3 Ways to Improve Contact Centre Performance

By Coconut Software - May 14, 2018

3 Ways to Improve Contact Centre Performance

The pursuit to improve contact center performance can be a point of contention at times. On the one hand, they are the best way to manage customer calls, quickly find out what they’re looking for and guide them over the phone rather than in person. On the other hand, hold times can be agitating for customers and keeping the agents trained on new products, services and offerings can be difficult to manage. No matter how you look at it though, contact centres are important. For many customers, particularly customers of a financial institution or members of a credit union, the contact centre is their first exposure to the institution, calling in to book their first advisor meeting or to learn about products and services.

In the end, financial institutions with multiple locations and services need to ensure they are offering a premium contact centre experience for their customers. Below, we highlight 3 areas that financial institutions can focus on to improve contact centre performance and ensure they’re providing customers with the best experience.

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1. Regular Contact Center Training

Hosting regular training sessions is the best way to improve contact centre performance and keep the team sharp. Training sessions ensure that your contact centre team is up to date on all of the products, services and offerings of your financial institution so they can speak to customers confidently and intelligently, without providing any false information. Training sessions are also a great place to go over call best practices and how to better serve customers over the phone.

For service updates, a training session should take place once a month to go over any upcoming service changes so the contact centre agents understand what the changes are, the impact of the changes on customers and how to position the changes. For most customers, change can be hard, so it is important that the contact centre agents are prepared with the information needed to explain changes and make any transition required as easy as possible for the customer.

For contact centre service training, it is important to do a refresher session on a semi regular basis. Taking the time to go over areas like how to qualify the needs of a customer, how to handle customer concerns and how to encourage customers to review other products and services is important. Regular training can help staff identify areas for improvement and try out new methods, overall improving contact centre performance.

To learn more, read this guide to contact center training.

2. Inbound Call Checklist

Creating an inbound call checklist is the best way to give customers a consistent contact centre experience when they call in, regardless of which contact centre agent they reach and what their inquiry is. Preparing a checklist beforehand ensures that your agents remember to get all the information they need to handle the call correctly and provide the customers with the best answer and all the details they need for next steps.

To improve contact centre performance, the end goal of the checklist is to create a clear path for the customer no matter what their inquiry. Depending on how developed your contact centre is, different checklists can be created for different inquiries or customer questions.

A Typical Contact Centre Checklists Includes:

What is the customer’s history with the institution (current account information, current services utilized)?
What services are they interested in learning more about (new services vs status on current services)?
What is the purpose of the call (schedule an appointment, report an issue, get more information)?
What is the nearest location (to make sure desired appointments can be scheduled at their home branch)?
Are there additional products or services that they are not aware of that they are a good fit for?

3. Sync with Advisors for Easy Scheduling

One of the main functions where contact centre agents can bring the most value is booking in-person appointments with advisors. Rather than coming into a branch to schedule a meeting and having to wait in person, most customers will use the contact centre to book a meeting with an advisor for the service they want to discuss.

While this is a basic function of the contact centre, it can end up being difficult and taking more time than it should. Contact centre agents have to look up the schedules of various advisors, then confirm the booking time with the advisor before they can go ahead and confirm with the customer. All this effort can lead to longer call times which mean that other customers calling into the contact centre experience longer hold times. Additionally, this method can lead to errors and miscommunication between the customer, contact centre agent and the advisor. These miscommunications can lead to missed appointments, frustration and potentially a loss of customer.

With a scheduling solution in place, contact centre agents are able to gain access to the advisors’ calendar so they can see what times are available to schedule meetings. From there, they can schedule a time in the calendar with both the customer and advisor getting notified of the meeting at the same time. Leading up to the meeting, both the advisor and the customer receive reminder notifications ensuring that the meeting takes place and both parties are prepared. Having this solution removes the risk of error and really speeds up the process, freeing up time for the agents to take more calls and reduce hold times.