What exactly is customer intelligence software?

With customer service team expectations rising and customers expecting a more personalized service, getting a 360-degree view of your customers’ needs, behaviors, and preferences is mission-critical.

If a customer calls complaining about an incorrect order for a second time, you want your agent to know the full details about both orders, including the original attempted resolution and the customer’s previous concerns. You don’t want multiple agents to inquire about each order or for the customer to repeat the entire situation, which will undoubtedly lead to frustration.

Customer intelligence (CI) software can help businesses close knowledge gaps, and it is often a crucial part of many brands’ customer experience strategies.

What Is Customer Intelligence Software?

Customer intelligence software is a type of customer experience technology that helps businesses gather, analyze, and leverage customer data regarding purchase behavior and intent. 

These tools go beyond simple demographic information and provide a holistic view of customer needs, behaviors, and preferences. They often collect customer information from third-party data platforms with platform integrations or API access. 

Some of these technologies may leverage artificial intelligence, machine learning, or automation to streamline data synching, provide insights, and improve data management.

For instance, Nextiva displays essential customer intel when responding to an inbound request (e.g., phone call, email, SMS, etc.).

Customer intelligence tools may, for example, consolidate the following data:

• Customer intent behavior, like purchase history and online viewing activity.
• Customer support interactions, including tickets filed through help desk software.
• Customer feedback, which may include feedback directly pulled from customer surveys.

These in-depth customer analytics and insights empower customer experience (CX) leaders to make more informed decisions that can boost customer loyalty, engagement, and business growth.

How CI Software Drives Exceptional CX

CI software can help businesses create outstanding customer experiences by providing essential customer data that allow brands to better anticipate their customers’ needs, address concerns, and improve their buyer’s journey in many ways.

Improve customer success

Customer intelligence technology provides a complete overview of customers’ needs to your team members. This means your customer support agents, account executives, and sales team can all deliver more personalized experiences based on individual customer preferences at every stage of the buyer’s journey.

Your customer support team, for example, can offer better solutions when resolving customer complaints. Account executives can check in regularly with customers with well-timed questions, product education, and suggestions, potentially including upsells and cross-sells to increase overall conversion rates.

Improved customer success allows your company to develop strong customer loyalty, which is a clear competitive advantage in today’s market.

Reduce customer churn

When you have a smarter customer experience, you’ll increase customer satisfaction (CSAT) and, as a result, retain more customers. By more easily identifying and proactively addressing customer pain points throughout the journey, companies can anticipate customer behaviors, needs, and potential problems.

Businesses can identify trends and weak spots in the customer journey by establishing resolutions using intelligent customer experience measures and automated, streamlined, or AI-driven support.

Retention rate = [(End customers – New customers) / Start customers] * 100

Enhance brand reputation

Creating a positive CX can fuel word-of-mouth recommendations like almost nothing else, and CI tools empower businesses to deliver exactly that. Better data means that brands can discover new ways to establish customer loyalty and support throughout the customer journey. A better customer journey means happier customers and increased profitability.

Data-driven decision-making

CI software can help you transform customer data into actionable insights, which can be used to inform strategic decisions across all departments. This can include product development, marketing, and customer support. Some platforms offer real-time analytics or AI-driven suggestions that can be used to optimize business processes and improve customer relationships. You can sell more, through upsells and cross-sells with more data at your fingertips.

Key Features of Customer Intelligence Tools

When researching customer management solutions, knowing which key features to focus on is important. Let’s review some of the most common and important functionality to look for in CI software.

Data aggregation

CI software gathers customer data from various touchpoints, including customer surveys, customer data platforms, CRM systems, call center analytics, social media interactions, website analytics, phone calls, and support tickets. You’ll get data from individual customer profiles to better spot trends across the customer journey.

Data unification

By aggregating data from multiple data sources into a single tool, customer intelligence software can break down data silos. This makes creating a single customer view possible, providing a more complete picture of each customer and leading to better customer insights. 

CI software can also help you to more accurately track and interpret data, making it easier to piece together the customer journey that may otherwise have been more difficult to establish.

Customer segmentation

CI software allows businesses to segment their customer base according to specific characteristics. Customers who were acquired through referrals, for example, may be found to retain longer, and those who purchase software for certain use cases may submit more support ticket requests.

Businesses can use this information to tailor their approach accordingly, optimizing the CX and ideally eliminating or reducing potential pain points with product and policy changes or customer success programs.

Advanced analytics and actionable reporting

Powerful analytic tools, aided by detailed metrics tracking, can help you identify trends and patterns in customer interactions, revealing hidden insights into customer data.

As a result, CI tools often translate complex data into clear and actionable reports that guide improvement efforts.

Signs You Need to Invest in Customer Intelligence

If you’re wondering whether or not you need a customer intelligence solution, there’s a good chance you could benefit from it. Here are several clear signs that you may have a more urgent need for these tools:

• You’re struggling to make sense of scattered customer data.
• You’re getting inconsistent customer feedback and believe segmentation data could help explain why.
• Your decision-making is based on gut feelings, not data-driven insights.
• Your CX is inconsistent across touchpoints.
• You’re facing a high customer churn rate.
• You’re ready to scale your business and need a deeper understanding of your customer base.
• You’re struggling with CX data collection.
• You’re overwhelmed or don’t know how to make sense of data from multiple platforms.
• You’re offering omnichannel support but are trying to determine how customers interact with each touchpoint.
• You’re struggling to retain customers drawn in through marketing campaigns.

If you’re experiencing low CSAT rates (or think you might be), you can leverage real-time data analytics to identify accurate trends and improve your CX.

See Your Customers More Clearly With Nextiva

Customer intelligence can be invaluable for better understanding your customers and improving their experiences through data-informed decision-making.

There are plenty of customer relationship tools available, and there are also specialized platforms that offer some built-in CI capabilities. For example, businesses interested in harnessing more of their call and support interaction data should look to platforms like Nextiva.

Nextiva offers advanced analytic data for multiple support touchpoints. Our call center analytics, for example, can help businesses track the following KPIs:

• Customer-centered metrics, like CSAT scores, net promoter scores, and customer sentiment data.
• Results-driven metrics, like first call resolution rates and average response times.
• Agent performance data, including call volume and customer rating.

Nextiva also offers unified customer service tools with customer insights and analytics. Our AI-powered CX software for contact centers includes dashboards to track historical customer trends across multiple support platforms, allowing for ongoing CX improvement. With Nextiva, you can leverage insights regarding customer sentiment analysis, track trends in key phrases, and even automate customer support aspects to improve CX quickly.

If you’re looking for a unified, 360-degree view of each customer to understand them better, offer personalized support, and strengthen their journey across all touchpoints (including phone, SMS, email, live chat, and more), we can help. Our CX platform offers omnichannel features, including detailed and granular analytics with real-time data. This makes it easier to track CX measures and customer success strategies live as you watch the impact of your efforts alter your results.

Keep your customer data updated in real time with Nextiva’s Customer Experience Suite. 👇

Conversational artificial intelligence (AI) improves the self-service capabilities of traditional business chatbots, virtual assistants, and voice agents.

This technology automates customer service to the extent that customers get faster responses to simple questions, reducing wait times. When the questions become more complex, the conversational AI system smoothly hands them to a human agent. 

The service delivery becomes almost instantaneous, optimizing customer service metrics such as response time, accuracy, customer satisfaction, and problem-solving efficiency. 

Modern businesses also integrate conversational AI chatbots with their CRMs to draw from customer history and offer a unique solution to each customer. Overall, this helps ensure human-like interactions while customers feel supported at all times, including during peak hours or on days off.

What Is Conversational AI?

Conversational AI is software that understands and responds to human conversation via text or voice using natural language processing (NLP). The machine learning (ML) capabilities of these tools help them to improve with every interaction.

NLP converts unstructured human language data into a structured format for machines to understand. It uses ML and natural language understanding to figure out the relationship between words in a sentence. Other methods, such as part-of-speech tagging, ensure input text is understood and processed correctly.

Businesses apply conversational AI to their chatbots, intelligent virtual agents (IVAs), and voice assistants to deliver enjoyable conversational experiences that are fast, personalized, and easy. The intelligent automation of conversational AI solutions helps contact center teams meet and exceed customer expectations at scale, improving satisfaction and customer lifetime value.

Benefits of Conversational AI Solutions

These solutions expedite business in multiple ways. But it’s not just about speed: Conversational AI also works to improve the quality of the customer experience. There’s no trade-off between quality and speed; together, they help you manage customer interactions in different use cases at a much larger scale.

Here’s a detailed overview of why businesses prefer smart conversational AI technology.

24/7 customer service

A conversational AI tool keeps the customer-facing side of your business live at all times. Whether it’s a simple inquiry or an easy task automation, the software takes care of it even when your team is out of the office or simply resting through the night.

Conversational AI lets you handle frequently asked questions (FAQs) without needing an agent to contribute their expertise. 

Improved personalization

Most businesses integrate conversational IVAs with their CRMs and customer data platforms. This helps the AI solution create context — through past conversation history and user data — to improve customer engagement.

With this context, the AI agent can provide unique responses to customer queries, offering a more personalized experience. This saves customers from repeating what they have already conveyed and offers them an experience that’s fast and tailored to their needs.

Increased efficiency

As conversational AI solutions handle most of the simple queries that customers ask frequently, they free up time and mind space for service agents, letting them focus on complex issues that require more time to address.

With a lesser workload, human agents become better at managing complex issues requiring expertise. They become more efficient and resolve complex queries faster, enhancing the customer experience (CX) end to end. Operational efficiency improves as problems take less time to resolve.

Smarter data collection and insights

Conversational AI applications interact with customers at scale. They capture data about inquiries in real time, which companies can analyze to find opportunities to optimize their CX strategies.

For example, if you see a question being asked frequently on your service channel, you can identify its root cause and address it accordingly. In such cases, you can prepare an FAQ guide or use simple in-product messaging to resolve feature-related inquiries.

Key Features of Conversational AI Solutions

When you’re seeking a conversational AI solution for your business, look for the following features to help you deliver an enjoyable CX to your users.

Contextual awareness

Contextual awareness lets you personalize responses at different levels. Advanced contextual awareness can address queries like, “How much did I spend in New York last year?” or more complicated questions.

This personalization will give your customers an easy experience that they will be more likely to return to.

Seamless live agent takeover

Most conversational AI solutions facilitate live agent takeover to address customer queries that are too complex for the software. The system can immediately assign conversations to default agents, or it can ask a few questions to get more context before passing conversations to relevant sales agents.

The transfer of the conversation is smooth, without recognizable delays, making the experience more seamless for customers.

Dialogue scripting

Conversational AI solutions include features such as dialogue scripting that create conversational flows. These flows feel natural and guide users toward a resolution.

This helps conversational AI agents better mimic human conversation and assist customers faster.

Omnichannel experience

Modern customers expect you to assist them on multiple channels. Whether they reach you through messaging apps, websites, or social media, they want a consistent experience.

Conversational AI lets you offer a similar experience across these apps while maintaining context from previous interactions.

Enterprise readiness

Companies expect their conversational AI solution to comply with industry regulations. They prefer solutions that maintain a level of security and data privacy when handling customer data.

This is especially crucial in the healthcare industry, where businesses must comply with Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) regulations. When you’re seeking a solution, check if it complies with regulations and standards in your sector.

Challenges of Using Conversational AI in CX

While conversational AI brings many benefits, it presents some challenges regarding the customer experience.

Limited understanding of complex questions

Generative AI models might have become more advanced than they were a few years ago, but they still need to be able to effectively address complex customer questions.

Not all customer questions have objective answers. When such questions arise, conversational AI usually hands them over to a human agent who can advance the discussion.

Enterprise-grade security and privacy

Maintaining data security and privacy is crucial when dealing with your customers’ sensitive information. Your customer expects you to comply with relevant industry standards such as: 

• General Data Protection Regulation
• HIPAA
• Sarbanes-Oxley Act
• System and Organization Controls
• California Consumer Privacy Act

Even when conversational AI solutions comply with these standards, some people still speculate and have second thoughts about using AI solutions.

Maintaining user trust

It takes a village to balance automation and human touch. Relying solely on conversational AI might undermine the CX when complex questions arise in a customer’s journey. AI might also fail to give a customer enough options.

This makes the experience frustrating and limiting for your customers.

Best Practices When Using Conversational AI in CX

When using an AI-powered conversational agent in your business on the CX side, here are a few best practices you should follow:

• Clearly define goals: Consider what you want to achieve with conversational AI. Do you want to automate answering FAQs? Do you want to assist prospects and lead them toward scheduling an appointment with your team? Or do you want something else?
• Train on quality data: Train the AI agent on a comprehensive dataset to understand user intent accurately. Give it industry- and product-specific data to help it comprehend and convey the nitty-gritty of your sector and answer questions accordingly.
• Set expectations: Keep customers informed that they’re interacting with a chatbot. To avoid adding to their frustration, always give them the option to connect with a human agent for urgent or complex queries.
• Prioritize user experience: Ensure you have supplied clear instructions to the conversational agent about responding to queries and performing sentiment analysis. To make a chatbot more engaging, it’s advisable to design its conversation flow to match an actual human’s.

Automate More Customer Interactions With Nextiva

Nextiva’s conversational AI platform keeps you available around the clock, supporting customers whenever they need it. This is especially helpful when your customers are based in different time zones.

You can easily engage them through the chatbot without recruiting a customer support team to address inquiries during out-of-office hours. The cost savings happen naturally as bots take up simple inquiries and your agents deal with critical issues, helping you address more queries as a team.

Nextiva’s conversational AI solution seamlessly manages transitions between virtual agents and live agents. It keeps CX at the top and personalizes interactions by being contextually aware. When personalization becomes harder to maintain, it lets live agents take over.

Looking to build a B2B call center?

Studies show that approximately 70% of customers prefer that organizations provide customized experiences, and around 75% are upset when this doesn’t occur. Moreover, 85% of customers expect to instantly reach a customer service representative when they call a company.

To meet these demands, any company reaching decision-makers and supporting their teams in the business-to-business (B2B) space market must use specialized tools to support a variety of communication channels — both of an inbound and outbound nature.

Here, we’ll walk you through the essential ingredients of a high-performing B2B call center tech stack. We’ll explore what core systems you need, how they work together, and how to choose the best options for your business.

Tech Stack for a B2B Call Center

Running high-performing B2B call center services involves outsourcing many processes to third-party software, so your tech stack is the foundation upon which most B2B companies are built. It’s the collection of tools and processes that enables your contact center agents to communicate effectively with your customers in a streamlined manner.

From cold calls to inbound customer calls, your B2B customer service center needs to optimize each task. The best way to do this is with a comprehensive tech stack. 

Here are the critical components of a high-performing B2B call center:

1. CRM systems

A customer relationship management (CRM) system is the backbone of your call center, providing a 360-degree view of each client’s history, preferences, and needs. CRM of the highest quality, such as Kustomer and HubSpot, includes the following key features:

• Contact management: Stores customer information in a centralized database and identifies key decision-makers and sales targets.
• Sales pipeline management: Tracks prospects and manages sales processes.
• Customer interaction tracking: Logs emails, calls, meetings, and notes.
• Reporting and analytics: Generates detailed reports on sales team performance and customer interactions.

These features allow your agents to deliver personalized, efficient service while helping you optimize your sales process, enhance customer support, and make data-driven decisions.

Essential CRM use cases include sales tracking, which enables you to manage sales cycles and monitor pipeline stages; customer support, which allows you to track customer issues and resolutions; and marketing campaigns, which help you segment customers and track campaign effectiveness.

2. Automatic call distribution systems

Automatic call distribution (ACD) systems like Avaya, Five9, and Nextiva are systems that make sure calls are intelligently routed to the right agents based on factors such as skill level, availability, and the nature of the customer’s issue. These systems offer features like:

• Intelligent call routing: Directs calls to the appropriate agent based on predefined criteria.
• Skill-based routing: Matches callers with agents who have the specific skills needed.
• Queue management: Manages caller queues and wait times.
• Callback options: Offer customers the option to receive a callback instead of waiting on hold.

By directing calls to the most appropriate agent, ACD systems support your entire organization:

Customer support	Directs customers to the most knowledgeable agent
Sales	Routes potential leads to available sales representatives
Technical support	Connects customers with specialized technical staff

3. Interactive voice response systems

Interactive voice response (IVR) systems like Nextiva, Twilio, and Dialpad allow customers to interact with an automated system before speaking to an agent, streamlining the call process and reducing wait times. 

These systems enable self-service, allowing customers to find answers to FAQs without needing agent assistance. They also handle customer identification by collecting details before routing calls to the appropriate agents. Additionally, IVR systems automate appointment booking, streamlining the process.

IVR systems achieve these goals with the following key features:

• Multilevel menus: Allow callers to navigate through various options.
• Speech recognition: Enables callers to speak their responses instead of using keypad inputs.
• Personalized greetings: Customize greetings based on caller data.
• Data collection: Gathers information before transferring the call to an agent.

4. Workforce management software

Workforce management (WFM) tools like NICE, ServiceNow, and Sprinklr optimize your staffing to meet call volumes. By using several key features, WFM software ensures that the right number of agents is available to handle varying call volumes and that your agents adhere to labor laws and company policies. WFM tools also monitor agent productivity and performance, providing valuable insights for performance tracking and ensuring you’ve got an engaged workforce. 

Key features include:

• Forecasting and scheduling: Predicts call volumes and schedules staff accordingly.
• Real-time adherence monitoring: Tracks agent adherence to schedules.
• Performance analytics: Provides insights into agent performance.
• Shift management: Facilitates shift swaps and time-off requests.

5. Call recording and monitoring systems

Call recording service providers like Nextiva, Gong, CallRail, and Invoca capture customer interactions for quality and compliance. These systems provide quality assurance by reviewing calls for training and performance improvement, resolving disputes by providing evidence in case of customer disagreements, and ensuring compliance with regulatory requirements.

Essential features to look for in call recording and monitoring systems include:

• On-demand and automatic recording: Capture calls as needed or automatically.
• Search and playback: Easily locates and reviews recorded calls.
• Annotations and tagging: Add notes and tags to specific parts of recordings.
• Compliance management: Ensures recordings meet legal and regulatory standards.

6. Analytics and reporting tools

Analytics tools like PowerBI and Looker turn call center data into actionable insights. They are used for performance monitoring by tracking key performance indicators, identifying patterns and trends in customer satisfaction through trend analysis, and supporting data-driven decision-making. 

Key features required:

• Real-time dashboards: Provide live insights into call center company performance.
• Customizable reports: Allow users to create tailored reports.
• Predictive analytics: Use historical data to forecast future trends.
• Customer sentiment analysis: Analyzes customer interactions to gauge satisfaction.

7. Communication and collaboration tools

Tools like Slack, Teams, and Zoom keep your B2B call center team connected. They support communication and collaboration for remote teams, help manage projects and tasks, and enhance coordination and collaboration among team members.

Ensure your collaboration tool has the following features for optimal functionality:

• Instant messaging: Facilitates real-time communication between team members.
• Video conferencing: Enables face-to-face virtual meetings.
• File sharing: Allows easy sharing of documents and files.
• Team channels and workspaces: Organize conversations and projects by topic or team.

8. Omnichannel support platforms

Omnichannel platforms like Nextiva enable you to support customers across multiple channels. These platforms provide consistent customer support, engage with clients through their preferred communication channels for sales, and deliver coordinated marketing campaigns across various channels. To be effective, omnichannel support platforms must support:

• Multichannel communication: Supports blended phone, email, chat, and high-quality social media interactions.
• Unified customer view: Provides a single view of all customer experiences across channels.
• Seamless channel switching: Allows customers to switch channels without repeating information.

9. AI and chatbot integration

AI-powered chatbots like Drift and Intercom provide automation for your customer interactions. They handle routine inquiries to free up call center agents for more complex issues, engage website visitors for lead generation, and provide personalized service with tailored responses based on customer data.

Ensure the AI chatbot you choose for your B2B cell center has:

• 24/7 customer support: Offers round-the-clock assistance.
• Automated responses: Provide automated answers to common requests.
• Intelligent routing: Directs inquiries to the appropriate department or agent.
• Data-driven insights: Analyze interactions to identify trends and improve service.

10. Cloud-based call center solutions

Cloud solutions like Nextiva, Five9, and NICE provide flexibility and scalability. They are ideal for supporting distributed teams and remote agents, ensuring business continuity during disruptions, and adapting to seasonal call volume fluctuations. Key aspects to look for in cloud-based call center solutions include:

• Scalability: Adjusts easily to changes in call volume.
• Remote accessibility: Allows agents to work from anywhere with internet access.
• Cost-effectiveness: Reduces the need for on-premise hardware.
• Regular updates and maintenance: Ensure that your software systems have the latest features and security measures.
• Hardware-free design: Gets you started quickly without telephony hardware.

Bundle ALL Your Call Center Tools With Nextiva

While the solutions mentioned above are great by themselves, they can be costly and lengthy to implement. What if you could consolidate all these powerful tools into one seamless platform? With Nextiva, you can!

It should be clear that integrating your platforms and ensuring smooth data flow are crucial for any successful call center. Nextiva provides a comprehensive solution that combines many of the essential tools listed above, making it an attractive option for SaaS leaders seeking efficiency and effectiveness.

Sources: https://research.aimultiple.com/call-center-stats/

Outsourcing contact center operations can be appealing, especially as contact center as a service (CCaaS) options have become increasingly common. That said, it’s important to go into outsourcing with a good understanding of what challenges may arise alongside the benefits and to pay close attention to potential drawbacks, including how they could impact your brand reputation.

What Is Contact Center Outsourcing? 

Contact center outsourcing is a specific type of business process outsourcing in which a company hires a service provider to handle its inbound and outbound communications. Cloud-based call center software to allow remote agents located worldwide to do the following: 

• Make and receive phone calls with impressive call quality.
• Integrate with the brand’s CRM to access data on past customer engagement for personalized support.
• Leverage company knowledge bases, call scripts, and support policies. 
• Deliver omnichannel support, including SMS, video, email, and social media. 

Support agents can help with customer interactions through inbound and outbound calls, including providing tech support, lead generation, order processing, and customer service resolution. Some also help with promotional outreach, feedback collection, and market research. 

Why contact centers are increasingly turning to CCaaS solutions 

Customer care leaders are facing increased customer service expectations. According to research from McKinsey & Company, many are concerned with enhancing the customer experience and improving overall operations, tech, and revenue generation. CCaaS solutions can help with each of these priorities, leveraging secure, reliable technology to improve the customer experience, operations, and revenue. 

It’s also important to note that while call centers may exclusively handle phone calls, contact centers typically handle multiple communication platforms. The same study found that customers are increasingly accepting of non-phone channels, but phone calls are still valued across all customer demographics. 

Advantages of Outsourcing Your Contact Center

There are plenty of upsides that can come with outsourcing customer service to a contact center. Let’s discuss how outsourcing contact center operations may help you meet your current business goals. 

Cost reduction

Outsourcing customer support to a contact center can lead to significant cost savings in the following areas:

• Infrastructure: You can avoid paying for significant infrastructure, including office space and equipment, especially since many contact centers rely on cost-effective VoIP systems. 
• Staffing: Outsourcing customer support is often more cost-effective than having internal employees handle it, especially when you want round-the-clock support that extends to late nights and holidays. 
• Training: There’s no need to onboard and train new employees; simply find a strong contact center partner and provide guidance with call scripts and brand policies that detail how they should handle inbound and outbound calls. 

Scalability

Using outsourced call center services is one of the simplest ways to manage fluctuating call volumes. Contact centers can easily adjust agent numbers to address demand fluctuations. Many contact centers offer pricing based on usage, so you scale up and down without having to hire, train, and potentially lay off internal team members when call volumes shift. 

Both outbound and inbound contact centers may offer omnichannel customer service to help you scale communications across multiple platforms. The best outsourcing solutions offer high-quality service alongside scalability to increase customer retention. 

Expertise

If you want to improve the customer experience, tapping into a contact center’s wide talent pool of agents is a great way to go. The best contact center services work with experienced, highly trained agents who may have specialized skills in areas such as marketing, problem resolution, technical support, and account management to help meet your specific business needs. 

24/7 support

Contact centers can truly provide global coverage with round-the-clock services across multiple time zones.

Customer calls requesting urgent tech support or help with emergency situations don’t stop just because your main offices are closed, and outsourced support can help you meet those customer needs much more effectively. This, in turn, can increase your customer satisfaction (CSAT) scores and overall customer engagement. 

Downsides of Outsourcing Your Contact Center

There are several risks to consider when it comes to call center outsourcing services. While these can be minimized by choosing reliable contact centers, it’s important to consider whether they outweigh the advantages for your business. 

Quality control

Many businesses outsource customer support to third-party services to improve the customer experience, but you do lose some control when relying on an outsourcing partner for customer care. So when you’re outsourcing to another support team, carefully track customer engagement metrics and KPIs to ensure that your standard service levels are met. 

Data security

Your business is responsible for maintaining data security best practices, including following any local or industry regulations. Some call center solutions do prioritize data security and privacy policies, but it can be difficult to ensure that secure data handling practices are in place with third-party providers and any software they use. 

Limited oversight

When outsourcing customer support to a contact center, your business has less direct oversight of day-to-day operations. A trusted and transparent contact center partnership can be an asset and save you time, but it can prevent you from identifying potential trends in customer complaints or concerns. This makes ongoing reporting, recorded call analysis, and performance monitoring essential. 

How to Get Started & Best Practices

When your business decides to find and hire a contact center, the following approach can help you choose the one that best meets your business’s and your customers’ needs. 

Evaluate your in-house operations

Review your existing in-house customer support operations, considering current performance and projected goals, to determine outsourcing feasibility. 

Look for potential areas for improvement. Is your customer support team struggling to help with certain customer needs, like technical support? Or does call volume fluctuate so significantly that you struggle to maintain appropriate staffing levels? 

Develop a cloud contact center strategy

When choosing a contact center partner, it’s important to know what specific services you want to outsource. 

For example, many businesses keep some internal customer support team members on hand to manage high-level concerns. Some choose to outsource all inbound calls but handle all outbound calls themselves. Others, however, may choose to outsource all calls to a contact center, with the option to escalate specific customer interactions to internal team members. 

Determine the strategy you’ll use to improve the customer experience through the contact center. 

Narrow down your requirements

Once you know how you want to leverage a contact center and what sort of services you’re interested in, it’s time to focus on the details. 

Outline key requirements, desired features, and preferred methods for evaluating the different contact centers. These may include:

• Automatic call recording, with the option to manually disable recordings during phone calls to protect sensitive client information, including payment details. 
• Security certifications or clearly documented security and data privacy policies. 
• Transparent performance monitoring.
• Specific services, including lead generation, order and payment processing, customer concern resolution, and technical support.
• Omnichannel support platforms, including phone, video, live chat, and social media. 
• Fast response times and call routing to help customers reach specialized support agents. 
• Agents who are exclusively located in the same country as your business rather than offshore call centers. 
• Relevant experience and specialized services based on your industry. 

Short-list potential contact center software

Review different contact center software providers, and identify a few top contenders based on their capabilities, services, client reviews, and industry experience. Reach out to their sales teams to get detailed information about services, internal policies, and reporting transparency. 

Conduct due diligence

The top call center outsourcing companies typically offer case studies, online client testimonials, and customers who are willing to speak as references. 

It’s crucial to conduct due diligence before officially selecting a provider. Confirm that everything you heard from the sales team was correct by researching past performance, client references, security practices, and any communication or data privacy policies they’ll share. 

When considering client reviews, it’s important to look for ones that were written in the past year, as some contact centers’ performance may improve or deteriorate over time. 

Negotiate and finalize contracts

Determine pricing and policies, and ensure that the services and call volume you’re receiving will be in line with your needs and budget. Consider both immediate and long-term needs to make sure the contact center can scale up and down alongside your business as required. 

Onboard & train workers

The best contact centers work closely with your business to learn about your brand, products, services, and customers. Onboarding and training typically include the following processes:

• Connecting to the chosen contact center software and providing training for internal and external team members.
• Creating documented customer support policies.
• Providing the partner with call scripts, access to relevant CRM data, and navigational call flows. 
• Adjusting call routing to accommodate the addition of the contact center, directing all calls to the appropriate departments. 
• Setting up performance tracking practices. 

Collaborate closely with the provider to ensure a smooth transition. 

Continually monitor & make improvements

Regularly review performance metrics and make adjustments as needed. Track metrics like first call resolution rate, occupancy rate, and average speed of answer to ensure that customers are receiving prompt and thorough assistance and that the agency is as responsive as promised. 

It’s also important to track customer engagement metrics like net promoter scores, CSAT scores, and customer effort scores, which can tell you more about how happy customers were with their support experience and how it may impact your brand reputation or business growth. 

How a CCaaS Platform Improves Outsourcing

CCaaS providers are cloud-based contact center solutions that offer expansive features designed to streamline customer support for call center partners and the businesses that hire them. As a result, these providers offer multiple key benefits. 

Simplified infrastructure

There’s no need to set up or maintain physical servers and equipment for your outsourced team. They can access the communication platform remotely from anywhere in the world as long as they have an internet connection. 

Reduced costs

The elimination of up-front hardware and software investments provides instant cost savings for your company, allowing you to invest in other areas of your business. 

Scalability & flexibility

Cloud platforms let you easily add or remove agents as needed, efficiently adapting to fluctuating contact volume for your outsourced partner. Since call center operations often involve significant variations in call volume, this flexibility is invaluable. 

Unified platform

CCaaS solutions offer a single, centralized platform for all communication channels, including voice, email, video, and live chat. This can streamline training and agent workflow for both your internal and outsourced teams and significantly improve the customer experience overall. 

Personalized & improved customer experience 

Unified platforms that connect to your business’s CRMs allow both internal and external support agents to best serve each individual customer. Agents can view past customer interactions, purchase history, and specific calls regarding the current concern to build stronger customer relationships. 

Automation through auto attendants and smart call routing can quickly connect customers with the right agents, reducing waiting times, call transfers, and customer frustration. 

Real-time collaboration

Cloud platforms facilitate seamless information sharing and collaboration between your team and the outsourced contact center, improving communication and efficiency. They also promote transparency, so you can feel confident about the level of service your customers are receiving. 

Performance monitoring & reporting

Gain real-time insights into agent performance, call quality, and customer satisfaction metrics across the entire operation (including outsourced agents).

Security & compliance

Cloud providers typically handle data security and infrastructure maintenance, ensuring adherence to industry regulations.

Businesses in restricted industries can look for contact center solutions that offer relevant security policies. For example, Nextiva offers dedicated security and data privacy features for automatic HIPAA compliance for health care contact centers. 

Supercharge Your Contact Center Operations With Nextiva

There are both pros and cons to outsourcing your customer service business function to a third party, and it’s important to consider the advantages and disadvantages equally. 

While there are risks of loss of quality control, data security, and oversight, choosing a trusted partner and a strong contact center solution can also offer benefits like increased scalability, significant cost savings, and an improved customer experience.

Regardless of whether you decide to outsource additional support to a third party, Nextiva has the platform to make contact center operations a breeze. Learn more about how Nextiva’s AI-powered contact center solutions can help you provide omnichannel, personalized support to every customer who gets in touch. 

When you’re evaluating new call center providers, it’s easy to race to the bottom on price.

Who offers the best rates? Who has the cheapest license per user? And what solution is the most economical to implement?

These must always play a factor, sure. But there are a ton of other criteria you must consider before you start crunching numbers.

Things like feature set, deployment help, and security and reliability should be high on your priority list. Otherwise, you’ll end up with a cheap solution that doesn’t cater to your business’s needs.

Call Center Providers: What You Need to Know

When looking for a new call center provider, consider these four key criteria:

Features and functionality	Does the solution cover everything you need today and tomorrow? Is the interactive voice response (IVR) configurable per your needs, and are all your customer communication channels supported?
Deployment and integration	Will your call center provider help with migration and setup? Is there a two-way information exchange available with your line of business apps?
Security and reliability	Have you checked for satisfactory uptime service level agreements (SLAs)? What is the service credit procedure?
Support and reputation	Do customers of a similar size and from comparable industries say good things about the provider? Are review sites consistent?

Up next, we dive into the ins and outs of each category to help you make the best decision for your business.

How to Choose a Call Center Provider

While every business is different, there is a common set of items you must review when shortlisting a provider.

None of these should come as a surprise. But some items often fall by the wayside as you get caught up in technical discussions and product brochures.

Features & functionality

When you opt for a hosted call center rather than an on-premises type, you open the door to a wealth of features at your fingertips.

Check out these features, now considered table stakes, available with the top call center providers.

Call routing & IVR

When customers call in, how do they make it through to an agent?

You can configure your call routing to work with an IVR system, ensuring customer inquiries are directed to the most suitable agent efficiently. This means you no longer need a dedicated help desk solely to redirect calls.

When customers dial your phone number, they are prompted to choose from a numeric menu, e.g., 1 for Sales or 2 for Support. You can make this menu as many layers deep as you need. Then, after a number is chosen, route the call to an agent with the relevant pre-configured skill assigned to them.

There’s less time waiting and higher customer satisfaction when the caller doesn’t need to get transferred and repeat themselves. 

To streamline the customer journey, look for features like skills-based routing, IVR for self-service FAQ, and call queuing with announcements.

Omnichannel support

Omnichannel support means managing more than just incoming calls. In fact, it means supporting multiple digital channels like phone, email, chatbots, SMS messages, and social media from a holistic perspective.

Not only do you get access to web chat, but you have all previous customer interactions at your fingertips when doing so.

Do you need to retrieve a call recording from the past or check an email they sent last week?

You get a single pane of glass for customer service, arming live agents with all the information they need to drive a great customer experience.

Another key element to consider here is whether you need inbound call center services or support for outbound call center services too.

Whether you operate a basic answering service or provide a full customer care function may determine the type of call center you need. Likewise, you might be a market research company or a telemarketing company specializing in appointment setting. These types of businesses need specialist outbound dialing options.

While modern VoIP call centers have the ability to dial the outside world, there are plenty of reasons why you might restrict an agent from doing so.

Consider an inbound vs. outbound call center or whether you need a mix of both (blended), and make sure your chosen call center service provider can empower all your support services and sales staff.

Agent & supervisor tools

It’s not just agents you must take care of when checking for features and functionality.

Evaluate features like call recording and quality monitoring to ensure supervisors have the access they need to maintain standards and step in where needed.

At a minimum, supervisors need a dashboard view of activity so they know what’s happening at all times.

From there, you might want to enable features like “whisper” and “barge” for real-time coaching.

Those with more customer-centric appetites should look out for sentiment analysis and speech analytics to always be aware of how customers are feeling during conversations.

Rather than waiting for survey results like net promoter score (NPS) to filter in, nip customer problems in the bud by detecting high levels of stress and negative words during customer calls and live chats.

Reporting & analytics

In addition to functionality like call recording and agent scoring, your call center provider should offer a robust range of reporting options, including a comprehensive analysis with key performance indicators (KPIs) and metrics.

Standard reports found in a call center include:

• Call volume
• Channel mix
• Cost per call
• Occupancy rate
• Agent utilization
• Agent performance
• Customer satisfaction
• Customer effort score
• Call abandonment rate
• First call resolution rate

Call center reporting takes all your interactions and turns them into patterns and preferences. With this information to hand, you can be more confident making key business decisions, knowing you’re doing the right thing.

Ask to see a demo of what your call center reports and analytics will look like pre-deployment. The last thing you want is to be handed a login only to get lost in a bad user interface.

Scalability

If you need to scale customer support, the last thing you want is a call center solution that can’t facilitate your newly hired call center agents.

Always check if the software can adapt to your business growth, accommodating future increases in call volume or agent count.

It should also be quick and easy to add new agents, allowing you to hire short-notice temporary staff as well as plan for seasonal uplift.

Deployment & integration

Sure, features are fun to review. But they’re no good if they don’t work in your environment.

Make sure you also consider the following three key areas when evaluating your next call center provider.

Cloud-based vs. on-premises

If you’re currently running an on-premises call center, consider the cloud for faster deployment and lower upfront costs.

Unless you have a compliance need or technical restraint, moving to the cloud is a welcome shift into the 21st century. There is still a place for on-premises setups, e.g., healthcare industries with governance guidelines around data storage, but they involve major hindrances when it comes to innovation and access to new features.

Cloud deployment not only opens the door to call center features like self-service portals, artificial intelligence (AI) assistance, and extended integration, but it also removes the potential for maintenance contracts, on-site support teams, and downtime for future changes and scaling.

Ease of integration

When agents use an app like a customer relationship management (CRM) or phone system all day, you need to make sure these integrate with your call center solution.

What’s more, this needs to happen without weeks of planning and technical deployment. Out-of-the-box integration is another key feature you get when opting for a cloud call center over an on-premises deployment.

From here, you can create information exchanges so agents reduce time spent looking for information and hunting down back office users for help during phone calls.

You also remove the need for duplicating information across systems. For example, when a contact gets updated in your call center service, the same happens automatically in your CRM.

Implementation time & training

Getting set up with your new call center solution must include minimal disruption to your day-to-day operations.

While you’re rolling out new technology, you must appreciate that agents’ and customers’ lives go on. They can’t just take a break because you’re upgrading your business tools.

In this case, make sure you plan to the finest detail how and when changes go live and training will occur. If you need professional services support or project management for large deployments, make sure to check early in the process that you’re getting this without any surprise charges.

Security & reliability

Often left until last, but always the most important factor, pay attention to the accreditation and uptime guarantees associated with anyone on your shortlist.

No matter how many bells and whistles your call center provider throws at you, they’re no good if they don’t work half the time.

Data security

Your call center provider should have robust security measures to protect customer data, including encryption and compliance with relevant regulations (HIPAA, PCI DSS, FINRA, etc.).

Failure to provide evidence of these is a red flag. Most providers will make this clear on their website, so you won’t get a surprise when you’re already halfway through implementation.

With modern innovations like AI assistants becoming more commonplace today, checking data retention and company information policies is also a must.

Business continuity & disaster recovery

In the case of an unplanned event, it pays to understand your provider’s plans for handling system outages or natural disasters.

As the saying goes, failing to prepare is preparing to fail. Even if you don’t think your business is likely to suffer an outage due to adverse weather or freak incidents, having a plan for continuous service will, at a bare minimum, give you peace of mind.

If you’re located somewhere that suffers frequent storms or hurricanes, this is likely business requirement number one. A well-formulated disaster recovery plan is a must.

SLAs

Ensure your chosen provider offers SLAs that guarantee uptime, performance, and support response times.

If you’re offering X level of technical support to your customers, you need to know you’re getting it yourself.

It’s common for high-quality cloud call center providers to offer a 99.99% uptime SLA. Nextiva, for example, prides itself on world-class reliability and security, with 24/7 monitoring, N+1 redundancy, and multiple points of presence to ensure geographic resilience.

Support & reputation

So you’ve checked out how secure and reliable your call center provider is.

Job done?

Sometimes things will go wrong, and you’re going to need help. It might not even be the provider’s fault, but you’re going to call them anyway. It’d be nice if they answered.

Customer support

The first thing you want to check is the customer support and troubleshooting options (like phone, email, and live chat) offered. If you prefer to contact your provider via email and receive asynchronous updates, it’s no good if they only offer a phone support line.

Next, check their availability hours to ensure you get timely help. If you offer 24/7 support to your customers in different time zones, it’s non-negotiable that you receive the same from your call center provider.

It’s also worth checking for a formal escalation matrix. If you raise a support query that isn’t getting the attention you need, knowing who to contact and when speeds up the process.

Industry reputation & references

There’s no better way to see what other customers think about a call center provider than to check genuine reviews.

Seek references from existing customers by reading case studies on the vendor’s website, and check review sites like G2 and Trust Radius.

Did you know? Nextiva is voted a top contact center solution on G2 based on over 2,290 5-star reviews.

Training & ongoing support

Look for providers offering comprehensive training programs and ongoing support resources for your agents and technical staff.

The most supportive call center providers realize that running a call center isn’t a one-and-done exercise. As well as initial adoption training programs, ask about on-demand tutorials, videos, and user guides for new features and new users as your business grows and starts to use more of the functionality available.

Nextiva: Your Trusted Call Center Provider

Scouting a call center provider is a lot.

You’ve got to check for best-in-class features, preferred methods of deployment, ease of integration, and whether you can trust your vendor to be there when you need them the most.

Nextiva supports small businesses and medium-sized organizations with their new call center setups by providing everything they need in a single pane of glass, easing deployment.

Whether you need to get up and running immediately, taking advantage of self-service setup and training, or you have complex integration requirements and need assistance from an experienced project team, Nextiva is here to help.

With customers ranging from growing businesses like Canyon Coolers to major brands like San Antonio Spurs, every customer is different, and we get that.

“We have to connect with our customers. Connection is everything. And Nextiva helps us to do that.”

~Jason Costello, CEO and Founder at Canyon Coolers

Backed by our 99.999% uptime SLA, chock full of modern features, and consistently recognized for great customer support, we’re confident Nextiva is the best call center service for you.

Related: 20 of the Top Contact Center Companies in the USA

Call center absenteeism refers to agents who do not arrive at work and do not give prior notice of their whereabouts.

This phenomenon also extends to tardiness. When agents arrive at your contact center later than scheduled, all your planning quickly goes out the window.

Absenteeism doesn’t just have an impact on that agent’s earnings but also affects the rest of your business. Problems arising from call center absenteeism include:

• An insufficient number of agents to handle calls
• Extended customer wait times
• Agents handling questions beyond their scope
• Replanning of work schedules
• Arranging temporary cover at short notice
• Lower than usual customer satisfaction rates

All these issues have long-term implications. If a customer calls in on a day when your call center suffers multiple unplanned absences or they’re unfortunate enough to keep experiencing this problem, they’re likely going to find another provider.

So, let’s do something about it. First, we’re going to examine the reasons why agents take unplanned time off. Then, we will look at ways to resolve and manage the problem.

Note: Some problems are simply unavoidable and that’s okay. Factor in a tolerance for these during your workforce management planning.

Why Call Centers Experience Agent Absenteeism

It’s important to remember that agents are humans, too — they will get ill, and they will have things come up in their personal lives.

Common types of absences your call center agents will experience include:

• Illnesses (common cold, flu, etc.)
• Bereavement (parent, close friend, etc.)
• Injuries (broken leg, concussion, etc.)
• Household issues (leaks, break-ins, etc.)

Real people live real lives. Accidents happen. Children get sick. Traffic is sometimes unavoidable. Make sure you plan for sick leave when building your work schedules. This might mean keeping an on-call team, offering a day off in lieu for last-minute cover, and overstaffing ever so slightly.

Outside of these unavoidable employee absences, there may be other factors in play, for example:

• Lack of motivation
• Stress or burnout
• Incorrect staffing levels
• Bullying in the workplace
• Toxic or negative people in the office

Call center employees may use an unavoidable absence to cover up something like stress or bullying.

Note: Stress is one of the most common causes of unplanned absence, with 53% of call center agents reporting stress-related symptoms.

We must also point out that planned absences, like jury duty or vacation, shouldn’t be included in this area of planning. Your attendance policy will likely include X number of personal days any employee can take, assuming they give enough notice.

Deciphering between fact and fiction can be a challenging part of your role as a call center manager. All these unplanned absences will have a ripple effect not just on the rest of your department but on your entire business.

The Link Between Absent Agents and Poor Performance

When agents don’t turn up to work or arrive late, several problems arise.

As a supervisor, you start rearranging shifts as your call volumes spike. It can be unpleasant to hear phones ringing without anybody there to pick them up. Not only is it noisy and distracting, but you also need to understand the wider impact.

Increased workload

During periods of high call volumes, the colleagues of the team member who couldn’t make it in that day are under pressure.

You balanced that shift for a reason. If you assigned 10 agents to the support line, it was because that line needed 10 agents. Now that you are down to eight or nine, you’re exposing those agents to an onslaught of never-ending calls.

This is where mistakes happen and agents try to cut corners. But you can’t blame them. They’re under pressure to hit their targets. And with a wallboard for everyone to see, no agent wants to finish at the bottom of the table.

Poor performance is directly related to cutting corners and overworking agents. Customers will call back when they realize you only provided a temporary resolution. Your first-call resolution (FCR) rate will plummet, and customers will start to complain.

Low motivation

As a result of having to pick up their absent colleague’s work and being overwhelmed by the sheer volume of calls, it’s easy for call center agents to fall into a slump.

Low motivation can have an impact on mental health. One sick day may seem okay on paper, but when you’re continuously asking agents to cover for other team members, it’s a downward spiral. These agents will then start taking sick days due to stress and burnout.

Several factors contribute to employee morale and motivation, with teamwork — including simply showing up for work — being top of the list.

Poor customer experience

In extreme circumstances, businesses experience high customer attrition rates linked to employee absenteeism. When you can’t maintain the service level you’ve promised customers, they have no choice but to take action.

Customers leave businesses due to customer service–related issues 48% of the time. If you don’t have sufficiently staffed teams, your customers will find an alternative.

Temporary costs

The cost of unplanned sick leave eventually begins to add up, whether through loss of business as customers start to leave or through hiring temporary or replacement staff.

Temporary relief may come in the form of overtime or offering a day in lieu. Either way, this is a lossmaker for your business.

In extreme cases, where the unmotivated agent leaves your company in search of a more enjoyable job, you must also add on the cost of finding their replacement (around $2,500).

How to Calculate Call Center Absenteeism

Several call center metrics and KPIs can help you determine whether you’re suffering from a high absence rate.

Metrics like low FCR, high average handle time, and poor average time to answer could indicate that you’re understaffed despite your best intentions.

In this case, there is no better metric to track than the absence rate.

To calculate the absence rate in your call center, pick the time (week, month, or year), and then collect the following data:

• Scheduled work hours/days
• Number of hours/days absent

From here, you can calculate individual absence rates and your overall rate.

Use the following formula for the individual rate:

And use this formula to get the overall rate:

For example, if one agent is scheduled to work 160 hours per month but has two eight-hour days off, their absence rate is worked out as follows:

• 16/160 = 0.1
• 0.1*100 = 10

That agent’s absence rate is 10%.

If, however, you have a call center with 10 agents, and your nine other agents have four days worth of unplanned absences, your overall absence rate looks like this:

• 304/1600 = 0.19
• 0.19*100 = 19

When combining one agent who has two days off with nine who have four days off, your overall absence rate is 19%. This would indicate a problem when compared to industry benchmarks.

It is generally accepted that a call center agent has three unplanned absences per year. If your rate is above this, you need to start working on reducing your call center absenteeism.

How to Reduce Call Center Absenteeism

So, it’s time to nip this absenteeism problem in the bud. While every agent’s reason for absence will be different, there are a few things you can do to help motivate staff to come in every day.

1. Enable remote working

Many studies have proven that offering the option to work remotely improves work-life balance. In fact, 77% of employees suggest remote or hybrid work has improved their overall well-being.

When you remove the commute or allow an agent to work in an environment they feel more comfortable with, the chance of them not turning up will decrease. Sure, they can wake up a little later, and it’s still bright outside when they finish, but it’s also more manageable when it comes to things like making lunch, posting a parcel, or collecting the kids from school.

As long as agents are logged on at the correct times and can conduct their work to the same level (or better), enabling remote working can greatly reduce absenteeism.

If an agent is genuinely sick and doesn’t want to spread their germs around the office, having the option to work remotely — while being able to blow their nose in private — is an excellent way to ensure continuity.

2. Allow flexible scheduling

If you can offer flexibility around work schedules, call center employees will thank you by turning up for work more often.

It’s not uncommon for agents to be creative with their rationale for unplanned absences. It might just be that they need to get something done in their personal lives. But if management previously shot down the mere suggestion of flexibility, their only viable option is a sudden mystery virus that means they can’t come to work.

By offering flexible work patterns and allowing agents to swap shifts, you stand a chance of reducing unplanned absences. 

Note: While flexibility and swapping may sound like a lot of admin, the best workforce management tools will allow for self-service shift swaps and ensure you’re always covered.

3. Offer incentives and gamification

It’s important to set the tone for your employees. While rewarding strong attendance may sound overly simple, it could be a good way to go if you’re suffering from high absenteeism.

A reward for a 100% attendance rate at the end of the year could come in the following forms:

• Cash bonus
• Paid time off (days
• Gift vouchers to local attractions

By employing contact center gamification across your department, a few days off could be detrimental to staff going after a hefty prize. While not everyone will be super competitive for the top award, nobody wants to come last.

4. Take disciplinary action

For repeat offenders, you’re left with no choice but to take action. If agents have high absence rates, ask them why this is the case.

You might uncover a reason you can work on. For example, if they’re struggling with childcare, there are several options to explore.

However, if your agent can’t provide a valid reason, follow your formal warning procedure. If the absenteeism continues, explain that there may be severe consequences like unpaid leave, final warnings, and termination of employment.

5. Nurture a positive work environment

Call center operations extend beyond making sure everyone turns up. If agents aren’t coming into the office, it might be because of certain people or a lack of comfort in their workspace.

It’s your role as call center manager to ensure your work environment is safe and productive for everyone.

While it may not be evident if something or someone is causing staff to avoid the office, try gathering anonymous feedback to truly understand how your staff feel about their work.

When reviewing attendance records, look for patterns. One agent might regularly take Mondays off. Something going on during Sunday evening might be causing this, or it could be the dread of coming into a workplace they don’t enjoy.

6. Offer sufficient healthcare

Working in a call center isn’t easy. Agents are the sounding board for customer issues, and every time they get a good result, there’s potential for something else to go wrong.

This can hurt employees’ mental health. Stress and burnout are serious factors that impact call center agents more than most.

You can mitigate (or at least control) this by offering several things:

• Regular staff check-ins
• Discounts or free access to mental health apps
• Access to health services
• Regular training
• Flexible work schedules with personal lives in mind

7. Have the right call center software

Ultimately, if agents cannot use the tools they are provided with, they will not have a good experience.

If your call center software is slow or crashes, it will only add to agents’ stress. Likewise, if they often have to switch between apps, causing them to lose their flow, they may feel like slamming their laptop shut.

To help alleviate some of your agents’ pain, ensure that your software provides the following:

• An intuitive user interface
• Intelligent call routing
• Multichannel support (SMS, email, live chat, and social media)
• Screen pop
• CRM integration

These are the bare minimum features for the modern call center agent. Then throw in the features you need as a supervisor:

• Call recording
• Coaching tools like whisper and barge
• Quality monitoring
• Workforce management

Nextiva Is Your Call Center Solution

Nextiva provides all those features (and more) in a single app. Your agents get access to everything they need to handle any customer transaction. And you get everything you need to plan a productive call center, safe in the knowledge you’re doing all in your power to prevent absenteeism.

Customers want to connect with brands on their favorite platforms — scrolling through their social feeds and engaging in organic conversations. Brands that leverage this direct line to provide top-tier customer service unlock a world of happy customers, sky-high loyalty, and a thriving online presence.

The bad news? Keeping up with constant comments, messages, and mentions across social channels is overwhelming for any social media manager. That’s why growth-minded brands rely on the best social media customer service platforms.

We’ll show you how this next-level software streamlines your workflow so you can conquer the social network Wild Wild West.

Why Social Media Customer Service Is So Important

Social media customer service allows businesses to provide convenient, real-time support that builds trust and strengthens brand reputation on the platforms customers already use.

Think of social media as your virtual town square. It’s where customers gather to chat, ask questions, and sometimes air their grievances. But it’s also where your brand can truly listen to its audience, create memorable customer experiences, and drive customer satisfaction.

Standout interactions across social media platforms attract more customers, keep customers longer, and turn loyal customers into brand evangelists.

Convenience is king

Online users spend two hours and 28 minutes per day on social media. That’s 35.8% of our daily online activities.

When people can reach your brand on the social platform they’re already using, customer service interactions become fast, easy, super convenient, and perfectly aligned with their everyday routine.

Reaching out no longer becomes a chore. Firing off a quick DM eliminates waiting on hold over the phone, hunting down a support email address, or endlessly searching your self-service portal. That’s why nearly 65% of X (formerly Twitter) users admit they’d rather send a direct message to a dedicated support handle than call a business.

Real-time service means real-time conversations

Sparking social media conversations and becoming part of your brand’s dialogue fosters customer engagement. Real-time conversations between your customer service team and online users empower you to:

• Resolve inquiries directly
• Address issues quickly
• Respond to positive reviews to build loyalty
• Nip negativity in the bud before it snowballs or (worse) goes viral
• Turn a frustrated customer into a brand advocate
• Show off your unique brand personality, one thoughtful response at a time

Transparency builds trust & brand reputation

Cultivating a solid social media presence takes more than posting engaging content and running contests. Over 70% of consumers turn to social media and review sites before making a purchase, and more than half (53%) of users find it helpful to see how brands answer questions or solve issues publicly.

Addressing concerns head-on tells potential customers you care, value feedback, and strive to resolve issues. Your dedication to customer satisfaction fosters trust and loyalty, amplifies your reputation, and encourages future customer interactions — one well-timed comment or DM at a time.

Why Companies Use Social Customer Service Platforms

Juggling multiple social media accounts and keeping track of customer inquiries is no easy feat.

Fortunately, social media customer service solutions streamline your customer service strategy by offering a suite of features that put your game plan on autopilot. Here’s what they bring to the table.

Centralized management means less chaos

More than 70% of customer service employees say switching between multiple communication channels makes it challenging to meet customer needs.

Imagine having a single, unified dashboard where all your social media interactions live. No more frantic app-hopping or digging through cluttered inboxes. No more scrambling to remember which platform that angry comment came from. Awesome, right?

That’s the magic of a social customer service platform. Your team can efficiently manage all customer queries and comments from one centralized, user-friendly dashboard. This translates to saved time, faster resolutions, and happier agents — because superheroes deserve a break too!

Collaboration tools: teamwork makes the dream work

Social media customer service software facilitates teamwork within your customer service and customer support teams. Seamless collaboration features allow agents to assign inquiries, share notes, and work together on complex issues.

The result? Unified responses, faster resolutions, and a higher chance of first-contact success.

Sentiment analysis: uncover the feels & read between the lines

Gartner researchers say proactive customer service teams will outnumber reactive customer service interactions by 2025. So, how can your team go on the proactive offense? It’s easy when you harness the power of sentiment analysis.

Sentiment analysis is like peering into a crystal ball, revealing your customers’ feelings about your brand. It clues you in to insights about your customers’ emotions and behaviors to help you:

• Prioritize responses
• Address urgent concerns
• Decrease the risk of churn
• Spot patterns and emerging trends
• Identify areas for improvement

Customers using multiple exclamation points and fire emojis may be excited about your new product launch, for example. On the other hand, an abundance of frowny faces in your inbox might indicate a need to address a service bug ASAP.

You can route social media posts to your team based on sentiment scores and auto-respond with AI-powered assistants that are combined with intelligent routing.

Automated workflows: say sayonara to repetitive tasks

Using chatbots and auto-responders for basic questions and comments on social media is a total win-win. They give customers an immediate sense of being seen and heard. They also free up your agents for more complex issues and allow them to focus on providing empathetic, personalized support that wows.

Nextiva’s AI-embedded Customer Engagement Assist auto-responds to social media posts and reviews based on sentiment and other criteria you determine. With AI-driven automated tools like this, any small business can crush engagement like the best brands on social media.

Reporting & analytics: track what matters

Crafting a high-performing social media plan starts with defining your goals and identifying the key performance indicators that will track your progress toward achieving them. Your social media customer service strategy is no different.

The best social customer service platforms monitor key metrics like response times and resolution rates so you can quickly measure your performance and identify trends. Data-driven insights help you understand what’s working (and where you can improve) to continuously refine your approach and elevate your entire customer experience.

5 Key Features of Social Customer Service Platforms

Don’t settle for anything less! These features are essential for your next social media customer service platform:

1. Omnichannel support

Don’t penalize customers for using their favorite social platform. Nearly 90% of consumers expect conversations with agents to move seamlessly among multiple channels. No matter where your customer reaches out, your agents are more than just readily available. They’re totally dialed in.

Omnichannel customer support gives your agents a unified view of your entire customer journey in one dashboard. 

A quick glance may provide your rep with:

• Prior customer conversations from LinkedIn, WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, and any other social channels you operate
• Phone calls and chatbot logs
• Open help tickets
• Past purchases and browsing history

Rather than locking this intel away in separate silos, your team can tap into every social media channel from one screen. 

For example, say a customer starts a pricing conversation via email. They can pick up where they left off with an agent on Instagram without starting over or repeating information. This seamless customer experience across touchpoints has you covered.

2. Ticketing & case management

Integrating a help desk feature keeps everything organized and ensures every customer gets the attention they deserve. Assign inquiries to specific agents, track progress, and prevent queries or comments from falling through the cracks. This guarantees a smooth, efficient resolution process for all customer communications.

3. Knowledge base integration

An empowered agent is a happy (and helpful) agent. The faster your team can find answers, the sooner your customers can resolve their issues.

Knowledge base integrations equip reps with easy access to product information, response templates for frequently asked questions, workflows to resolve common issues, and more. No more scrambling for answers or long hold times — agents can resolve customer issues quickly and efficiently, minimizing frustration for everyone.

4. Social listening tools

High-performing social media management leverages social listening to understand customer sentiment and brand perception. That’s why the best social media management tools include features for your team to:

• Listen to conversations across social channels, forums, blogs, custom sources, and more.
• Track brand mentions and get notifications when changes to your or your competitor’s brand occur.
• Address customer concerns proactively, even if customers haven’t directly messaged your brand.
• Analyze your market and popular social media trends to maximize performance and get inspiration for your own social strategy.

Social media monitoring tools go beyond responding to customer messages — they allow your reps to turn potential problems into positive customer service experiences and stay ahead of the curve. You’ll never miss an opportunity to turn a like, comment, reply, or direct message into a meaningful and positive customer interaction.

5. Customer feedback integration

Customer feedback is a gift. It helps you better understand your customers and use their observations to become a better brand. Social media customer service software collects and analyzes customer feedback to simplify and streamline your feedback loop.

Harness the power of this valuable insight to upgrade your social media strategy. Discover areas where you can exceed customer expectations, and deliver excellent customer service that keeps them coming back for more.

Platforms That Complement Social Customer Service Tools

A social media customer service platform is a powerful tool, but it doesn’t operate in a vacuum. Here are some additional platforms that work hand in hand to supercharge your social customer service strategy.

Cloud contact center

Cloud contact centers unify all communication channels — from phone calls, text messages, and emails to social media messages — to give agents a complete picture of the customer journey, regardless of how a customer reaches out.

While your social customer service platform focuses on social media interactions, a cloud contact center is the central hub for managing all customer touchpoints. 

This 360-degree view allows agents to understand the context of a customer’s issue and personalize their support. That way, they can provide a holistic, efficient, consistent customer service experience that goes above and beyond.

CRM

Knowing your customer goes a long way. A CRM plays well with social media customer service platforms because it gives your team access to customer data, demographics, engagement metrics, purchase history, and more.

When agents understand the individual needs of their customer base, they can anticipate future needs, offer targeted solutions faster, provide personalized customer experiences, and create more engaging customer journeys.

Knowledge base & self-service portals

A robust self-service ecosystem demonstrates your commitment to customer empowerment and proves that your brand cares about customer success.

Customers are able to find answers and resolve a wide range of issues independently, reducing the burden on your social media support team. But should they need a helping hand, a chatbot will always be there to assist.

Live chat

While social media is great for quick responses, you can also trigger live chat invitations based on predefined criteria to give agents a dedicated private space for more complex or sensitive issues.

Agents can share files and screenshots or even initiate co-browsing sessions to walk customers through problem-solving steps. Keeping these lengthy support conversations off public social media feeds maintains a clean and professional brand image while ensuring customer privacy.

These are just five must-have features. Nextiva’s CX APIs maximize your investment in existing technologies by easily integrating your contact center, social customer service platform, and all your other mission-critical systems.

Elevate Your Support Experience With Nextiva 🚀

Nailing social media customer service is a convenient, fast, and transparent way to build a stellar brand reputation, snag more customers, and turn loyal customers into brand ambassadors. But it’s nearly impossible to get right without a unified social customer care platform.

Nextiva’s Social Marketing Suite unites all your customer service channels and social media platforms into a single intuitive dashboard. Your agents can finally ditch the social media customer service chaos, delight customers, and score the data-driven insights you need to level up your game.

Trusted by innovators and forward-thinking companies, Nextiva has the all-in-one platform you’ve been waiting for.

There are two sides to the coin when it comes to workforce management (WFM) in your contact center:

• Making sure you have enough staff to service customers without overstaffing
• Making sure you keep your agents happy and productive

With an ever-increasing customer demand and an increasing number of agents reporting that they suffer from work-related burnout and absenteeism, finding a balance between these key facets is a delicate balancing act.

When you get the right people in the right place at the right time, everyone’s happy, and your business will be productive. We call this workforce engagement.

These days, we’re talking about more than Erlang calculators and Excel spreadsheets for call center staffing. It’s no longer a numbers game. WFM is a vital call center strategy you must get right.

Why Contact Center WFM Is so Important

When you treat WFM with the respect and importance it warrants, you get many things right in your business, not just call center operations.

From a customer point of view, you achieve optimal service quality. When customers phone in, they get through to an agent — and the right agent, too — without waiting a long time.

And you’re doing this within budget. For operational efficiency, it’s one thing to hire lots of call center agents to handle call volumes. Executing this without turning your call center into a cost center is another thing entirely.

By maximizing agents’ time and skills while minimizing operational costs, you put a green check mark next to your business unit for budget, bottom line, and customer satisfaction.

From an employee point of view, it’s no secret that happy agents lead to better customer service and agent retention. If you can remove the potential for agent burnout and understaffing while increasing productivity and job satisfaction, you create a balanced environment and a high-performing team.

Key Components of WFM for Call Centers

Getting WFM right isn’t a one-and-done exercise; there is no longer a single tool or process.

Look out for three crucial elements when planning your WFM the first or next time:

Demand forecasting

When planning contact operations, if you know your expected contact volumes, you can forecast the level of service you need to provide. 

For example, if you know you have a peak in billing queries every Wednesday because your invoices get sent out on Tuesday evenings, you can plan your cover and overtime schedule or bring in a new part-time agent who specializes in this area.

You can also use historical data and analyze seasonality and trends to predict the baseline number of agents you need to manage incoming calls. 

You might have 300 calls per day and a handle time of less than 30 seconds. This suggests a good level of service and enough agents on call. 

If, however, you receive 300 inbound calls per day but have a low first-call resolution rate, there’s a clear need for more staff or better resource allocation.

Scheduling

While the Erlang calculator was great for entering your number of calls and generating the number of contact center agents you needed, it didn’t factor in agent skill sets and preferences.

We now know the keys to optimizing staff schedules are considering breaks, genuine agent availability, and call monitoring as well as calculating an agent-to-call ratio.

Automated scheduling tools factor in both the number of hours available in a day/week and the types of inquiries agents are handling.

Some calls may need a longer wrap-up or careful escalation, and agents may need to mentally switch off after a heated call. 

Rather than relying on punching numbers, embrace automation for optimized schedule building that includes all the factors involved in managing inbound calls.

Real-time monitoring

Real-time monitoring leverages data being processed in the moment to enable you to make better decisions relating to staffing levels. This is called intraday management.

Even with all the planning in the world, sometimes unpredictable things happen. If there’s a power outage or a natural disaster, expect call volume fluctuations throughout the day.

When this happens, you have two choices:

• Wait until it’s too late to react.
• Use real-time monitoring to make a change as soon as an anomaly gets spotted.

The ability to adapt schedules and resources for optimal efficiency means you don’t just start out with a good staffing level; you maintain it even in uncertain conditions. 

By freeing up staff from other departments, enabling remote agents, or diverting to an outsourced call center, you can ensure consistent service levels and keep your customers happy.

Related: How to Improve Your Contact Center Workforce Management

WFM Strategies for a Better Workplace

Switching on WFM functionality is a solid start. But you need to go further to provide a best-in-class customer experience and look after your staff.

Here are four simple strategies to adopt if you’re serious about call center workforce management:

Empower your call center agents

When agents are in the know, you’re arming them with everything they need to perform better.

If it’s obvious which tasks and behaviors correlate with performance, agents will double down in these areas.

There are three headline components to introduce when it comes to agent empowerment:

• Clear performance management: Set targets and use data to benchmark good and great customer service.
• Gamification: Encourage ownership and self-improvement by creating a sense of friendly competition and incentives to strive for continuous improvement.
• Agent training and development: Provide upfront and ongoing support for both day-to-day task execution and career development.

“The only thing worse than training your employees and having them leave is not training them and having them stay.”

~Henry Ford

Make decisions based on data

When it comes to measuring employee engagement, you need data. Modern workforce management tools are bursting with numbers, charts, and outcomes.

When the time comes to make a change, lean on these three major data points:

• Key performance indicators: Track agent performance levels to make sure there’s no potential for burnout or elevated stress.
• Call center metrics: Use measures like service level, schedule adherence, agent utilization, and customer satisfaction to ensure company performance does not dip.
• Resource allocation: Make data-backed decisions for agent scheduling and always ensure you have the right people in the right places.

Take employee well-being seriously

A key theme of the modern approach to workforce engagement is ensuring you don’t get to the point of burnout.

But knowing it’s about to happen and preventing it are two different things. 

If you let an agent get to the edge of the cliff, you’ve failed. You either have a burned-out employee who can’t focus or one who will leave for a less stressful job.

Instead, you must facilitate an enjoyable and productive workplace:

• Schedule regular check-ins: Have a monthly open conversation — verbal or via chat — that doesn’t focus on work performance.
• Have flexible scheduling options: Switch up rotas, types of customer interactions, and even locations.
• Incorporate work-life balance initiatives: Reduce commute times with remote working or allow a change in shift pattern for special occasions.

Let the software do the hard work

Let’s be honest. These might be drastic changes for some call centers.

Changing your scheduling processes can often be time-consuming and a bit of a shock to the system — unless you have the right WFM software doing the hard work for you.

For accurate forecasting, automated scheduling, and real-time monitoring, find a WFM solution you can get started with straight out of the box.

That means a solution that integrates with your existing call center software as a minimum. All the data you’ve collected over the years will feed into a WFM tool, enabling a swift plan to forecast, schedule, and allocate resources.

Pair Your WFM With Nextiva

Like the sound of WFM software but don’t know where to get started?

That’s where Nextiva’s contact center solution comes in.

You can access the headline components like demand forecasting, automated rota scheduling, and real-time monitoring. That means you set the tone for high-performance customer support and employee satisfaction. 

You’ll be introducing the benefits of WFM and empowering staff and supervisors to take a new approach. Making data-backed decisions, putting employees first, and empowering agents are often direct results of introducing the right WFM tool.

You can even introduce self-service options for agents to manage schedules and swap shifts.

Irina Mateeva, a WFM transformation consultant, says this should be standard functionality in a WFM solution. Yet, it’s not widely marketed.

“Shift swaps — this should be standard functionality. If this is a vendor’s selling point, then the vendor doesn’t have much else to offer.” 

If Patsy has a last-minute dentist appointment for the pain she’s been battling all week, Muhammed can swap shifts with the click of a button. You reduce the workload of call center managers while providing the environment agents crave.

With Nextiva, you get access to:

• A single platform for omnichannel contact management and resource planning
• Gamification and team benchmarking backed by real-time and historical data
• Extensive analytics for performance stats, queue traffic, and campaign success
• Supervisor tools like artificial intelligence (AI) transcription and intuitive coaching
• Advanced features like virtual agents, AI-driven productivity tools, and rich automation

If you’re a high-growth or high-volume call center with skilled customer service agents, look no further than workforce management from Nextiva.