The Importance Of Call Centre Customer Service

Delivering great customer service is critical to retaining existing customers and attracting new customers. Many customers are presented with a significant number of companies to choose from for key products/services and excellent customer service is often one of the key differentiators between companies. Even if a business is more expensive than its competitors, if it has great customer service, it will often be chosen over more cost-conscious alternatives. This highlights the importance of customer service and the role that it can play in driving business growth. An outsourced customer service company can take the lead role in providing excellent customer service. This takes the pressure away from the business and frees up valuable resources for core business activities.

It’s great to know how a customer service call centre can help, but what should you be looking for in a good customer service call centre and why is customer service so important? In this article, we review what a good customer service call centre should be able to deliver, the qualities of a great customer service outsourcing partnership and why customer service is important and worth focusing on.

What Service Should A Good Customer Call Centre Deliver

What constitutes great customer service is very subjective and it is a well debated topic, particularly from the perspective of a client’s customer. However, what good service from a customer service call centre looks like from a client perspective is not as well discussed. While it is not as well discussed, it is an important topic as it has implications for not only selecting but also choosing whether to retain an outsourced call centre.

We explore the key desirable outcomes that businesses seek in regard to a customer service call centre partner. Although it is not practical to outline precise figures to benchmark a call centre against as every sector and business is unique, the following key themes provide a useful guide.

Quality

The quality of service delivery is absolutely critical as it will determine overall success of the client and call centre partnership. If the service quality is good, the call centre will have a proactive, results-driven and outcome focused approach that improves customer service outcomes such as customer satisfaction while also meeting key SLAs. If the quality of service is below par, it is likely to be inconsistent, reactive, and underperforming. This will have a negative impact on customer service outcomes and be to the detriment of customer satisfaction.

In order for an outsourced call centre to consistently deliver quality customer service offering, they will need to have the right mix of people, processes, and technology to support their day-to-day operations. Their people need to be passionate, experienced, and trained to effortlessly handle even the most challenging customer service interactions. Everyone in the call centre should be proactive, engaged and committed to helping clients succeed at every stage of a campaign right from onboarding through to execution. In terms of processes, they will be established, well-defined and proven to deliver results across a diverse range of sectors and clients. Each process helps to guide the people involved in delivering the service and maintain consistency. These two factors are perfectly complimented by technology, and a great customer service call centre will have internal technology systems that can be integrated with client technology systems such as a CRM. Alongside this, they will have their own unique technology suite to power and support daily operations.

When all three factors are functioning and supporting each other, the quality of service delivery will remain high and the best possible customer service outcomes can be delivered.

Efficiency

While clients’ customers expect a timely response to communications, the efficiency of each interaction is also of upmost importance. Delivering great customer service requires the service element to be carefully balanced with the time taken to manage each interaction with a focus on the time taken being proportionate to the nature of the customer service query. Clients that care about customer service will want every customer to enjoy a great customer experience that is of high quality, but not at the expense of overall customer service effectiveness. Effective call centres with trained call centre agents are experienced at balancing customer service quality with efficiency to deliver the best customer service outcomes.

Good customer service is delivered when efficiency is prioritised in the customer service team. The total time taken in a given customer interaction should match the nature of and complexity of the issue at hand. If a customer service issue that should take 15 minutes to resolve takes 30 minutes to resolve, SLAs are likely to be missed. At Impact, we train our customer service agents to expertly judge the time required to resolve an issue and optimise the time spent on an interaction while also delighting our clients’ customers. Efficiency and quality can be delivered concurrently with the right people, processes, and technology in place as it is at our UK call centre.

Availability Of The Right Agents

When a customer gets in touch with a customer service query, they rightly expect a customer service agent to be available to respond within a reasonable timeframe. The precise length of a reasonable timeframe varies from sector to sector and client to client. As a guide, a customer wait period should be short enough to provide good service and to not cause frustration. However, it is not enough for any customer service agent to be available to respond. For the customer experience to be exceptional, the right agents need to be available. The right customer service agents are those with the knowledge of your products/services, a friendly/approachable manner, and an empathetic approach to understanding customers and their issues. When any of these key elements are missing, it will be to the detriment of the customer experience.

In most cases, it is relatively easy for an outsourced customer service call centre to ensure that there are call centre agents available to respond to customers, as this can be achieved through resource planning. It is much more of a challenge for a call centre to be able to provide the right customer service agents with the knowledge, friendly nature and empathetic approach required to effectively respond to their query and in most cases resolve it. At Impact, we know what it takes to deliver availability of the right call centre agents. It not only requires resource planning, it also demands world-class training. We equip our agents with the knowledge required to respond to customer queries with confidence and empower them to take decisions. We pride ourselves on providing the right call centre agents that can effectively respond to and resolve queries. This results in an exceptional call centre customer service experience that few UK call centres can deliver to clients.

Key Features Of A Good Customer Service Outsourcing Partnership

Establishing a great customer service outsourcing partnership with a professional outsourced call centre helps businesses to attract and retain customers. By gaining the expertise of an experienced call centre, a business can refocus on its core operations safe in the knowledge that customer service will be taken care of. Improving customer service outcomes is much easier with an outsourced customer service call centre to guide your business and help it to avoid the many common pitfalls that the delivery of good customer service can entail.

It is important to explore what the key features of a good customer service outsourcing partnership are. It can help you to evaluate the success of an existing partnership and choose the best possible outsourced call centre when you are looking to outsource customer service.

Trust

Being able to trust the customer service call centre that you partner with is critical to the success of the partnership. You will want their customer service call centre agents to be able to handle all customer service interactions with confidence. After all, there is little value to customer service outsourcing if you are unable to then refocus on your core business and free up internal resources. The most trustworthy call centres will not only meet but also exceed your expectations by demonstrating trust right from the beginning of the partnership and continuing to earn trust every day. Once trust is established, it must be maintained with relevant communication and appropriate action from everyone that you interact with at your chosen call centre.

At Impact, we demonstrate trust through our reputation, which has been earned from many years of exceptional customer service delivery for leading UK organisations. We believe that trust is closely linked to great communication and being proactive in every aspect of our services. By appreciating that trust must be earned, we have built a winning combination of great people, processes, and technology to deliver a truly exceptional service. Raising the bar and continuously improving client results is what we excel at and dedicate ourselves to, day in day out.

Efficiency

Efficiency is key to the effectiveness of every call centre. If your call centre is going to optimise the customer experience, identify opportunities for improvements and carefully balance service quality and the time spent, efficiency must be a core focus of their operations. Delivering efficient customer service is not about compromising on quality, it is about focusing on optimising your customer service operations and identifying areas where improvements or savings can be made. There are many ways to improve customer service efficiency from improving systems and making use of new technology through to adopting proven processes and saving on unnecessarily protracted customer interactions. Each method of improving efficiency can drive significant improvements in the overall customer service provision.

At Impact we drive efficiency improvements in everything that we do. Our customer service team know that efficient customer service operations deliver value for money for our clients and an exceptional customer service experience for our client’s customers. By choosing us as your customer service outsourcing partner, your business will benefit from our continual drive for efficiency and benefit from the excellent results that this delivers. We drive efficiency improvements at every stage of our client relationships, not just at the beginning. It’s why we have so many successful long-term partnerships with the clients that we support.

Honesty

Honesty is a key quality of every successful partnership; you will want to be sure that your customer service outsourcing partner is always honest at every stage of the partnership. They will need to give you an accurate picture that represents the successes and challenges that are encountered. Transparency is very much part of an honest partnership; this is particularly the case when challenges and issues present themselves. The best outsourced customer service partners will be clear about challenges and issues and work proactively with you to create solutions that overcome them.

We place honesty at the centre of our culture and encourage our valued teams to communicate in an open way. Our clients trust us to act with integrity and deliver our services in an ethical way. If you are looking for an outsourced customer service partner that you can trust to be honest in every area of your partnership, why not consider partnering with us?

High Quality Service Provision

Businesses that are looking to form a customer service outsourcing partnership will expect a high-quality service provision from the customer service call centre that they decide to partner with. A high-quality service provision has two key aspects: the customer service provided to a client’s customers and the level of service provided to the client. Delivering exceptional customer service to customers and a great level of service to clients is a challenge but one that is essential as it will heavily influence the success of overall customer service operations. When exceptional customer service is delivered, a client’s customers will be delighted, their business is retained, and their customer lifetime value will increase. Whereas, when a great level of service is delivered to a client, efficiencies can be identified, improvements are made, and customer service operations are optimised. The combination of high-quality service provision in both areas delivers the exceptional results that should be a feature of every successful customer service outsourcing partnership.

By partnering with a professional call centre for customer service like Impact, your business will be able to enjoy high quality service provision in both areas and deliver world-class customer service. We have a dedicated team of experienced and expertly trained customer service professionals that deliver high quality services for some of the UK’s leading brands. If your business seeks quality in its customer service provision, partnering with Impact is a great way to achieve it.

Availability Of Staff

Outsourcing customer service to an outsourced call centre can be a significant step, especially if your organisation has operated an internal call centre where the availability of staff is a somewhat less pressing issue. Some businesses that are looking to outsource can be concerned as to whether they will receive appropriate availability of staff to not only manage customer service interactions with their customers but also to proactively partner with them to improve their customer service in an efficient and cost-effective way. It is very much possible to outsource your call centre with confidence, safe in the knowledge that sufficiently skilled staff will be available to support your customers and work with you to improve customer service.

We are very much committed to providing great availability of staff to our valued clients. Our customer service team uses resource planning and efficient processes to manage customer service interactions across our portfolio of clients. By partnering with Impact, you can be assured that we will endeavour to support your business and provide the staff that you need. After all, we pride ourselves on being able to help some of the UK’s leading brands to outsource their customer service with confidence.

Communication

Excellent communication is at the heart of every successful customer service outsourcing partnership. Clear lines of communication should be established and maintained between a call centre and the client at all times and at every stage of the partnership. It is important to not only communicate key successes, but also any challenges that are faced. By openly communicating challenges and issues and providing appropriate solutions, your outsourced customer service call centre becomes an integral part of your business. At this stage, a true partnership is established and the potential for exceptional customer service outcomes is significant.

If great communication is maintained and nurtured in an outsourcing partnership, it can help to drive improvements in customer satisfaction and has the potential to positively impact the retention and growth of a client’s customers. At Impact, we are passionate about great communication and seek to establish a true partnership where key successes and challenges are communicated openly so the very best customer service outcomes are achieved. It is always our aim to be so much more than simply a third-party service provider, as long-term well-founded partnerships deliver the best possible results and drive business growth.

Knowledgeable And Skilled Staff

Knowledgeable and skilled staff can make all the difference when it comes to customer service. For a customer service outsourcing partnership to be successful, your business must be able to draw on the experience and expertise of the staff at your chosen customer service call centre. Staff with great knowledge of your products/services, company processes and customer service best practice are best equipped to deliver the exceptional customer service that customers have come to expect. The greater their knowledge, the higher the chance is of achieving a first call resolution of customer service queries and issues, which brings significant benefits in terms of efficiency gains and cost savings.

The best and most effective outsourced customer service call centres do not stop at helping their staff improve their knowledge. They also take the time to develop the all-important soft skills that play an important part in great customer service delivery. At Impact, we recruit and train our staff to be at their very best with all the required soft skills that great customer service entails, from positivity and politeness through to friendliness and empathy. We know that well-trained customer service staff with great knowledge, the right attitude and a powerful suite of soft skills will deliver great customer service for our valued clients.