Cut Through the Noise: How to Achieve Clarity in the Call Center

Increasing customer retention and customer loyalty is key to the growth of a business. A key factor in retaining customer loyalty is the ease of customer service interactions. Most often, customers are more likely to withdraw their business if they have a negative customer service interaction, so it is important to structure your call center best practices to support quality interactions. If they have a positive customer service experience and would be more likely to recommend your services to a friend based solely off of the positive call center experience. Training employees to communicate effectively can improve the overall customer impression of your business and possibly help it grow as well.

Below is a list of key things to keep in mind when considering how to improve the customer service interaction between your call center employees and customers:

Use the Tools You Have to Their Full Potential

The clarity of your communication is dependent on using the tools you have at your disposal and using them to their full potential. How you communicate with a customer over a voice call, for example, might be different than how you communicate with them via instant messaging. Making the most of the tools at your fingertips requires both thorough training, and practice. Call center analytics can also be very useful for improving call center interactions. 

Learn to Listen

Both you and the person on the other end of the line want to get to the bottom of the issue that’s being addressed in the call center. Communication is a game of give and take. Customers also would be more responsive if they feel like they are heard and their concerns are acknowledged adequately. Something a customer says can easily get lost in translation if you are not listening correctly. Learning to listen to your clientele is just as important as learning to share information with them clearly, and both are necessary to define the purpose of your call center. 

Maintain a Calm, Professional Demeanor

Mirroring is a communication tactic in which you imitate the demeanor of your audience to build rapport. If your caller is angry, frustrated, or confused, however, you can also do the reverse: present them with the calm, pleasant, positive demeanor you want them to mirror. By maintaining your own calm demeanor, you can maintain positive control of the call and foster clarity. It is always a good point to keep in mind that the customer’s issue isn’t personally about you hence, it is important to maintain your composure when dealing with a frustrated customer. Patience can go a long way in how comfortable the customer will feel in a contact center interaction.

Use Questions Wisely

Talking over an issue isn’t just work for your call center employees—it works for the customer as well. Train your employees to use close-ended (yes and no) questions frequently to quickly get to the heart of the issue. Efficiency and clarity go hand in hand. Avoiding tangents will keep your calls more professional and your customers will appreciate it! 

Confirm Information

The devil’s in the details! Misunderstanding what might seem to be a small detail can lead to greater frustrations down the road and untangling the miscommunication can be much more challenging than simply confirming information to start with. Don’t be afraid to repeat a customer’s statement back to them or ask them to repeat what you’ve explained to keep communication flowing in the right direction and avoid pesky misunderstandings—clarity!

Offer Affirmation

Many inbound call centers are centered around customers bringing problems to your attention. This is a valuable contribution on the part of the customer, and it’s important—especially if the issue is a stressful or disappointing one for the customer—to offer affirming words. This communicates to the customer that you are listening to them, and value their role in improving the experience. Be empathetic towards customers and work towards easing their concerns instead of dismissing them or becoming defensive.

How you use the tools in your contact center is important. Which tools you decide to use is also important. Every organization and its clients have special needs and concerns that can be better addressed with the many different features and options available from different vendors.

Consider the following when choosing a call center software solution:

• The demographic of your target audience
• The types of information you need to convey
• The types of information your customers need to share with you
• The processes and topics you will be engaging with your customers about
• Industry and organization-specific regulatory concerns
• Training considerations
• Other programs and applications that may require integration with your contact center software
• Budget
• Scheduling needs
• IT support needs

Choosing the right call center software solution by comparing call center analytics, features, pricing, and integrations can make a huge difference in your customer service experience. These benefits both your company and your customers to maintain clear communication regarding your products or services.

That being said, a negative customer service interaction can sour a customer’s impression of your company and lead to losing valuable customers. Hence, it is important to select the right type of contact center solution that will help you avoid all of the pitfalls in communication we have mentioned above. 

Our call center software comparison tool is an ideal resource for accurately comparing the features, options, prices, and much more. It’s easy to make comparisons with this unbiased, comprehensive guide, and that in turn can help ensure that your organization chooses the right solution. Having the right solution helps you build a firm foundation in terms of communication, facilitating better clarity between your team members and your clients.