The Power of Excellent Contact Center Customer Service

Success in contact centers is largely based on how customers are treated – how quickly they get their questions answered and their problems solved. Luckily, TCN understands this. For 25+ years, TCN has been known for its excellent customer service. We pride ourselves on providing our carefully selected staff with extensive training so you walk away with a positive experience every time. This matters because if your contact center software vendor doesn’t provide exceptional customer service to you, then you can’t provide it to your customers.

TCN’s blend of powerful solutions, ability to make adhering to best practices simple and focus on creating positive human interactions empowers your contact center’s success. But that’s not all that goes into providing excellent contact center customer service. Here are some ways to do just that.

Best practices for customer interaction

The most common way to guarantee success in customer service is to employ simple strategies that focus on better agent behavior and management. Here, we’ve included a few key strategies to keep in mind, as well as a list of dos and don’ts for bolstering your company’s customer service and what can improve the experience for both customers and agents. 

1. Management and strategy best practices

• Focus on first-call resolution and prioritize training agents to solve issues quickly. This is critical for efficiency and customer satisfaction.
• Utilize call recording and data monitoring (available on TCN’s platform) to provide targeted, constructive feedback to agents.
• Manage agent well-being by recognizing the stressful nature of the job; use rotation, breaks and recognition programs to reduce agent burnout.

2. Agent dos and don’ts

• Do:
  • Be a good listener by allowing the customer to fully explain the issue before speaking.
  • Show sympathy by using phrases that show understanding, even if the customer is frustrated.
  • Speak clearly and concisely, avoiding jargon by using simple, direct language.
  • Always end the call by asking the customer if their issue is resolved.
• Don’t:
  • Never interrupt. This is the most common mistake and can come off as disrespectful.
  • Don’t make promises you can’t keep because this sets unrealistic expectations for resolution time or follow-up.
  • Avoid transferring without context and explain the situation to a manager or agent.

Strategic solutions for inbound excellence

Customer service isn’t just about sounding pleasant on the phone and getting back to your customers on time – it’s much more than that. Achieving excellent customer service is much simpler when you have powerful technology and solutions to back it up. In fact, taking advantage of a high-powered contact center software platform is the next step in making customer service easy. These TCN’s solutions can vastly improve your customer service:

Intelligent call routing: With an Automatic Call Distributor, you can ensure customers are routed to the right agent the first time.

Self-service: Interactive Voice Response acts as a self-service tool to gather data before an agent takes over. With this tool, you can handle simple inquiries without agent intervention, helping the process move much quicker and solving customers’ questions faster.

Streamlining the agent experience: Upon connection, you can use TCN’s user-friendly Agent Dashboard to have instant access to customer data and history. This helps deliver a personalized experience and reduces wasted time, ultimately providing agents with all the necessary information to resolve issues fast.

Measuring success: TCN’s Intelligence, Reporting and Analytics tools help monitor performance metrics like call times, call volume and resolution rates, which managers and agents can use to improve their performance. 

Unifying technology and training for better customer service

Building a reputation of quality customer service involves combining intelligent technology, disciplined agent practices and strategic management. Luckily, TCN has the technology and tips to help you achieve customer service excellence. 

The goal isn’t just to answer the call, but to use every call as an opportunity to build brand loyalty and customer lifetime value. Check out our Complete Guide for Managing Call Center Agents for more information on how you can help your agents further improve the contact center experience.