24 hour Answering Services

One of the fastest-growing trends in business these days is the call center. Outsourcing calls can raise profits, enhance the quality of customer service, streamline business operations and save money. With virtual accessibility, call centers have become a possibility for any business, large or small.

What are the benefits to a business owner of using a call center?

(1) Staying Informed. Call center agents are working for you 24/7 to handle calls and keep business owners informed about what`s going on in their customer base. Some call centers even furnish statistics about customer calls.

(2) Fewer Personnel Headaches. Agents are hired and trained by the call center, which also manages payroll and other personnel responsibilities.

(3) Efficiency. Incoming calls are automatically transmitted to the right agent, making the best possible use of an agent`s knowledge and skill sets. If one agent cannot resolve a problem, the call can be rerouted to a more knowledgeable agent. Calls are always answered despite the ebb and flow of business call volume.

(4) Accessibility. With 24/7 coverage, agents are always available to place orders, resolve problems or complaints, offer technical support, answer questions and set appointments, all at the customer`s leisure.

(5) Savings. outsourcing calls to a call center reduces the need for office space, furnishings and equipment for customer service representatives. Also, it`s less costly to outsource calls than to retain agents on all three shifts.

(6) Greater Freedom. Call centers handle the customer base, freeing owners to develop their business.

Conversely, there are liabilities to using call centers.

(1) Unpredictable Service. The quality of customer support depends upon the skill and expertise of a given agent and skills can vary greatly among agents.

(2) Communication Issues. Customers are frustrated by not being understood and not understanding agents from call centers in non-English speaking countries, with accents and/or restricted ability with the English language. Some customers say that these agents are inadequately trained, unable to solve problems, answer questions or take appropriate actions.

(3) Lack of Supervisory Personnel. Some call centers have inadequate supervisory personnel to troubleshoot problems an individual agent cannot deal with. This can leave a customer`s problem indefinitely unsolved.

(4) Unhappy Agents. Some agents report feeling dehumanized at call centers due to inadequate salaries, lack of privacy, inability to leave their work stations and the stress of constant incoming calls. This can produce apathetic agents who are unfriendly to customers.

(5) Having to Call Repeatedly. Some customers complain that, due to the great variability of skill among agents, they must phone the call center numerous time to connect with an agent who has the ability to solve a given problem or to answer a particular question.

Call centers are the direction of the future and many businesses are at least considering outsourcing their calls. Ultimately, the success of outsourcing will be a result of the caliber of customer service delivered by the call centers themselves.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 9th, 2008 at 10:13 pm and is filed under Answering Service. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.