The silent ‘Social’ revolution in Call Centers

Customer behavior is forever changing. And accordingly the methods of customer service as well. Earlier in the days of yore, customer service essentially meant home-visit by a company representative.

Today it is typically done over the phone, by just calling to the customer service call center. But the emerging trend is to deliver customer service online through the website, chat support and social media.

Social Media was earlier considered important from the angle of marketing to customers and capturing young and savvy target audience. So the customer engagement through social media was strategically increased. The businesses started talking to customers through social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter and Google+ etc. And as a result – the customers started talking back to the business.

social media customer serviceCustomers also started posting back their views, opinions and also their complaints. They started venting their anger and sharing their dissatisfaction and bad experiences related to the product.

Deleting these negative comments could be the solution to management of your FB or Twitter profile. But it is not the solution to management of your brand image or your customer base. Instead of deleting, you will have to deal with the customers and resolve their problem.

This is where Bluechip Callcenter call centers come into picture.

Calming the angry customers on social media requires similar skills as calming the angry customers who ring in the call center. That is why our call center agents working as customer service executives are making a smooth transition to being the social media customer service executive for your business.

Therefore we have we have instituted social media customer service team at BlueChip. More than 45% of our clients have asked us to include Social Media also as one of their customer service platforms. Just like the Call Center 24×7 support, the social media based customer service is also a round-the-clock work. And the use of social media to ensure customer satisfaction is a revolutionary development that is changing the call center’s functioning. It is possible that lesser calling would be required as integrated online customer service solutions will become popular.

To stay ahead of the curve, do ask your vendor before call centers outsourcing if they have online and social customer service facilities and skills? If not, you know that BlueChip Callcenter does!

Inbound Call Center Services That Fit Your Budget

Attending phone calls is no mean task. You have to be calm and polite throughout as you answer largely similar queries again and again. Phone answering is a full time job if your business generates a good call volume. And the larger your call volume, the more number of people you need in your call center.

But not every business is able to afford an inbound call center. Even outsourced offshore call centers, which are cheaper than the homeshore or nearshore call centers, can be out of your budget.Inbound Call Center Outsourcing Services

What to do in such a scenario?

You could divert the incoming calls to all of your staff and make everybody double as a Call Center Agent.

Or you could get professional, polite Call Center Agents from BlueChip, on a sharing basis. Yes you heard it right. Call Center Agents can be SHARED!

By definition, shared Agents are those who work for more than two clients. As opposed to Dedicated Agents who work only for one client.

Shared Agents cost lesser to the business because the costs of maintaining the Agent are shared between various clients. You get billed only for the number of minutes the Agent answers on the behalf of your business.

Cost is however not the only reason that clients opt for Shared Agents. Some of the other reasons for preferring to hire Shared Agents instead of Dedicated Agents are:

  • Such low call volume that you can’t justify hiring a dedicated resource for it.
  • Call Volumes peaking only in a specific time slot and not always, therefore call centers 24×7 isn’t required. It’s prudent to have shared agent for the lean off-peak hours.
  • Flexible billings as you are charged by the minute, only for the time when the Agent was answering your calls.
  • Shared Agents are also used as a Trial method before finally placing a requirement of Dedicated Agents.

So when you are looking for call centers outsourcing in your budget, choose the Shared Agent plan from BlueChip!

Top 3 Technology Trends in BPO and Call Center Service Industry

There was a debate on one of the Google hangouts on the topic – “Will Technology Kill the Call Center?” a week ago. We at Bluechip Callcenter feel that the answer is an emphatic ‘No’. As a matter of fact, the Call Centers were born because of technology. It is only after we advanced in Information Technology, and when internet enabled VoIP calls could be made easily by sitting in one part of the globe, and talking to somebody in another hemisphere, that we actually saw the boom of Call Center industry.

Technology has in the past played the role of enabler for the call center industry, is doing so in the present, and will do so in the future too. One of the noticeable transition is from pure Call Centers, which use only phone, to Contact Centers, which use other internet enabled communication channels – like an e-mail, chat support, fax etc. CCaaS (Contact Center as a Service) has become possible due to evolution of call centers along with technology.

call center outsourcing, Call Center IndustryFollowing are the three prominent Call Center Outsourcing Trends in the technology field:

1.  Cloud in the Call Centers

Gartner, one of the top market analyst think-tank has predicted that 75% of contact centers will integrate with one or the other form of cloud.

2.  Analytics for Call Centers

Better systems and tools have been developed for reporting and monitoring of the Call Center Agents with technology to record and store all these call recordings. This will give us better analysis for each call and also better quality, and a welcome trend in call center outsourcing.

3.  Web enabled Self-help along with Customer Service

Customers have always wanted self-help material about the products they buy, like a detailed how-to-use manual. These how-to programs are now increasingly available on the web for customers. In such a scenario, the call becomes the last resort for the customer. They call only after they have failed to figure it out themselves through the self-help. In such a scenario, the assistance by the Agent becomes all the more crucial.

So as the latest trends of call centers outsourcing indicate, technology and call centers have symbiotic relationship. They are not here to kill each other but to help each other grow!

Customer is the King of Your Business Kingdom

You have to conquer the market. You have to expand your empire. In more ways than one, your business is like a kingdom. But never mistake the business owner as the ruler. The customer was, is and will always be the king!

Why? Simply because it is the customers who play the biggest role in the downfall or the victory! Inbound call centers, customer care services, call centers, customer care

Customers determine whether your business will be able to sustain or will it sink. Your customer base is directly proportional to your market share. The retention of your customers is what survives your business. And referrals from customers make your business rocket up.

So the remote control which decides whether your business will boom or go bust is in the hands of the customers. And definitely the person with the controls is the most powerful one. So no doubts here that the customer is indeed the king!

The next question is how do you please your emperor and ensure that you never earn the king’s wrath?

We at Bluechip Callcenter know the answer to this question. Serving as the inbound call centers for customer care department of various enterprises since so many years has taught us the secret to keep the king happy. Yes it is a prized secret, but we wouldn’t mind dropping some hints as we want every business kingdom to prosper and every king to feel happy after all. And the secret is – Listen to your king!

If the king wants to say something, then lend your ears. And don’t forget what your king told you. Always follow it. If the king wants something, then deliver it. If the king asks something, then answer it. If the king has an issue, resolve it.  You ought to listen to everything your king says, always.

This is what the call center Agents at Bluechip customer care services do on the behalf of your business. We listen to your customers and answer their queries, solve their problems and ensure complete customer satisfaction and happiness.

So the mantra for expanding your business kingdom – All hail the customer!

Make Your Business Work 24×7, Not Your Employees

None of us likes to work on holidays, yet everybody expects their customer care center to be working on a Sunday, even during midnight! As consumers we are assertive in our demand for a 24×7 call center. After all who knows when a product might require trouble-shooting or there may be a breakdown or an emergency.

The businesses can’t afford to ignore customer’s requirements. So they passed on the demand of 24×7 inbound call center services to the call center vendors. But providing services 24×7 is easier said than done.

call center outsourcing, 24x7 call center, inbound call center services, outsource call centersIf you rewind in time, then just about twenty years ago it was unthinkable that there would be offices working during midnight with properly scheduled night shifts. People would laugh off the idea of 24×7 as unworkable and impractical. However the transition from eight hour and 5-6 days of work to 24×7 working was so smooth that it silenced all those who were apprehensive.

Now it is very common to see young workforce coming in cabs to these outsource call centers at a time when typically other people are returning home after a day’s work. At BlueChip too, the exit of our day-shift of employees coincides with the entry of our night-shift employees.

While we are proud to say that we tender services round the clock and are a 24×7 call center, but we are more proud to say that we don’t make our employees work 24×7 or anywhere close to it. At Bluechip, in order to ensure a gratifying work experience for our employees and for the upkeep of their health, we ensure that:

  • No employee works for more than 9 hours in a day. And these 9 hours include a one hour break for lunch and tea.
  • All our employees work for 51/2 days only. The sixth day is just a 5 hour shift, and is counted as a half day. One day of the week is a mandatory holiday.
  • Staying after your working hours is discouraged by our Human Resource department. Time Management and Productivity enhancement workshops are conducted so that people can finish work in given 9 hours and don’t have to stretch.

The result of this is that all our employees get time for their family, friends and also adequate rest. None of them is exerted as we perform seamless 24×7 call center outsourcing.

Our employees are an asset for BlueChip. We take care of their health, happiness and job satisfaction. That is why they are able to provide complete customer satisfaction, even during midnight!