The contact center has become a vital organ for many organizations. Having control over customer experience means that what happens there impacts everything—reviews, sales, revenue, and even the very ability of the company to compete!
But not every contact center is up to the task.
Did you know that between 40% and 50% of customers say they stopped doing business with a company because of poor customer service? And that more than 25% say their biggest frustration was the lack of effectiveness from the customer service representatives that was helping them?
Gut check time. You need to ask yourself just how good your business process outsourcing (BPO) and/or contact center really is. Here are five red flags that might mean it’s time to break up with your customer service contact center.
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5 signs that it’s time to break up with your customer service contact center
Everything you wanted to know—but were afraid to ask—about how to end call center contracts, business process outsourcing service level agreements, breaches of contract, terminations, and more.
1. You don’t hear from them on a consistent basis
Whether this is because of the time difference, different expectations about how much communication is enough, or any other issue, the contact center and/or call center is the line of communication between you and your customers. It needs to be accessible and clear when you need it to be.
2. There are too many escalations of calls and emails
There are a lot of reasons for call escalation. One is that the contact center doesn’t empower employees to take care of issues when they come in. That might mean not allowing them to give refunds, change orders, or solve other customer problems. Another is simply poor training of agents who don’t have the knowledge—or the knowledge repositories (your company’s FAQs, etc.)—to solve problems.
In either case, it means more work for your team.
But there are more insidious reasons. A study in Harvard Business Review showed that some companies force escalations for things such as cash refunds because of the increased level of hassle for the customer, resulting in a reduced number of cash refunds being sought. That’s good for short-term cash outlays but bad for customer relationships. Even worse, the study pointed out an institutional bias against women and Black and Latinx people led to individuals in these groups needing to escalate unresolved issues. Calls, chats, and emails must escalate sometimes, but if it’s too much, it’s bad for business.
3. Response times don’t match expectations
When you signed a contract/service-level agreement with your outsource provider, you probably had specific metrics for response times. Are they being met? This is key to your customer success. Nearly 40% of customers said they would wait one hour or less after not getting a response from one channel before trying another. Another 40% said they’d wait one day.
People’s attitude toward response times seems to be connected to the channel they’re using. People don’t seem to mind waiting half a day for responses to email and online forms, but they expect an answer to a social media query within two hours and only a few seconds for chat and messaging.
4. Language barriers present problems
This is a common problem with offshore customer service outsourcing. Customers can’t make themselves understood and must adapt to the agent rather than the agent adapting to the customer. In certain industries, this is clearly unacceptable, such as for niche/specialty retailers, companies that promote their domestic workforces, or if companies’ products are made in the U.S.
5. Not keeping up with technology
Your call center needs to be addressing the growth of omnichannel, using new technologies that map the customer journey, and helping its agents connect with your customers wherever they are. If it’s not, your business will suffer.
Do any of these aspects sound familiar? If so, it might be time to start thinking about more efficient, modern alternatives to traditional outsources.
A solution such as Simplr offers 24/7, U.S.-based human support powered by cutting-edge artificial intelligence and machine learning at less than half the price of an in-house solution.
Interested in learning more about how Simplr is doing it better? Check out simplr.ai/engagenow-suite.
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