Some people say you should keep your expectations low and you’ll never be disappointed: While this can be good for some things, it shouldn’t be true for the software that runs your customer service.
You rely on your call center software to deliver the assistance and support your customers need: so you should have high expectations for what it can do. Your customers, employees, and managers all need a high-functioning, reliable call center infrastructure to remain satisfied with your organization. Not to mention, your contact center can be a crucial source of value.
While it’s good to keep high expectations for call center software, the truth is that a lot of them just can’t deliver. Legacy call center softwares that have been around for decades are beginning to show their age, not keeping up with modern advancements and slowly being either sunset or simply abandoned. These will likely end up disappointing everyone who needs to use them, and lead to plenty of negative consequences down the road to your KPIs.
Here’s a walk through of what customers, employees, and managers will likely expect from the call center software experience, and the ways in which they may be sorely disappointed.
What Customers Want from Call Center Software
Expectations
Customers just want a smooth, painless experience when they reach out to you for help; The faster they can get in and out with their issue resolved, the better. They expect to not be held up in a line, want to speak to an informed agent who can easily help with their issue, and especially do not want to be made to repeat themselves multiple times. Most of all, they want to always leave with a satisfying conclusion to their issue.
Reality
Unfortunately, the reality is that customers often find themselves waiting in lengthy queues just to talk to a service representative. Call centers are frequently backed up with excessive phone calls, the problem only worsened by frequent staffing issues (which will be elaborated on later). Agents will often not have the tools needed to properly help customers, like a way to see what’s on their screen or easily review their support history. If a customer needs to be transferred to a new agent, or wants to move to a new support channel, they’ll likely have to get back in line and then repeat everything all over again.
The customer not getting the help they need this way causes a lack of satisfaction in their service experience, leading to low CSAT levels, poor retention, and ultimately a lack of sales.
How Employees Use Virtual Call Center Software
Expectations
An employee wants to have the tools that they need to get the job done effectively and efficiently: The ability to see exactly what the customer needs and precisely how to guide them to their answer. They expect their job to at least not be difficult or frustrating, and hope to not be constantly yelled at by angry customers about things out of their control.
Reality
For many call center employees, there’s sadly not a lot of the functionalities that they need to do their jobs quickly and easily. They’ll be transferred customers with no context as to what issue they have, and with no way to see what the user is doing on their digital properties they’ll have to blindly navigate them through forms or pages to get them a proper solution. The clunkiness of the support experience leads to longer wait times, leading to frustrated customers who won’t be afraid to voice their discontent.
The biggest consequence of this reality? Employees fed up with the poor experience and seeking work elsewhere, leading to staffing issues that only further worsen the long wait times that frustrate customers: a vicious cycle.
The Best Call Center Software Experience for Managers
Expectations
Managers want the ability to see how their call center is performing, analyze data, and make informed decisions for how to improve their output. They want this data to be easy to visualize and want it to be able to provide key insights, allowing for the ability to improve key performance metrics like customer satisfaction, employee turnover, and return on investment.
Reality
If most current call center softwares are tracking data effectively, this data is rarely being presented in an intuitive way. Managers will have to sort through data and draw conclusions themselves, which takes a lot of time and effort that they’ll likely not have. From needing to constantly train new employees to dealing with frustrated customers, managers will find most of their work day spent trying to survive rather than being able to thrive.
How to Meet Call Center Software Expectations
If call centers want to have their expectations become reality, they’ll need to look into modern solutions that provide the functionality that they need. A solution proven to keep users from being kept on hold for ages, that gives employees all the tools they need to be set up for success, and allows managers to have informative insights on performance ready at their fingertips. This, and more, can be met with a solution like Glia Call Center.
Glia Call Center (GCC) is the only AI-powered call center solution that’s made just for the needs of the financial industry, with functionality and tools designed just for banks, credit unions, insurance agencies, and more. Built into Glia’s Unified Interaction Management (UIM) platform, you can anticipate the features that can bring expectations into reality:
- For customers, AI-powered virtual assistants can resolve their issues automatically without even needing to connect to a human agent, meaning less customers waiting for human support and thus, shorter waits. When a customer need would benefit from live support, they can easily switch between channels and transfer between agents with all the context staying with them, meaning less time needing to repeat themselves and more time getting the help they need.
- For employees, tools like Live Observation and CoBrowsing allow employees to more intuitively guide customers through pages on digital properties. This makes the job easier for support reps, and the easier time means generally happier customers who make the service experience much more pleasant. Employees feel satisfied, meaning less turnover and better overall performance.
- For managers, GCC provides a suite of tools designed to help visualize data in an easy to read way. Managers can ask any question about their call center’s performance and get plain answers from an AI-powered chatbot, and even can generate graphs on the fly with just text inputs. This makes it simple to find just what you need, and gives you easier ways to plan for the future.
It’s a good thing to have high expectations for your call center software, and GCC is looking to make those expectations come true. Learn more about GCC and its many functionalities in our latest whitepaper. If you want to see what GCC can do yourself, get in touch with us and we’ll be happy to show you a live demonstration.
