Whether you have observed a decline in customer satisfaction recently or are always on the lookout for best practices, making sure that your contact centre delivers outstanding service is essential to you brand’s prosperity. As we know, satisfied customers will rarely share their experience with others, while disgruntled ones will liberally post their views on every social media under the sun!

Fortunately, improving the quality of your call centre doesn’t always have to be expensive and involve a thorough overhaul. We put together ideas on simple changes that can make a difference.

1. There must be an App (or a software) for that

You don’t necessarily need to invest in expensive new technology to improve your contact centre. Your starting point should be customers’ needs, then you can work backwards to find out how to fulfil it cost-effectively.

You could invest in call-back software so that customers don’t have to stay on hold to talk to someone, for example, which is always very well received, or in web and speech analytics tools to pick up on key words indicating dissatisfaction so that you can address problems promptly.

2. Train, train, and train again

Training is never done, especially not in an industry like contact centres where call agents need to be able to apply a range of communication, people and technical skills.

In-house training is invaluable to make sure that your staff know the business’s core values, expectations, policies and customer service targets, but external training can bring in expertise not available in your company.

Try to develop a training programme that equip every staff member with a range of different skills so that they can be allocated to various departments according to needs, as it will give you flexibility in your work force and allow you to cope better with temporary surges in call volumes.

3. Don’t just work hard, play hard too

It is well-known that happy and motivated staff are more productive so make sure that working at your call centre is enjoyable. You could organise friendly competition between teams with light-hearted prizes to win for example. But most importantly, remember that being appreciated is a strong motivator, so reward your staff when they meet or exceed targets, either with praise, small perks or salary bonuses. This will keep spirits high and ensure that your staff keep giving their very best to every call that comes in.