Customers in the digital age of today are aware of their value. They want companies to provide them with greater customer service in addition to better goods and services. Brands have also developed improved customer service strategies in order to live up to consumer expectations.
Over the past two years, call centers have undergone a thorough digital transformation, which is one way that they have succeeded as brands.
Due to the cloud’s flexibility, this change resulted in the creation of virtual call centers, which enable call centers to take and answer customer calls while on the go and to be available around-the-clock.
Let’s delve more into the subtleties of virtual call centers in the parts that follow, where we’ll discuss:
- What they are;
- How they operate;
- How switching to one will help your business; and so on How to launch an online call center
Virtual call centers: What are they?
A call center that operates online is known as a virtual call center. It may be operated without the need for call center agents to be in one place at a time and is not restricted by any hardware or technology.
To place and receive calls, they make use of VoIP technology.
These days, in order to open or set up a call center, you need:
- An internet connection
- Unique software
- Trained sales representatives using the program
The qualities listed above allow a business to be:
Better suited to manage a sizable amount of client call traffic while improving the customer experience, mobile, remotely managed
Pro Tip: By accelerating the technology used to create client touchpoints, virtual call centers are a terrific way for businesses to become more responsive to the digital transition.
Virtual Call Center Software: What Is It?
A complete online call center management platform is referred to as virtual call center software.
It provides a company with the following operational features:
• Permitting Employees to Work from Home Since the epidemic, having the flexibility to run your business from anywhere has become essential.
• Tracking Online Employee Objectives with Automated Tasking and Scheduling
Task logs and timesheets for virtual call center software are automatically generated based on your employees’ log-in and log-off times. You can monitor the actual work that is completed with the aid of this tool.
• Optimizing Call Routing for Customers to Cut Down on Wait Times
Merely 26% of your callers are prepared to wait more than five minutes, per an Invoca research. This means that in order to help you achieve fast response times, you must handle call volumes wisely. This is where virtual call centers come in.
• Democratizing and Centralizing Customer Data to Improve Virtual Call Center Agent Coordination
According to the same Invoca survey cited above, 53% of customers had to repeat the same information to multiple call center workers in order to get their inquiry handled, demonstrating how crucial intra-organizational coordination is!
The consumer experience that your business is working so hard to create is harmed by this lack of coordination.
• Improving Client Experience
A virtual call center’s software gathers and aggregates customer satisfaction data so that businesses may make informed decisions.
56% of the responding organizations reported that this procedure helped them better determine where to focus their efforts, according to a Treasure data report.
Why Take a Virtual Course?
Take this figure, which Microsoft found in one of their customer satisfaction surveys: The majority of consumers—58%—agree that brand loyalty is primarily fueled by customer satisfaction.
The following are additional justifications for using virtual call center software, albeit this one should be sufficient on its own:
• The number of calls that were difficult to handle rose by 50% both during and after the pandemic.
• One significant barrier that restricted the level of service a call representative could offer a customer was the absence of technology. As a result, the number of calls that escalated was up 68%.
• The issue of outmoded technology, manual routing, and dispersed labor caused a sharp rise in wait times (34%)
These figures served as a warning. The solution is to free a contact center from its physical confines and relocate it to the cloud, where it can be accessed from any location and used to service clients from anywhere.
Here are some more details on how a virtual call center can ease the burden on your company:
Removes Geographical Restrictions
A company can hire salespeople from all over the world and have them work from home with the help of a virtual call center.
For example, you might be based in New York and employ a full-time sales representative from India.
Additionally, it gives your company the ability to schedule international call agent schedules so that your customer support center operates around the clock without having any agents work the graveyard shift.
Minimal Investment in Capital
Virtual call center software and a reliable internet connection that is accessible to all sales and marketing staff members are all that are required to launch a virtual call center, as opposed to traditional, hardwired contact centers.
It’s an extremely cost-effective option due to the low expenses required.
It also increases your return on investment. You would also save money on the following expenses: real estate; hardware; software; labor; and an IT team for upkeep.
• Consistent training for your agents and staff
Flexibility and Mobility
According to a PwC analysis, what constitutes a loyal customer has evolved. Only one negative encounter was necessary for 32% of devoted consumers to switch brands to a rival.
It’s critical to make sure call center personnel are as content and productive as possible, given the high rates of staff and customer attrition.
This is due to the fact that increased call agent productivity also increases the caliber of the client experience!
How Do Call Centers Online Operate?
Because they are decentralized, virtual outbound call centers operate differently from other call centers. Below, we’ll examine this in more detail.
Voice over Internet Protocol, or VoIP, is the method of call making and receiving used by virtual call centers. With the help of this feature, call centers can also operate remotely.
• An analog speech signal from a phone call is received by a VoIP phone system, which then transforms it into a digital signal that can be compressed and transferred over an internet connection (like broadband). After being received, these digital signals can be transformed into voice, which is how a phone call is made.
• Data from phone calls can be safely stored in cloud spaces because they are transmitted as digital signals. The dashboard of the virtual call center software makes it simple to access.
Now, before opening a call center, you need think about the following.
Security and Network Requirements
Depending on the kind of virtual call center you operate, network connectivity will be needed. To ensure that your consumers have a secure experience, you should also take into account the security protocols needed for the connection.
Hardware and equipment requirements
Your staff would need the following hardware, as well as some hardware knowledge, in order to operate the virtual call center software:
• A software bundle;
• A microphone;
• High-quality headphones, etc.
Tools & Software for Online Call Centers
Equipping staff with the appropriate tools is just as important as providing them with the best virtual call center software.
Overseeing Teams and Agents
Employees at virtual call centers need to be divided into various groups in order to guarantee higher efficiency.
One possible approach could be to divide customer care representatives into four groups and assign a proficient manager to each group. Afterwards, these managers would:
• Monitor their teams’ performance
• As needed, carry out our training programs, etc.
The Virtual Call Center Software’s Most Alluring Benefits
As demonstrated below, virtual call center solutions give a company access to a variety of features that enhance call center operations overall:
Lowering of Costs
Because virtual call centers are entirely cloud-based, you can’t use a portion of your budget for things like real estate (physical offices and the rent that goes along with them), hardware, maintenance and support teams, etc.
This portion of your budget as a business owner might be used for other purposes, like:
• Employee training programs or modules;
• Improved hiring procedures;
• Software upgrades, etc.
Optimizing the Use of Office Space
With cloud-based call center software, all of your customer support representatives may operate remotely from any location, which eliminates issues related to space and other constraints.
Always available online
No matter the hour, unhappy customers are not pleased when they are forced to wait. This is where virtual call centers come into play, since they may assist these clients by using capabilities like:
• Automated answers
• Enhanced features of chatbots, etc.
The aforementioned attributes are essential in enabling call centers to operate around the clock.
Workplace Adaptability
Because online or virtual call centers are flexible, your staff members have more work-life balance, which increases their output and job happiness.
Call Observation
When their call agents operate remotely, managers don’t have to worry about missing anything because they will always be in the loop. Managers can keep an eye on each and every call an agent takes thanks to features in virtual call center software.
Using this capability, managers can:
• Improve staff training based on their assessment of the recordings
• Offer promotions to worthy staff members, etc.
Virtual Call Center Drawbacks
Virtual call centers have several disadvantages despite all of its benefits, which should be taken into account before making a software investment. These disadvantages include:
• Employees must receive training in order for them to comprehend every facet of using the program. They may need to spend some time getting fully acquainted with the software before proceeding.
• Because the IT staff would be located remotely, using their services for device repair or reconfiguration could become difficult.
Due to factors including lack of physical touch, workers who work remotely may be dispersed and unfamiliar with one another, which can lead to issues with teamwork.
