A major task of the call center experts in a BPO is to predict the call volume according to the existing trends. There is a number of software that can help one calculate the statistics to make a judicious assumption. However, sometimes, the experts leave out certain aspects of the telemarketing cycle and that is where they make errors in predicting the right call volume. For example, when there are holidays or special cases when the consumers in general are expected to be busy in other matters, the call volume will dip. Similarly, when the products/services that the telemarketing services are selling have something to do with the event of the day, the call volume will shoot up. The BPO service experts have to modulate that.
It’s important to check the call volume at the inbound call center desk because the BPO managers will schedule shifts accordingly. Too many agents in the answering service team would mean that many of them will not have many calls to receive. So, they have to sit idle and that is taxing on the resources of the BPO service unit. In the same vein, too less number of agents would mean that there is too much of pressure on the phone answering agents. That would increase the hold time and the callers will not be able to have the kind of customer care experience that they are looking for. We are very particular about it.
Fusion BPO Services has always taken a keen interest in the study of BPO service trends. We keep a tab on the business process outsourcing industry in a way that we do not miss out on anything that is happening in the sector. We have been following this emerging trend of call center units tying up with other call centers or business firms to present a united front. The aim is clear. We want to face the challenges that we are headed towards in the near future. The recession has taught us some valuable lessons in business. More than anything, it has taught us not to take anything for granted. BPO service units often tie up so that they can complement in each other in terms of resources and also in terms of market. When you join hands, you can fuse your telemarketing clients as well.
We have not shied away from having business partnerships and acquisitions as well. We have acquired the Canadian financial firm, Centennial Marketing Group. We hope to extend our call center services to the financial sector in Canada and other territories through this tie-up. Diversification into telemarketing services that we have not done in the past is something that always poses a pleasant challenge. We do not want to be limited to certain aspects of the BPO sector only. The studies of respected firms like Gartner tell us that we must adapt and build ourselves to combat the threat of being obliterated through sheer stagnation.
The answering service team at Fusion BPO Services is trying out something new and different. We are hoping to fuse the interactive voice response system with the manual phone answering system that we have. This is being done to make the inbound call center experience a better one for the callers. Our aim is to incorporate the best of both the worlds in our call center services. While the IVR is convenient for customers looking for specifically something in particular, the manual BPO service of answering calls helps the customers in explaining what they didn’t understand or clarifying some of the features and offers that they are not getting clearly.
In fusing the two, we want to cut down on the aspect of passing the buck in answering service. We want the customers to use the recorded phone answering service when they want to get to the information quickly. A call center agent will be following the caller’s inputs. The agent will help the caller get to what they are looking for without going live. That way the caller gets to their desired information without having to speak to anyone at the inbound call center team. If they wish to do so, they can avail that option at any time during the call.
Feedback is important for anyone who’s performing some task or activity. The same goes for the call center units. There are BPO experts who say that monitoring the answering service agents and listening in on their calls can be unnerving for the agents. However, this is just a shallow way to look at the aspect of monitoring. Phone answering agents can be monitored without making them feel the heat. The way to do that is constructive criticism. If you are holding forth a session to evaluate how your inbound call center team is performing, make sure that you don’t look for scapegoats. Make them feel part of a discussion that is being conducted for the benefit of everyone.
Fusion BPO Services feels that there is a lot of strength in the aspect of positive feedback. We have noted that call center agents like to be praised in the presence of their peers, much as they hate being pulled up for censure. Team leaders for answering service agents can pick up an individual agent’s faults and generalize them to coach the entire team. That way everyone learns and no one feels the pinch. Such ways of performance evaluation will go a long way in stringing together a team that sticks and works together.
