Do's and Don’ts of a successful call center

Call centres or BPO outsourcing has come up in big way in India .Ranging from IT & Banking related services to travel and hospitality BPO's have made their presence felt in big way .They are not concentrated just in metros like Delhi ,Mumbai etc. but in two and three tier cities as well .Now call centre services can be outbound as well as in bound but the basic fundamentals to running them are quite similar .To run a successful call center service in India  we need to follow certain tried and tested formulas .Or Do's and Dot’s as one may call them .

A lot is changing every day and it’s a given that we need to adapt fast and quick to enhance the productivity and run the call center successfully.

Here are some general Do's and Don’ts for running a successful call centres especially in Indian scenarios:

A call centre is essentially all about human interactions .Which makes it a mandate to follow certain

Etiquettes to have that extra edge in your interactions .We all know that polite conversations, smiling on the call and not losing patience on call are the basic parameters for any call centre interaction.

Keep things transparent

When we say that things should be transparent it implies that customers should be updated on the exact status of their queries as nothing can be more frustrating than keeping things under wraps and having ambiguities in the resolution .Everyone appreciates honesty and exact status quo .Hiding facts and figures and here more relevantly TAT of resolutions can do more harm than good. Customers will always appreciate honesty .Case in point hospitality and travel BPO's are running on the total transparency and

Faith .Here the interactions can be numerous and involving trust and transparency in dealings at each step of the way.

Always smile on the call

Smiling on the call is one trait which will always get us ahead in the business .While we don't actually have face to face interactions on the phone .The tone and the way things are being voiced over makes a world of difference .While an agent can have as many as two hundred interactions in a day .For the customer it’s the unique interaction .The way an agent conducts the same can make or mar a successful relationship .The mantra is to smile your way through the call .Call centres in India need to focus their training programmes around this to get more out of each call made .This will do wonders for the overall holistic betterment for all parties involved .

Patience is the buzz word

Patience is something which is probably one of the most important ingredient for a successful call center agent .It’s a given that the call has to be handled with the show of extreme patience on the agents behalf.

It could be listening patiently when customer is venting out his frustration or being kept on hold for long to some extreme demands of the customers .Everything when tackled with patience becomes easy to conquer .With right amount of patience we can always steer the call in right direction .It’s a very important ingredient for a successful interaction be it outbound call or an inbound call .Patience is required in high doses in dealing with customers and we really should be up for doling it out in large quantities .All in all its one virtue which is the essential ingredient for running  a successful call centre .

Honour Commitments

Here action counts more than the words .We should be really judicious with the commitments and timelines.

Not honouring commitments can be hazardous in the long run with extreme results .It's not okay to just make commitments with no intention of honouring them on time .Show with the timely execution of the task that the customer counts .Outbound sales can be increased manifold once we are on the spree to honour our commitments .Word of mouth can go a long way in establishing and running a successful call centre in India. Take for instance an example of hospitality and travel industry .Here a mistake can cost us more than a fortune .In industries like travel and tourism, hospitality word of mouth can do wonders for the business. It can either cost us the trust of the customer and subsequent loss of business or can do wonders for the service in the long term.

Be innovative and intuitive

In customer service especially in outbound sales one needs to be innovative and intuitive on the call .We need to figure out new ways of selling or marketing our products. Old routine calls are not going to help here. Customers are flooded with options and we need to be the one to lead them on to some clear choices .Think of ways to grab the customers attention which can be the key to customers retention in the long run Be intuitive when a customer can spare some extra time on the call and go for the kill .Introduce and market the product well.

Don't be indifferent to customer needs

Never make the mistake of ignoring a customer’s honest request .They can come in all shape and sizes but don't be indifferent to them .Acknowledge the customers’ requirements, grievances and valid requests.

Indifference can kill the customer base as it invariably gives out the message that you don't care at all for the customer. Imagine someone in BPO hospitality doing that wherein the entire industry is

based on customer connect .Any small mistakes are akin to hara -kiri .Where the customers are God and every whim and fancy has to be catered to .The mantra is to treat customers problem as your own problem and strive to solve it to the best of your ability .And this what makes up a good customer service in BPO's .

Don't just ignore customer’s feedback

Customer service is all about consistent improvements .And the best way to do it is to work on the feedbacks shared by our customer’s .Good, bad or ugly whatever kinds they are we need to take them seriously and work on them. Engage customers to come up with feedback as a means to improve on our services .Regular feedbacks are the power source of material to work on and improve .It definitely pays off

In spades in the long run .BPO's in travel & tourism, hospitality need to be consistently updated on

feedbacks coming from left , right and centre .Outbound sales executives can just enquire about the merits of the products on offer .While in inbound BPO's it’s a mandate to close a call with feedback .These are the data's on which future business strategies can depend on .

Don't be afraid of customer's complaints

Never be afraid of customer complaints after all this shows that customer has some issue with the product offered .And was willing enough to share them with us .We need to grab this opportunity to work well on that and rectify the situation .BPO's in travel and hospitality need to deal with them day in day out and with a winning attitude .A win - win is always round the corner we just need to be smart enough to recognize the potential of a raised complaint .This is an opportunity in disguise so don't just let it go by acting all defensive and treating them as something to be scared of.