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Important Things You Need to Know About Inbound Call Centers
A call center is a centralized department to which phone calls from current and potential customers are directed. Depending on the nature of business, customer service teams will offer both inbound and outbound calling options from their call centers, and are located either within a company or outsourced to another company that specializes in handling such calls.
Call centers, are referred to as “contact centers” if the company has expanded its communication methods to include other platforms for an omnichannel customer experience. Once it goes beyond the usual phone calls, they are called contact centers, because they cover a more comprehensive range of channels.
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1: What is an Inbound call center?
An Inbound call center (a.k.a. customer support center) focuses on receiving and acknowledging incoming calls from customers. It’s called inbound calling because customers/prospects initiate a contact with your business. This type of support is often referred to as reactive support because you are unaware of the customers’/prospects’ needs until you talk to them.
The inbound calls are typically fielded by the organization's call center or help desk, who is equipped with the technology to receive, segment and route incoming calls to the appropriate team or department. Responding to inbound calls is a primary function of most customer service teams and the goal is to improve the customer experience, ensure caller satisfaction, and increase brand loyalty in the process.
An inbound call center can exist for different purposes. But whatever the purpose, the importance of having a good inbound calling strategy is paramount. It can affect anything from how quickly your team can pick up the phone, to how quickly they can resolve your customers actual problems.
Courtesy: ringcentral.com
Inbound call centers are present across many industries. Depending on the industry, call systems can screen incoming calls and analyze the customer's request and are typically used for customer service, tech support, appointment scheduling, inquiry management, order and payment processing, inbound sales, office receptions, complaint hotline and/or any business function that attracts inbound calling. They are crucial in travel and hospitality, healthcare, retail and eCommerce.
2: How to set up an inbound call center?
How an inbound call center is set up depends on whether it is on-premise or virtual. An on-premise inbound call center can be set up using a traditional PBX/premise-based phone system or a modern cloud-based call center software. Traditional PBX requires capital investment, time and resources to set up telephony infrastructure, hard phones, and lots of cables.
On the other hand, Cloud-based call center software only requires an internet connection, laptops, and an office space — because the call center is still on-premise. You can set up a virtual call center with a software-based solution because a virtual inbound call center is location-agnostic and agents can work from anywhere. It should also be noted that the inbound calls might not only constitute those coming via telephones, but also include inquiries via live chat, email, and even social media.
Some of the features necessary for an inbound call center software are:
1) Local and toll-free phone numbers
2) IVR system
3) Wait queues
4) Fallback options
5) Live dashboard
3: To Outsource or not to?
An inbound call center can be set up in-house or outsourced to a call center service provider. It can be an on-premise call center where all the call center agents sit in the same location and work, or it can be a virtual call center where agents work remotely from different geographies.
Keeping your call center in-house gives you better quality control because the team is fully integrated into your company. An added benefit of having an integrated call center is you’re that much closer to the people who pay your bills: the customers. The value of their feedback—both positive and negative—cannot be overstated.
Of course, if you do decide to outsource (also called business process outsourcing, or BPO), the biggest benefit of that is cash savings. Outsourcing also frees you up from having to accommodate changes in call volume and staffing.
Advantages of having an outsourced inbound call center:
You’re able to rely upon a dedicated team trained in resolving issues, answering questions, and relaying information efficiently and pleasantly
In addition to solving problems and answering questions, call center reps can also stand-in as pseudo sales reps by upselling existing customers
They might be able to dissuade customers from cancelling your services or returning your product
You can handle more volume more efficiently, which is particularly important during seasonal upticks or new product/service launches
Your business would be available all hours of the day and night, since you can hire agents in different time zones
Outsourcing assists in facing many challenges when it comes to consumer preferences and growing demand. Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) providers offer several benefits such as cost efficiency, around-the-clock customer service, and instant access to expertise. Given this reality, the role of BPO providers in empowering organizational efficiency can’t be understated.
However, even as outsourcing becomes more critical, so do the associated risk factors. Because the cost-benefit of outsourcing is contingent on two factors:
BPO partners perform their tasks based on a mutually-agreed standard
BPO partners follow a predictable and stable workflow at established costs
As long as both these assumptions hold true in practice – everything’s fine. However, when partners deviate on any of these variables, suddenly there’s trouble. Falling standards and unstable operations can lead to value leakage across the enterprise. Companies will start noticing fall in revenue, a decline in customer service or generally inefficient operations. The result? Losses in both their short and long-term financial performance.
So, if your business relies on regular and recurring customer interactions, your business would benefit from an in-house call center. Who knows your business and its customers better than you? When you use a 3rd party vendor, you are giving them free reign to prop up your business or damage its reputation through false promises or unrealistic expectations. Customers want to deal with businesses that care about them. They don’t want to do business with people they don’t trust.
4: Tracking is everything
If you are unsure or have no idea at all whether your customers are satisfied with the service you’re providing, then it’s about time you set up some kind of tracking method to help you alleviate any doubts. Some of the call center metrics you should be tracking include:
Call abandonment rate: percentage of callers who hang up before they speak to someone
Time on hold/in queue: average time a caller waits before speaking to someone
Time to resolution: average time it takes for you to resolve an issue
First-call resolution: percentage of calls that are resolved after the first interaction
Customer satisfaction: NPS is a great way to measure this
5: Final thoughts
Whether you opt for 3rd party BPO or in-house customer support, customer service in 2022 is more than a traditional call center agent asking scripted questions before coming to a resolution.
Today, it’s a way to increase sales and improve client retention. Moreover, the way you respond to a customer or prospect who’s reaching out to you could make or break their relationship with your company/brand.
Only by establishing a solid inbound calling strategy can you be sure that your customers and prospects are properly taken care of. This will also allow you to focus your attention and energy on growing your business and acquiring new customers.
For any queries related to UPDATE's Inbound Calling and Support, or to avail our services, feel free to reach out to us.
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