It’s safe to say that phone sales and support are here to stay. After all, even with the availability of other communication channels like email or chat, phones remain prevalent in all age groups. For this reason, contact centers remain profitable entrepreneurial ventures, as they play a critical role in creating excellent customer experiences and generating sales.
However, to engage prospects, deliver quality services, and reap the rewards of this lucrative industry, you need to plan out the endeavor carefully. In this guide, we’ll discuss tips on building a successful contact center in 2023.
Table of Contents
Determine your objectives
Before you dive into establishing a contact center, you must first ask yourself why. Only when you’ve defined your primary objectives clearly can you consider everything you’ll require to operate a successful one. Ultimately, your goals will be based on specific business demands. For example, the objective for those running startups or small businesses might be to generate new leads, attract customers, or streamline ordering and payment processing.
It’s also a good idea to look for a suitable auto-dialing solution that will best meet your needs. It’s an important tool to have at your disposal, as it can streamline your workflow and automate the dialing process, allowing your contact center to maintain a consistently high level of productivity while adhering to the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) standards, which are essentially rules and laws that regulate telemarketing, autodialed, and pre-recorded calls as well as the DNC registry.
TCPA compliance to these standards is crucial, as failure to do so can result in potentially irrecoverable damage to reputation and considerable financial losses from costly fines. With an auto-dialer, it’s possible to minimize, if not mitigate, human error since it can automate the dialing process, prohibit DNC numbers from being called, and customizing call times, among many others.
Establish metrics
After you’ve determined your goals, you need to establish metrics from which to measure your contact center’s success. Some of the most common are average handling time, rate of transfer, first-call resolution, and talk time. But keep in mind that your KPIs will differ depending on the objectives of your contact center, whether it’s inbound customer service or outbound telemarketing. Your available communication channels will also play a role in what your metrics should be.
Virtual or on-site
Gone are the days when contact centers could only operate from an office. These days, remote work is becoming increasingly more common in the industry, especially amidst the global COVID-19 pandemic. Thus, you must decide whether your business will require dedicated office space for in-house staff or if going virtual is a possibility. Both come with their fair share of pros and cons, so you need to consider both carefully.
On-site contact centers are a bigger investment and require more capital, but they have the advantage of having a single site for all equipment and employees. This makes it easier to communicate with each other and address any concerns quickly. Conversely, virtual contact centers are less expensive since they don’t require office space, although it doesn’t come with any of the benefits of an on-site business.
Conclusion
There aren’t many industries as lucrative as contact center businesses. However, it’s also a highly competitive sector. And if you don’t start the right way, the chances are it will be harder to succeed. So keep these tips in mind as you build your contact center. The more you get right in the beginning, the easier it will be to achieve success.
