Customer service is an integral part of any business, just like finance, IT, and communications. No matter the size of your business or the industry you operate in, you will have customer service processes. The effectiveness of your service processes can dictate success or failure, especially for small businesses. You will always need VoIP systems for small business which will allow you to handle a few hundred or thousands of calls each week.
Setting up a small call center system
The thought of setting up a call center phone system may seem daunting but you can break it down into smaller chunks.
Set your objectives
Before you plan anything or purchase equipment, you need to set your goals. What do you hope to achieve by setting up a small call center? Your objectives can vary like:
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- If you want to reduce hold times for your customers you must look for mid-size business VoIP phone service
- Improve service levels
- You can always find a list of us as one of the best business VoIP system companies to market your services and products to customers
- Conduct outbound calling campaigns
- Make it easier for staff to provide quality customer support
Establish a budget and timeline
Setting up a call center – no matter how small – takes time and money. Based on your goals, you will decide how much resources to allocate to the call center phone solution. A contact center that handles both inbound and outbound calls will need a bigger budget than one that only handles inbound service requests. Similarly, the size of the contact center will determine the schedule for going online. Your timeline may vary from a few weeks to up to 6 months or more. The timeline is also affected by several factors including hiring and training new staff, purchasing a new VoIP phone system, getting approval from management, etc.
Get the equipment
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- You should always look for the best business VoIP phone service that can easily work in sync with your call center phone system.
- A CRM solution to help staff store customer data and document service interactions.
- Internal communication tools to help employees talk to each other and give support when needed.
- Performance monitoring tools to make sure productivity stays up and guarantee service levels for customers.
Use the right features
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- IVR
This is a very useful feature to have. Your IVR can handle basic queries such as account or sales order status and freeing up agents to handle more complex queries. It can play a welcome message and direct callers to the right employee without wasting their time
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- Skills-based call routing
There are multiple ways to distribute incoming calls among staff. One popular option is to group staff based on their skill level or familiarity with specific products. This way customers will always talk to a person with the right knowledge to solve their issues.
Such software can also help you monitor individual agents while they handle customer calls or listen to recorded calls. It allows you to provide constructive feedback and identify employees who could use some training or extra help. If you have a mix of new staff and experienced technicians, you can even assign mentor-mentee pairs. The mentor can help the newer staff acclimate to the team and help them learn quicker.
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