As most in this industry know, relevant customer service indicators to track and improve so that brands get the loyalty they deserve include First Call Resolution (FCR) and time to resolution (TTR). Improving these values can increase customer loyalty and increase revenue. But improvements must, of course, be cost-balanced. Contact center managers know that the best way to achieve this balance is to focus on efficiency.
Modify the scaling processes
As you know, there are two main types of escalation in customer service: functional and hierarchical. Functional escalation is when an agent realizes that he cannot answer a question and transfers it to another team with more resources or expertise for the subject in question. Hierarchical escalation occurs when an agent cannot answer a question and passes it on to someone above the food chain, such as a supervisor or manager.
Besides, it is important to have very clear escalation procedures so that agents know when and how to send a question to a specialist or manager. Finally, keep track of how escalation values change over time and decide how to structure, stimulate, and improve teams based on hard data.
Update your training regularly
Most customer support teams can integrate new team members and train them in the first days of work. Fewer teams have a powerful system for refreshing and updating training – but this is just as important. Updating training to include best practice practices such as those described in this post can increase their adoption and use throughout the organization.
There are two main ways to approach lifelong learning: individually or in groups. Individual training can look like performance reviews that include a competency check to analyze specific efficiency-related skills and look at FCR and TTR values for an individual team member. They can be very effective.
Optimize teams
As most customer service teams include a mix of internal and external workers, steps must be taken to optimize each team type. When it comes to internal customer service teams, a successful strategy is to hire people who are already passionate about the company’s product or service. For example, if end users are gamers, hiring people who already love and play games will automatically improve the quality of the services they provide. It also improves efficiency, as it takes much less time to prepare employees to understand customers’ unique products and services and needs. They just understand him.
Use technology wisely
Of course, technology is one of the powerful ways to improve customer service efficiency. One of the key concepts when it comes to the wise use of technology is the multichannel customer experience.
Lean on machine translation
Today we live the globalized reality of business, and customers expect service teams to speak their language – not figuratively, but literally. It’s almost impossible to grow a customer service team up (and down) to speak all the necessary languages at a time, which is why machine translation is so powerful.
While this tip might seem the most obvious, it is often the most difficult to put into practice. We get it–your company is your baby, so you want to have a direct hand in everything that goes on with it. While there is nothing wrong with prioritizing quality (it is what makes a business successful, after all), checking over every small detail yourself rather than delegating can waste everyone’s valuable time.
