By Joel Sylvester, Chief Marketing Officer, Five Star Call Centers
Each year, Five Star Call Centers shares the State of Customer Service to shed light on trends and insights that impact the customer service industry. Our team has garnered this information from best practices, tradeshows, conferences, and publications we’ve reviewed throughout the year. In this three-part series featuring industry, technology, and people, we dive into each topic and provide you information and resources for your business. New parts in the series will be release May 13 (Industry), May 20 (Technology), and May 27 (People). Today, we focus on call center technology.
Moving Customer Service Forward with Call Center Technology
At its core, customer service is driven by having the right team of customer care associates supporting your company. That doesn’t mean that advancements in call center technology can’t drive your business to the next level. Keep an eye out for these key technologies in 2021.
Artificial Intelligence in a People Industry
Is there room for artificial intelligence, better known as AI, in a people-centric industry like customer service? The answer is a resounding – YES!
AI is leading the way in supporting customer care teams to provide better care for your customers. Today’s AI call center technologies help customer care associates up-sell products, indicate opportunities for better training, red-flag customer care tickets that need manager assistance, and so much more. AI helps today’s associates perform better, leading to efficiencies and more dollars in your pocket.
Enhancing the Customer Experience with Customer Relationship Management
Customer relationship management is more than just a team of dedicated associates. It’s also a call center technology that can drive your business to the next level.
Better know as CRM’s, these tools allow your business to retain data on your customers. The information can then be used to better sell to that customer. It can so assist in predicting trends to help sell to your entire customer base.
While CRM’s are not new, they are getting more and more support from customer service teams. The tool allows care teams to provide a more personalized customer experience. That personalization improves your customers’ experiences when they engage with your company. If you don’t currently have a CRM in place, start looking now for the right fit within your call center technologies.
Knowledge Bases: The Tool Your Customers are Wanting
The adage, it’s not great customer service if the customer has to find the answer on their own, is no longer the case. Today’s customer demands immediacy. It’s online knowledge bases are the key to meeting that demand. In fact, it’s something customers want.
Ninety percent of customers say immediacy is key when it comes to customer support. And immediate is 10 seconds or less. Knowledge bases allow companies to fill in the gap when your customer demands an answer. Many are willing to find that answer on their own, especially when a knowledge base is built and organized with the consumer in mind. It’s a service to customer that you should look into when enhancing your call center technology.
Make sure you watch out for part 3 of our series next week, where we focus on the the team leading day-to-day interactions in the industry – the people.
About Five Star Call Centers
Five Star Calls Centers has been an industry leader in the contact center outsourcing industry for over 35 years. They deliver voice, IVR, digital, and consulting services across the U.S. and are dedicated to learning and implementing state-of-the-art technology and leading-edge practices.
About the Author - Joel Sylvester
Joel’s career spans hundreds of companies and helping each enhance their customer experience. He has recruited, trained, and coached award-winning customer services teams across the globe in industries spanning retail, finance, product support, healthcare, hospitality and more. Today, Joel serves as partner and chief sales and marketing officer for Five Star Call Centers, an outsourcing call center with five locations based in the Midwest.
