company. And yet, traditional voice interaction is still very important in many contact centers today. 60% of contact center investments are focused on voice communication. Analysts say that self-service interaction is gaining popularity. Chat acquires important role and is gradually becoming the main way of future interaction with customers.

Chat is not something new, it has gradually taken root since its inception in the late 90s. Now he is increasingly rapidly occupying the forefront against the backdrop of a decline in the once popular channels. Email will gradually take a back seat to customer service issues. Consumers look forward to email responses and are increasingly turning to chat communication knowing they will get an instant response. Today, consumers are so accustomed to communicating with friends and acquaintances via instant messengers that they are happy to use them to communicate with companies.

4. Social media as a strategic channel

By 2020, social media will become a channel for communication throughout the organization, and not individual departments. Companies that understand this early will have competitive advantage, creating a multi-channel, multi-purpose customer experience. Social media will facilitate a diverse customer experience through different channels of interaction.

This power will be maximized when paired with analytics - real-time exploration of unstructured data that companies can use to their advantage. Executives who have identified the role of social media in customer-brand communication will have greater opportunities to transact through social channels and facilitate the journey of customers from social media to other traditional or digital channels. Global brands such as Nike, Xbox and JetBlue have gained public recognition for their professional communication with customers through social media. Using the power of channels such as

Call center (CSC), it is also a call center (from the English “call” - “to call”), it is also a contact center, it is also a “customer service” for communicating with customers, often a technical support service, a help desk, a dispatcher, well, anything in general, any office that accepts telephone calls from the broad masses of the people. And also carrying out the reverse process - making calls to customers, existing and potential.

In general, in addition to theory, let's also pay attention to the practical aspects of interaction with this phenomenon.

The essence in simple words

Suppose there is a large firm, for example, a mobile operator. Since customer problems arise all the time, you need to somehow cope with the avalanche of calls. Therefore, a separate office with hardware and software is allocated and young telephone operators are hired. It remains only to indicate the phone numbers on the official website and in advertising booklets.

Now the client will be able to get through if he fiddles with the phone for forty minutes in a row: “Help! My cellular modem stopped working!

“Wait! I'm directing a call to the technical department! - the indifferent young lady will answer, pressing the button to play some stupid melody. (For some reason, blatant bad taste always sounds during the redirection. Probably to increase the nervous tension even more.)

Another twenty minutes later, an impatient technician will answer. He will advise the standard “Press the Start button, enter the Settings ...” He will not even ask what kind of operating system the client has. It will require a person to sit at a computer and retell what is happening on the display, without worrying about the impossibility of moving a desktop PC into the hallway to the telephone shelf. Indeed, it's not his problem...

In general, having pretty much patted his nerves, the next morning the client acquires a modem from another operator, and the former one gives it to one of the enemies, as a terrible revenge for some past grievances.

True, the boycotted operator will remind of itself for a long time, making so-called marketing outgoing calls - dictating the texts of advertisements into the handset. And then, quite likely, the collected database with phone numbers will be sold to other advertisers.

In general, call centers are engaged in:

1. incoming calls (taking orders, simulating technical support);
2. outgoing (remind about the need to repay the loan, advertise services, arrange surveys and annoy in every possible way);
3. e-mail, faxes, provision and receipt of all kinds of documents;
4. employment of managers who look after other managers who sensitively manage another layer of managers, and so on, up to direct personnel management.

Varieties

According to the semantics of the concept, call centers are divided into the following entities:

1. an office with unfriendly and quickly chattering young ladies-operators;
2. software and hardware that allows you to distribute and redirect calls within a local PBX (in the sense of an automatic telephone exchange).

By type of organization, call centers are:

1. corporate (inhouse call center), that is, their own;
2. outsourcing (outsourcing call center), when man-hours and production capacities of another office are involved;
3. on demand (call center on-demand), when only equipment is rented.

In addition to conventional telephone switching, wired VoIP telephony is often used, as well as ICQ and, of course, Skype. The last two tools are personalized and allow you to contact the right specialist directly, without waiting for the young lady, tired, twitchy and angry all over the world, to redirect the call to the right department.

What is a company without e-mail on business cards and in advertising? Must be specified. And then set up an autoresponder with a standard response like “your message will be transferred to a specialist” and “you will be answered shortly.” But people have long known that no one will really answer, so they prefer hour after hour to repeat attempts to get through.

How to live with it

In case of problems, for prompt communication with their perpetrators, try to use ICQ, Skype or web chat on the official website of the organization, if you have access to the Internet. You should call the call center phone only if there is no access to it.

Long tormented, experienced patience, and even frankly brushed aside? Write about it in a popular social network culturally and calmly, but in as much detail as possible. Warn others.

Usually managers (not those who manage lower managers, but those who are in the marketing department) have electronic dossiers on all customers who had the imprudence to give out their mobile phone numbers. "Client cards" are collected in case the database is sold to advertisers, then to bomb the SMS population with "great deals" and "pre-holiday promotions."

This means that it is advisable to call from stationary devices, even if the technician tearfully begs you to come to your computer. The mobile number is private. And point.

In general, if the office works very badly, then in the foreseeable future it is unlikely to provide better services. Such miracles do not happen. Therefore, it is easier to turn to competitors than to waste your nerve cells on exhausting communication with those who will not help in any way anyway.

Summarizing

So, call centers are intended:

1. for processing mass remote appeals of citizens through conventional telephone networks, mobile communications, VoIP and other means of mass communication;
2. to make calls and send SMS to these same citizens, in order to somehow diversify a too calm life with annoying factors;
3. in order to improve the image of the company, they say, look what a numerous support service we have, we will even show it in advertising on TV.

True, sometimes they work more or less conscientiously, promptly and professionally. Especially if not many layers of management are built over ordinary workers and all funds go to the development of the service, and not to imitation of prestige.

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