Call Center software can provide preprogrammed reports and scripting capability or they can be customized to fit a company’s specific needs.
When you are researching and comparing call center software, make sure and look carefully at the reporting and scripting capabilities. You will want reports that are easy to read and utilize, along with options that can be ‘tweaked’ to meet your precise requirements.
Reporting
Call Center management reports can be one of the most important tools generated by the software programs. Many will give you literally hundreds of ‘canned’ options and the ability to create your own, customized reports. These reports need to be easy to read and manipulate so the data can be utilized for agent specific training, and to give your clients or the center management team an overall feel for how training programs and scripts affect call times and support options.
If you can’t readily understand the reports, the data won’t help. So make sure and get copies of sample reports before you choose the right call center software for your company. Look at the reports and ask questions about the customizable features for future needs.
Scripting
Many call center software programs will come with scripting. Scripting is the ability to allow your agents to follow a computer screen of questions, comments and gather information for the next question or step. This can simply be for transaction management, to ensure you’ve collected all the information needed to make a sale or get service related data.
Or the script can be used to make sure all critical information is furnished to a customer. Scripts can be utilized to handle objections, provide technical assistance in the form of question and response, and for knowing when and how a call should be escalated to the next level of agent or to management.
Call center software programs differ in their scripting abilities, so make sure if this feature is important to your center, or is something you will want to incorporate eventually, that the software you choose has the flexibility you’ll need.
Scripting options include the ability to create a tree of information with logic that will take the answers input into the script and then move the agents screen to the next rational branch of questions or comments. Many scripts will allow management to capture and input data, the change the scripts in real time as information evolves.
Call Center Management
Call center software will come with management abilities that vary by software. Make sure you inspect the administrative capabilities of any software to determine what utilities are available and how the system is managed. Some software will need to be ‘reset’ before changes take effect, and some software will allow you to make changes real-time.
Get a list of management options. They can include things like creating and modifying call lists. You will want to see what the options are for setting up a new agent and what you need to do to change the agent’s skills, and permission levels. Meaning what information and programs they can access.
Can you create, view or customize specific campaigns, agents, or groups? Or do you have to look at and change the entire center? It might be important to have search capabilities to find a specific recording or transcript of a specific call. Can you do this, or do you have to manually scroll through everything that happened that day?
Live Data
Another important option is the ability to see the data now, live. Accessing what happened on that last call, versus only getting reports at the end of the day can make a big impact on how your center runs. Call center management options should allow you to set and monitor quotas and goals on several different levels. Whether for motivation or compensation, an agent level view can be priceless.
Change The Settings
Management should be able to go in and change the outbound dial settings, add information or areas and numbers to the programming and update the compliance requirements on a real-time basis. The more flexibility you have, the better.
Can you manage the inbound queues and reroute calls that are holding? Do you have the ability to ‘see’ which agent is excelling and who needs a little more time? Managing a call center isn’t just about the data and numbers; it’s using those numbers to help your agents manage their callers and clients and overtime enhance their performance.
Consistency
Call center software should be easy to use. You want tools that will help you minimize training time. Time off the floor will cost you money, so anything you can do to make the agent’s job easier, and ensure consistency will make a difference.
Having screen pops with customer data will help provide this consistency. If the agent can see the customer information, including previous calls and comments, it will help them manage each call.