Why is contact center outsourcing such a popular model? It is cost effective alright, but more than that it is convenient for the clients. The brands understand the worth of their happy customers and they want customers to stay happy at all costs. This is where any cost effective contact center in India can help brands. The call centers in India have been supporting the US processes for over a decade now and they understand just how the customers can be kept happy. They understand the worth of trained and experienced agents. One of the important tasks for any global contact center in India is to weigh the performance of their processes and agents. To attain this task the call centers set some criterions. The most important among the criterions is first call resolution. Modern customers get irritated very quickly, and repeated calls for the same purpose not only irritate them but anger them too. So, the call centers need to assure that most of the customer problems are addressed at the first call itself. If you are a call center witnessing a low first call resolution rate then there are many ways to solve the problem. Some of the ways have been mentioned below:

Over Deliver to Reduce Tension: It is always better to say less and deliver more. Most of the brands fail to manage their customers’ expectations. It is better to say that a problem would be solved in a week and then fix the problem within a day’s time. If the promise is other way round then your customers lose faith in the brand. If you over deliver then you are sure to receive Thank You mail and the customer will recognize the hard work agent has put in to get the work done quickly.

Follow the CLOSE Principle: It is important to Contact, Listen, Object, Solve and Evaluate (CLOSE) when the agents are taking calls from the customers. This is a principle that works well for most call centers. If the agents listen to the problem carefully they are able to think of it in the right line and thus solve the problem quickly.

Good Understanding of Internal Processes: An empowered agent is most likely to solve the issues at the first contact. If the agent does not have any idea about the internal strengths and weaknesses then he/she cannot predict the time of a problem resolution. The agent should have a sound idea of the internal technical team.

Management should listen to Customer Calls: If a customer is calling up at the call center repeatedly then the management should take a note of that. They should listen to the past and present calls to understand the actual issue and where the agent is failing to service the customer. If necessary, such problem calls can be turned into a case study and they may be used in future training.

Training to Understand the Resolution Requirements: It is only with the help of detailed training that the agents are able to understand the exact resolution requirements. There are certain things that can be done by the technical staff at the company but there are others which have to be addressed by the customers themselves. Suppose there are three problems, two can be solved by the company so tell it to the customer along with the expected resolution time. For the other, the agent has to train the customer on self service.

Don’t Push on Handling Time: Most of the call centers keep on pushing the agents to the brink of their capability in terms of the average handling time for calls. In their bid to please the management with their handling times, the agents forget pleasing the people who matter i.e. the customers. Quality and quantity cannot be attained together, so sacrifice quantity for quality. It will allow the agents to focus more on individual calls.

Ask If Customers have any More Questions: Always train the agents to summarize the details of the conversation and then ask if there are any more questions that the customer would like to ask. It presents the customers with a chance to ask any question which might be lingering on in their minds. With this simple practice many repeat calls can be avoided.

Offshore contact centers understand the importance of first call resolution and they want to attain it. To perfect the art of offering viable solutions to customers at the first contact follow the above mentioned tips.