HOW TO SAVE COSTS WITHIN YOUR CALL CENTER
Rising call center costs is always a concern when managing your team. For example, as the number of incoming or outgoing calls increases you need to add agents to handle the volume. But leadership is forcing you to stay on budget or even reduce costs.
So how can you manage costs within your call center?
Leverage technology. Use your state-of-the-art telephony platform to your advantage.
a. Use call routing. Skills-based routing to gain call center efficiencies. You will need less staff to handle the same call volumes
b. Use intuitive scripting/CRM to lead your agents to the correct answer faster to reduce call handle times
c. Self-service options. Implement an automated self-service option to reduce calls routed to live agents.
d. Offer alternate communication channels. Email, chat, SMS, etc.
Alternative channels can be more cost effective and, in some cases, allow for multiple interactions at once, requiring fewer agents.
a. Additional training will increase efficiency among agents and reduce call times. As a result, you will need less staff to handle the same volumes.
b. Additional training to ensure agents resolve the customer issue on the first call to reduce repeat callers. Call volume will decrease and less staff will be needed.
3. Invest in quality assurance monitoring
By listening to calls, your team will be able to identify improvement opportunities by using training, scripting, CRM, and more. Get ahead of inefficiencies to reduce costs.
4. Look at outsource options
It may make sense to outsource your call center; all or just a part of your volume. Maybe outsourcing should be considered to handle seasonal demand.
5. Look at at-home solutions vs brick and mortar
Not having additional office space can add up to significant savings as you grow.
6. Ensure all your support ratios are in line and you are not over spending
a. Supervisor to agent ratio
c. Technical support to agent
d. Account support to agent
It’s easy to just hire more people to handle growing volumes. But it’s rarely that simple. Review the above items to improve daily efficiencies to better utilize your current staff before hiring more. If you have to spend, let’s spend wisely.
