Improving your team’s productivity and satisfying your customers all at once is a vital part of the call centre business.

While this is important, it can be challenging to achieve.

But how can you make this work?

We scraped the internet for the best tips on how to make your customer support agents become customer happiness ninjas. In this article, you’ll discover call centre best practices to improve your team’s productivity and delight customers.

Whether you run an in-house contact centre or outsource it to an agency, you’ll find this article useful.

Ready? Let’s jump right in.

3 Contact and call centre general customer experience best practices

You can have fantastic customer experiences. It’s not an easy goal, but it’s attainable.

Follow these best practices to stay on track and maximise customer satisfaction.

1. Use feedback surveys

Dhaval Sarvaiya is a co-founder of Intelivita. Dhaval helps businesses solve their digital problems with technology.

“You must know what your consumers think about your product,” Dhaval says.

Do your customers enjoy your product (or service)? Or do they find it annoying? How your customers view your product matters more than anything.

How do you find out? Track your CES and NPS metrics.

CES is short for Customer Effort Score. This metric tells whether customers find your product or service easy to use.

And NPS Is Net Promoter Score. It tells you whether customers will gladly recommend your product or service.

So, use these surveys.

When should you measure these metrics? Immediately after a conversation with your customers.

That’s how you know what’s working and what’s not. 

2. Concentrate more on your customers than on your competitor

“Customers today want you to be wherever they are, deliver whatever they want when they want it, and how they want it. You must be obliging if you want to win.” – Mark Bonchek, founder of Shift Thinking. 

Track your competitors. And, ask yourself, what makes them scale? There’s no harm in emulating good value.

But, as a call centre best practice, your customers should be your primary focus. 

Otherwise, you’ll drift from the right path. Focus on your customers, especially the loyal ones.

Discover what they enjoy about your product or service. Then, continue cooking delicious offers for them using those same recipes.

And to your unhappy customer? Serve them on the same menu.

This is an excellent customer service practice for call centres.

3. Find solutions to recurring Issues

“The fastest approach to identifying recurring customer concerns is gathering and analysing customer feedback.” – Dhaval Sarvaiya, Co-founder of Intelivita.

Get information from your feedback surveys. And in those surveys, look out for recurring issues.

When a negative experience repeats consistently, it becomes a trend. Avoid this.

Is there a trending complaint about your customer service? Act at once.

Then train your staff. They must be at their best. Calibrate your team for success.

How? Read on. Let’s find out.

3 Call centre calibration best practices

Call centre calibration involves measuring the quality of agents’ conversations with customers.

Who calibrates a call centre team? Managers, supervisors, and Quality Assurance (QA) groups. They do this to track performance and boost customer satisfaction.

Below are 3 call centre calibration best practices to focus on.

1. Make calibration sessions regular

“Hold calibration sessions in the early stages of your Quality Assurance program. Calibration should also be an ongoing process.” – The Playvox Team.

Call centre calibration is a session conducted to check agent productivity.

It’s conducted for these specific purposes:

• To measure, analyse, and improve call agents’ interactions with customers.
• To clarify customer satisfaction standards for excellence early.

Hold these sessions as often as possible. How often? Monthly or quarterly.

When conducted often, call centre calibration helps to boost improvement.

2. Align performance rates with actual goals

“This call centre best practice helps your organisation to rate performance. Identify those that are below expectations, meeting expectations, and exceeding expectations.” 

“It also creates a balance between ‘hard to please’ and ‘liberal’ managers regarding ratings,” said Hermantt Taneja, founder practitioner at Tattva Consulting.

Align your calibration rates with your goals. It ensures everyone is on track.

Also, ensure your goals are realistic. Realistic goals eliminate personal bias. Because when there’s clarity, the path becomes more straightforward.

3. Be collaborative and positive

“Calibration often plays out as a top-down process. That’s where senior management imposes their standards and opinions on the rest of the team.” 

“Make your calibration sessions inclusive and open. You’re more likely to develop fairer resolutions and clearer understanding.” – Tom Palmer, Head of Digital Marketing at EvaluAgent.

During calibration sessions, avoid focusing on the negatives.

These sessions aren’t meant for chastening. Instead, they’re meant to build up agents. So, plan collaborative calibration sessions.

How?

• Send out pre-session forms and call recordings using participants’ primary channels, like emails.
• Avoid focusing on negative customer interactions.
• Dwell on what makes up successful customer interactions. Then, focus on their successful interactions with your agents.

Do these to foster a more positive and interactive environment. Also, give room for questions. Let your agents feel free to ask for advice.

It opens up your agents’ hearts to learn. Then, you can make necessary corrections and encourage them.

Those are the best call centre quality monitoring best practices.

Now, let’s talk about call centre reporting best practices.

3 Call centre reporting best practices

Below are 3 best practices to improve your call centre reporting.

1. Secure your data

“To prevent data loss, build a layered defence strategy. Actively look for questionable activity and insider threats. Then, plan an effective response strategy.” – Ryan Brooks, Product Evangelist at Netwrix Corporation.

So follow these quick tips:

• Only permit sensitive data to the appropriate persons.
• Minimise editing rights. It helps you keep data reports intact.
• Encrypt all sensitive data.
• Install cloud technology in your call centre software. It enhances your data security.
• And, always train your staff on data security measures.

2. Personalise your dashboards

“In today’s world, a person should glance once and get the essence of the data from their perspective. Dashboards show you exactly what’s happening in business” — Rajesh Shanmugam, Founder at iBridge360.

Dashboards are visual reporting tools. They display analytics and key metric performances.

To enhance productivity, use role-based dashboards. Tweak your design any time. And personalise your agents’ dashboards, too.

Ensure to include real-time performance analysis.

This lets agents know when it’s time to rest and when it’s time to push toward achieving a specific goal. It also helps you respond to queues in real time.

Assigning inbound calls and messages to the correct department becomes easier.

Your bounce and churn rates will drop, and First-Call Resolution rates (FCR) will skyrocket.

This is precisely what your call centre needs.

3. Benchmark your key metrics

“You can look outward to benchmark against your competitors or other industries. Or you can take a more reflective approach. You can set a baseline for future iterations of the same experience.” – AnswerLab Research.

You must benchmark your call centre metrics because It improves performance.

How? Benchmarking is like a game of Jenga.

You start by building a tower of performance metrics. And then, you try to see how high you can stack them.

The higher you stack them, the better your performance.

Benchmarking helps you improve as you:

• Set a baseline
• Set goals, and
• Measuring progress.

You do this using KPIs.

It’ll help you close performance gaps as you focus more on areas that need improvement.

3 Call centre escalation best practices

“If you don’t look after your customer, your competitor will.” – Bob Hooey, President and Creative Analyst at Ideas At Work.

Your customers want to get help as fast as they need it.

And when they can’t, they’ll react. They’ll either unsubscribe or never use your product or service again.

That’s not good for your market. So, resolve cases like this.

Follow these tips and best practices for handling customer escalation.

1. Avoid escalations

“First things first: don’t let customer queries escalate. You must resolve it at a lower degree of intensity before even the escalation happens.” – Amitha Shet, at CustomerSuccessBox.

That’s rule number 1. It’s better to prevent than resolve issues.

To do this, focus on improving first contact resolution rates. This will prevent escalations. And if it gets to that point? Know that your relationship with that customer is hanging by a thread.

At that stage, here’s what to do.

2. Listen, then learn

“Active listening is staying in the moment, listening only to the caller. And listening in an emotionally intelligent way.” 

“By actively listening to the customer, agents can better understand their concerns and find a solution that meets their needs” – Joel Makhluf, Head of Marketing, Cognito Corp.

Active listening is a vital customer service skill. It’s critical to contact resolutions.

So, you’re at the point where matters have escalated. That’s when your self-control must be at its peak. It’s an opportunity to deepen your relationship with that client. You can turn an escalation into a beautiful experience.

So, at that point, stop and listen.

Let your customer vent. Then, repeat what you’re learning. And confirm that from the customer. Ask follow-up questions. Like, “If I understand what you’re saying, …?”.

That’s how they know you were listening. And at that stage, it matters a lot to them.

Next.

3. Show empathy

“Active listening and empathy are the essential de-escalation techniques practised by service reps.” – Caroline Forsey, Principal Marketing Manager at Hubspot.

You’ve listened, and you’ve learned the customer’s valid concern.

Now, it’s time to show empathy.

Empathy here means understanding your customer’s feelings about your product or service. Wear their shoes to understand them better.

Drop your point of view about the matter. Feel your customer’s concern. Then, explain clearly how you can help them resolve that issue.

Note: not all customers are patient. So, you must decide the best solution for them at that moment.

How bad can it get? A refund will do. If it’s the best option at that moment, calmly suggest it. Then, activate the refund.

However, ensure it’s in your company’s interest.

3 Call centre organisational best practices

Without the right strategies, your call centre will crumble. You must build fluid and productive organisations and departments.

How can you achieve this? Follow these expert tips.

1. Hire the best staff and train them

“Hire the right person – one who respects customers and co-workers. If not, you might tell potential customers to deal with your competition. And that’s exactly what they’ll do.” – Morris Bixby Group.

Your business is only as excellent as your employees. Your business only grows when your customers are happy.

And what can make them happy? Your customer service can make them happy. So, hire the best staff for each department and train them.

That’s a vital call centre organisational structure best practice. Fantastic customer service = more revenue. That’s because loyal customers are your best bait.

So, from the start, hire the best. Don’t wait till later.

2. Establish incentives and rewards

“Incentive programs can help increase motivation. Attaching a specific, attainable incentive boosts morale. It’s an excellent way to restore team motivation” – Indeed Editorial Team.

Everyone loves a good treat. Recognition for hard work motivates.

So, reward your call centre employees.

However, note this: rewards shouldn’t be an afterthought. They must be pre-planned.

Establish an employee incentive program. Set rewards and incentives at the beginning of any task, project, or period.

Next, clarify the requirements for these rewards. Let them know what to do to attract those rewards.

You’ll soon see the positive effect this call centre best practice will have on the customer experience.

3. Track the right call centre metrics

“Setting a target for yourself and measuring it with appropriate KPIs can help you stay on track and achieve it. Your success should contribute to company goals. Use KPIs to track your target goal and take the appropriate steps to get there.” – Indeed Editorial Team.

Examining irrelevant data delays progress. Focus only on vital call centre metrics and KPIs.

Here are 5 of them:

• CSAT: Customer Satisfaction Scores to measure the percentage of satisfied customers.
• CES: Customer Effort Score. This helps to ensure that customers have an easy time requesting and getting help.
• FCR: First Contact Resolutions. This helps to ensure quick resolution of complaints right on the first contact.
• ASA: Average Speed of Answer measures quick response to calls and messages.
• Churn rates: to reduce the number of abandoned conversations by your customers.

Of course, all other metrics are important too. But all other metrics link to these five.

So, focus on these. It’s a best practice for enhanced customer experience management.

4 Call centre security best practices

Trust, when lost, takes ages to rebuild. And that’s if your business is still running after a nasty incident.

Protect against hackers and online scavengers. To do this, follow these practical tips.

1. Think like a hacker

“Hackers succeed by finding the security gaps and vulnerabilities you missed. That’s true of malicious attackers. But it’s also true of their equal on your side: a certified ethical hacker.” – Mike Elgan, Tech Journalist.

Hire a certified ethical hacker. An ethical hacker will show you all your loopholes. They’ll also provide adequate solutions.

With a qualified ethical hacker, you’ll sleep better at night.

2. Migrate to secure cloud software

“Migrating to the cloud is important. It’s essential for protecting your data from cyberattacks. But it’s also crucial to take steps to secure your cloud during and after migration” – Data Science Central.

Cloud-based systems will help you reduce churn rates. That’s because you can accommodate more remote call agents on the cloud.

Cloud-based systems are generally the most difficult to penetrate. They have higher security measures in place to regulate access. However, you must choose secure cloud software. Then, you must always back up all your data on the cloud, not on-site.

This protects against physical accidents or cyber-attacks.

3. Protect your router

“Most home Wi-Fi routers have critical security flaws, and some are so vulnerable to attacks that they should be thrown out” – Tom’s Guide.

This applies to both on-site and remote call centre employees and staff.

Also, protect your passwords. Ensure they’re solid and unique. Are you accessing company portals from home?

Then, turn off unnecessary features like Remote Management or web access from WAN. This denies external access to your router’s control panel.

It protects your work as well as customer data.

4. Encrypt your data

“Implement a strong, rigid encryption set up on all computers to lock information immediately it enters the CRM or other systems” – Corey Kotlarz, Founder at Outsource Consultants.

When customers feel safe, they’ll trust your business.

Now, let’s talk about your remote workers.

Remote work-from-home call centre best practices

You can optimise remote team performance and boost quality, consistency, and performance.

Follow these 3 call centre best practices for staff who work from home.

1. Collaborate with your teams

“Virtual environments are unforgiving. Particularly if leaders don’t communicate well, are not good at delegating, are not inclined to give feedback, and are not skilful at adjusting their leadership style to the remote work world” – Scorebuddy.

Effective communication is vital for relationship growth. The same applies to your remote teams.

It can get challenging to control and manage them from afar. But if you get it right, you’ll enjoy the benefits.

Use technology and social media. Get in touch with team members. That’s how you track and follow up on their progress.

Let team members know you care about their social lives as much as their professional lives. This way, they’ll be more open to improvement.

2. Conduct Quality Assurance sessions

“Provide opportunities for remote social interaction. Structure ways for employees to interact socially, both for work and for non-work purposes” – Havard Business Review

The quality monitoring call centre best practice boosts agent productivity.

Because team members can share their thoughts without feeling disheartened.

So, don’t neglect this part. Avoid situations that kill team morale. Instead, boost their confidence.

And, in return, you’ll enjoy better customer experiences.

3. Stick to a schedule

“Creating this routine – like creating a home office area – will cue your brain that it’s time to work or relax. It also helps your family know when they can expect you to be available.” – Microsoft 365 Team.

We all know how time-racking remote work can be, especially when a deadline is at hand. You could end up working all night. Ultimately, your personal life suffers, and your family feels isolated. It’s easy to get into this rut.

That’s why you must follow your schedule. This scheduling best practice will make you a more productive call centre agent.

Get more productive during your scheduled working hours. Then rest, refresh, and focus on your family life and personal development.

It’ll help you stay motivated and reduce the fatigue of working overtime.

Plus, it’ll boost your happiness levels, which is essential if you want to stay productive.

Remember, staying positive will give you more quality conversations with your customers.

improve team satisfaction with TelebuHub

These call centre best practices will boost your customer service. But if you want the best efficiency for your contact centre, use TelebuHub.

TelebuHub is a cloud-based call centre system that’s fast, secure, scalable, flexible, and easy to use.

Drive team satisfaction and boost your revenue with TelebuHub by signing up for free or requesting a demo.