With decreasing storage costs, businesses are now presented for the first time with the opportunity to record all calls handled by their call centers. Instead of having access to only selected samples of calls, managers are now able to analyze and assess their employees based on a complete data set. Here’s why businesses that operate call centers should be recording all calls.
When businesses think of recording call center calls, the benefit that jumps immediately to mind is the ability to determine the effectiveness of the call center agent. This makes a good deal of sense. With a log of calls, managers make important improvements to the call center itself. Keep in mind, though, that recording calls can be helpful for more than just identifying gruff or unhelpful call agents. Think of the positives: for one, the training of agents will be helped immeasurably by the ability to show employees real-life examples of teachable moments.
Additionally, you very well may employ agents who are better suited–whether by temperment or experience–to handle sales. This skill-set is very different than the one required to deftly manage complaints or questions. By recording calls, you’ll be better able to determine the areas in which each of your agents excels. With call routing technologies, you can direct specific calls to specific people. Once you know your agents’ strengths you can better put them in positions to succeed by sending calls their way that they are best suited to handle.
As important as improving the quality of your call center is, there is another crucial–yet often overlooked–lesson that can be learned by recording your calls. The key here lies in evaluating not the agents who handle the incoming calls but rather the calls themselves. By focusing on the callers you can determine the quality of your sales leads. Do certain advertisements lead to more motivated or informed sales leads? Here’s how you can tell: first, use unique numbers in your advertisements to track the effectiveness of your marketing. Then you can, of course, measure the effectiveness of the calls by seeing the follow-through percentage of callers who dial that specific number. But you need to record incoming calls to gain a perspective of the quality of the calls beyond the statistics. What questions do callers spurred on by specific ads most often ask? What needs clarifying? Now, instead of knowing in a binary sense of whether an advertisement worked or not, you can go back and improve the ads themselves to address the concerns that callers themselves tell you that they have.
When you’re looking for software vendors to help meet your call center needs, make sure to find one that allows you to record all calls that you handle. You’ll emerge with a better call center and with better marketing.