Call Center Meaning: A call center is a centralized support team of customer service agents who answer and make calls for a company. They help customers with questions or problems, conduct sales calls, telemarketing, and more.

When you call a company with a question or a problem, you’re most likely not going to reach someone in their main office. You’re likely talking to a call center agent if you speak with someone. But just what is a call center in today’s terms, and how do modern call centers work?

Call centers are cornerstones of customer service strategies. In this article, we’ll delve into the nuts and bolts of how call centers work and explore the differences between different types of call centers. If you’ve ever considered this solution for your business, you’re in luck. We also explore reasons why you might need a call center.

Let’s get started.

How Do Call Centers Work?

Call centers use teams of agents who handle incoming and outgoing calls. When a customer calls, an available agent assists the customer with their question or issue.

To improve efficiency, agents use different call center technology and scripts to guide them through the call and provide consistent service. This includes call routing systems that direct calls based on the caller’s needs and the agent’s availability. All these features help ensure that calls are answered promptly and by the most suitable agent.

When a customer calls your business:

1. IVR prompts them with menu options.
2. The system routes the customer to an agent.
3. The agent identifies the customer and the problem.
4. The agent solves the problem or finds the next steps.
5. The agent records and documents the call.
6. The agent follows up if needed.

Agents also use tools like interactive voice response (IVR) systems for call handling automations, like gathering information from callers before connecting them to an agent.

Overall, call centers are designed to handle a large volume of calls efficiently and provide a positive customer experience (CX). They are crucial for businesses to manage customer inquiries, provide support, and conduct sales and marketing activities over the phone.

Related: 16 Must-Have Call Center Features for Sales Teams

Types of Call Centers

With all the kinds of inquiries that callers can contact you about, call centers can’t operate as one-size-fits-all solutions. There are several different types of call centers to serve the specific needs of different kinds of businesses.

Inbound call center 

⭐ Best for: Businesses with a high volume of customer inquiries or helpdesk needs.

Inbound call centers primarily receive calls from customers. Customer service representatives in inbound call centers are trained to handle all kinds of customer needs. They focus on providing high-quality service to resolve customer issues efficiently.

These calls can be:

• General inquiries
• Support requests
• Orders
• Feedback

These call centers focus on providing a personalized customer experience. Agents listen actively to customers, understand their needs, and provide tailored solutions. This personalized approach helps build customer loyalty and can lead to higher customer satisfaction levels than other call centers.

👀 In action: An e-commerce company experiencing a surge in customer inquiries during a sales event would use an inbound call center to handle the increased call volume and ensure timely customer support.

Outbound call center

⭐ Best for: Businesses that rely on proactive customer engagement, like sales or market research firms.

Outbound call centers make proactive calls to customers or prospects. Outbound agents are trained to engage customers effectively over the phone and often use customer service scripts or call lists to guide their conversations.

These call centers are commonly used for:

• Telemarketing
• Sales
• Customer surveys
• Appointment reminders

Outbound call centers use automatic or predictive dialers. Auto dialers can dial numbers from a populated log, saving agents time. However, agents still need to spend time updating their lists manually to ensure they’re compliant with TCPA (Telephone Consumer Protection Act) and don’t include any callers who’ve opted out of contact.

With predictive dialers, algorithms fuel predictions of when an agent will be available for the next call. This triggers the system to dial numbers in advance. This technology helps maximize productivity by minimizing idle time between calls, leading to higher call volumes and potentially increased sales or survey completion rates.

👀 In action: A telecommunications company launching a new service might use an outbound call center to contact existing customers in their CRM and inform them about the new offering.

Blended call center

⭐ Best for: Businesses that must balance inbound customer support and outbound sales or marketing activities.

Blended call centers pull double duty with call activity, handling both incoming and outgoing calls. Blended agents need to be versatile based on call volume and business needs.

Blended call centers balance inbound customer service needs with outbound sales or marketing efforts. They do this by dynamically adjusting staffing based on call volume. They can then allocate resources between inbound and outbound calls in real time.

This flexibility allows companies to maximize agent productivity by ensuring that agents are always engaged in productive call activity — no matter which need is more pressing at the moment.

👀In action: A subscription-based software company might use a blended call center to address technical issues and also follow up with customers whose subscriptions are up for renewal.

Automated call center 

⭐ Best for: Businesses with a high volume of routine customer inquiries, such as utility providers or financial institutions.

Automated call centers use cloud-based technology like IVR and intelligent virtual agents to handle customer inquiries or tasks without human intervention.

These systems can save time and effort when they:

• Provide information
• Process orders
• Direct callers to the appropriate department

Unlike human agents who can only handle one call at a time, automated systems can take multiple calls concurrently. This provides quick and efficient service to customers and reduces the workload on agents for run-of-the-mill inquiries. These call centers can use auto attendant scripts to create pre-recorded menus to suit various customer needs.

This scalability makes these call centers ideal solutions for businesses that experience fluctuating call volumes or need to process lots of inquiries in a short period.

👀 In action: A bank might use an automated call center to provide account balances, find local branches, give daily hours, or process simple transactions over the phone.

Virtual call center

⭐ Best for: Businesses that want to access a larger pool of potential talent.

Virtual call centers allow agents to work remotely, often from home. Agents connect to the call center’s systems through the internet and handle calls as if they were in a traditional call center.

More than anything else, virtual call centers offer flexibility for both agents and businesses.  Agents can work from anywhere if they can access remote work tools, and businesses gain access to a larger pool of potential talent.

By going virtual, businesses can easily scale their phone call center operations up or down based on demand since they’re not constrained by physical office space.

👀In action: A travel agency might use a remote call center to hire remote agents who can work from different locations and offer personalized support across multiple time zones.

Offshore call center

⭐ Best for: Businesses looking to reduce operational costs while maintaining quality customer service.

Offshore call centers are in a different country from the company they serve. These call centers often offer cost savings for companies due to lower labor costs in the offshore location. 

However, they can sometimes create challenges related to:

• Language barriers
• Cultural differences
• Time zone changes

Differing time zones can also benefit businesses with a smaller geographical presence. Offshore provides extended hours of operation, allowing companies to offer customer support outside regular business hours.

👀 In action: A software company in Sacramento, CA, might use an offshore call center in South Africa to provide multilingual technical support to customers, leveraging the cost savings to pay for a new customer feedback survey.

Related: How Much Does a Call Center Cost?

Other types 

You can also determine whether you need a call center that presides over multiple channels and how integrated you need those channels to be. You can even staff your call center if it fits your business needs.

Check out these other types of call centers and their pros and cons.

Call Center Type	Call Center Description	Call Center Pros	Call Center Cons
Multichannel Call Center	Interact with customers through various phone, email, chat, and social media channels.	Increase customer flexibility with multiple touchpoint options.	Disjointed experience without integrated channels.
Omnichannel Call Center	Integrate communications to offer consistent support across all channels.	Enhance seamless communication experience and shared data.	Not necessary for some businesses.
In-house Call Center	Operate internally using the company’s staff and resources.	Benefit from greater control over customer service quality.	Costly to set up and maintain.
Outsourced Call Center	Hire third-party service providers that specialize in being a contact center as a service.	Scale business quicker with a less expensive option.	Less direct control over quality and goal alignment.

Top Call Center Positions Every Team Needs

Whether you end up starting a call center in-house or outsourcing your services, you should plan on a well-rounded staff for the best and most efficient customer service.

Each call center team needs a variety of different roles to be successful.

• 📞 Agents are the frontline staff who handle incoming and outgoing customer calls. They provide customer service, resolve issues, and answer questions about products or services.
• 🖥️ Support teams are responsible for providing technical assistance to customers. They troubleshoot issues with products and services, give guidance on using internal call center software, and escalate complex issues to higher-level support teams if necessary.
• 📊 Managers are responsible for supervising the day-to-day operations of the call center. They oversee agents and monitor call center metrics, coaching and supporting agents to ensure they hit their goals.
• 📈 Directors are responsible for overseeing the overall operations of the call center. They develop strategies to improve efficiency, manage budgets, hire agents, and ensure positive outcomes from call center teams.
• 🔍 Specialists focus on areas like quality assurance (QA) or training. They might hone in on workforce management or optimize call center performance.

Reasons Why You Might Need a Call Center

Of course, knowing this much about call centers is more helpful when you can understand why you need one.

You might need help with:

• Overseeing a sales team
• Managing customer accounts
• Reducing customer churn

Here are the key signs that your business would benefit from adding call center service:

Your customers spend too much time waiting

Long wait times can lead to customer frustration — a slippery slope to low customer satisfaction. That frustration might drive them to abandon their calls or seek assistance from competitors.

🏆 Call centers help manage call volume more effectively, reduce wait times, and improve overall CX. Ensuring customers receive timely support also reduces the risk of churn or lost sales.

Your customers have complex or high-priority problems

Complex problems often require specialized knowledge and expertise to resolve. High-priority problems like urgent technical issues or escalated complaints need prompt attention.

🏆 Call centers help by providing access to trained agents who can handle special cases and prioritizing urgent cases to ensure agents address them promptly.

Your CX needs a lift

Customers might turn away from you for more convenient competitors if your business lacks sufficient support channels. Even if you have multiple channels, inconsistencies in the level of service across different touchpoints can lead to a poor CX. 

Call centers help by providing additional avenues for customers to reach out and receive assistance, as well as standardizing service delivery to ensure interactions are consistent in quality.

Scale Your Customer Service Strategy with Confidence

A call center campaign can significantly enhance business efficiency and boost customer service KPIs. Whether you want to improve sales or streamline operations, a centralized hub for customer interactions can better meet customer needs and drive growth.

Embrace the opportunity to transform your business and exceed expectations with a customer-centric call center solution tailored to your needs.

Call Center FAQs

For more call center basics, check out these frequently asked questions.

Today’s buyers have several choices in any given product and service category. Many of these options offer similar benefits with slight variations. 

So, what differentiates businesses beyond their product?

 It’s the experience your product and team provide to your customers. 

Creating the best brand experience for your customers is critical in today’s competitive market. It’s important to think about your customer’s entire journey, considering every interaction to meet customer expectations and needs — and ways to go above and beyond them. You need to craft and execute a robust customer management game plan to effectively increase customer loyalty and satisfaction and, ultimately, revenue. 

Here, we’ll cover the pillars of a successful customer management program, its greatest benefits, types of customer management software, and best practices to implement today.

What Is Customer Management?

Customer management involves the processes and systems that manage all interactions across customer-facing teams and communication channels like email, phone calls, live chat, and social media.

That means customer management is not just one team’s job or responsibility. The most successful customer management programs are widely adopted across the organization to ensure a high level of consistent customer service and support.

3 pillars of effective customer management

Let’s look closely at the three pillars of customer management that are essential to managing customer relationships.

1. Processes and practices

You’ll need to create a system to manage interactions with existing and potential customers effectively. Establishing processes for all of your teams ensures that your customers receive a consistent experience throughout the customer journey. 

2. Relationship building

Your processes must work effectively at scale while personalizing your interactions with each customer. 

When you foster positive, long-term customer relationships through individualized experiences, your customers feel seen and heard. That’s above-and-beyond service they are sure to remember.

Better overall customer satisfaction increases your customer retention. Higher retention rates mean your company can serve its customers for extended periods. It significantly impacts the average contract value and lifetime value of customers.

3. Data-driven approach

Data analysis is critical in a customer management strategy as it keeps your operations in check and doesn’t let them stray too far from customers’ needs. 

The proper set of tools helps teams manage all necessary data to make customer relationship management systematic. These platforms can include contact center software, CRMs, customer feedback tools, and more.

Gathering and analyzing customer data helps companies understand what their customers need at a given time. Businesses can use this information to find the gaps in their offerings and optimize processes to bridge them.

Why Customer Management Is Critical in 2024

In today’s market, many organizations have to do more with less. They stretch resources and budgets to keep costs down while maintaining productivity and work quality.

The number one thing businesses can’t sacrifice is customer satisfaction. Now more than ever, customers need to be taken care of, feel supported, and get value out of every dollar. Remote work also requires more asynchronous collaboration. Companies are centralizing tools and consolidating tech stacks to make it easier for employees to remain efficient and effective.

Here are a few reasons companies should consider investing in their customer management programs. 

Win regardless of competition

Every business needs to be more adaptive to changing customer needs. It’s tricky to stay ahead and stand out. Effective customer management creates a comfortable experience for customers when they interact with your brand.

No one wants to switch to the competition, but certain events make customers question whether a different solution would be better. Companies focused on making customer experiences positive and memorable will win their trust and loyalty. 

Use data to tailor offerings

Customers’ needs can be perceived differently by the people who cater to them. Often, the perception stands far away from reality. The customer management approach relies on data that conveys an accurate and complete picture of what customers want or expect.

Analyzing customer data in real time makes it easier for you to tailor your offerings in order to make a significant impact. It helps you become more customer-centric by delivering a welcoming experience for them. Such encounters reflect on your NPS score and retention rate.

This analysis aims to cater to the needs of both current and future customers.

Reduce churn

With a solid customer experience delivered by customer-centric initiatives and support, it reduces churn. In other words, buyers are less likely to switch to competitors. It increases the average revenue per account, lifetime value of customers, and average contract value. 

These metrics show an accurate picture of how practical your customer experience really is. If they’re optimal, you know your customer management strategy is working. 

Increase sales and profitability

Customer management done correctly increases loyalty. Loyal customers mean repeat purchases, offering your team many upselling and cross-selling opportunities. Repeat purchases also support profitability since selling to existing customers costs much less than new customer acquisitions. 

Satisfied customers are also more likely to recommend your products and services to others with similar needs. Referral and word-of-mouth leads are usually less expensive than other lead channels.

For new customers, first impressions matter. Providing an excellent selling journey is critical to making your prospects feel comfortable moving through the purchasing funnel. The selling experience often reflects your customer experience, and it’s essential to manage the process even before the sale. 

Related: Winning Customer Retention Management Strategies & Tactics for Contact Centers

8 Customer Management Tools and Systems

While they may differ slightly from one company to another based on specific business needs, team sizes, and existing processes, these tools and systems are routinely involved in managing customer experiences throughout the buying journey.

1. Contact center platforms

Contact center platforms manage inbound and outbound customer interactions across phone, email, chat, and social media. These platforms offer several features to streamline communication and improve customer service efficiency.

Contact center platform features

Below are some notable features of a good contact center platform. 

• Ticketing systems for tracking customer queries.
• Call routing to direct calls to the appropriate agent.
• Interactive voice response systems for automated call management.
• Agent performance monitoring to ensure quality service.
• Reporting tools for analyzing call center performance.
• Chatbots to provide immediate responses to common queries.

Top 5 contact center platforms in 2024

Below are the top five contact center platforms for small businesses. 

1. Nextiva 
2. Salesforce Service Cloud 
3. Aircall
4. CloudTalk
5. Gladly

2. Customer Relationship Management systems

Customer relationship management (CRM) systems store and manage customers’ data while continuously tracking their journeys. They help automate tasks and support multiple sales processes and marketing initiatives. CRM platform automation lets companies build and maintain customer relationships at scale. 

CRM system features

Below are some notable features of CRM tools. 

• Contact management to organize customer information.
• Lead scoring to prioritize sales teams’ efforts and ensure proper lead management.
• Sales pipeline management for tracking progress.
• Marketing automation for efficient campaign management.
• Reporting and analytics for advanced insights into customer behavior.

Top 5 CRM solutions in 2024

Below are the leading CRM solutions on the market.

• Salesforce Sales Cloud
• HubSpot Sales Hub
• ClickUp
• ActiveCampaign for Sales
• Close

3. Help desk software

Help desk software streamlines internal support processes, making it easier for businesses to handle customer service issues and inquiries efficiently. It centralizes support ticket management, which helps companies track, prioritize, and address customer queries effectively.

Help desk software features

• Knowledge base management for easy access to information.
• Issue tracking to monitor and resolve customer problems.
• Ticket routing to ensure the right person addresses inquiries.
• Self-service portal for customers to find answers independently.
• Reporting tools for insights into support performance.

Top 5 help desk solutions in 2024

Below are the five leading help desk software programs on the market. 

1. Zoho Desk
2. Zendesk Support Suite
3. HubSpot Service Hub
4. Salesforce Service Cloud
5. Freshdesk

4. Customer feedback management tools

Customer feedback management (CFM) tools collect and analyze customer feedback from various sources, including surveys, reviews, and social media. These tools help businesses understand customer satisfaction and identify areas for improvement.

CFM tool features

Below are some notable features of CFM platforms.

• Feedback capture forms for easy data collection.
• Sentiment analysis to understand customer emotions.
• Reporting and insights for understanding feedback trends.
• Action management to respond to customer inputs effectively.

Top 5 CFM software tools in 2024

Below are the most popular CFM tools available on the market.

1. Google Workspace
2. SurveyMonkey
3. Qualtrics CoreXM
4. Jotform
5. QuestionPro

5. Marketing automation platforms

Marketing automation platforms computerize marketing campaigns, personalize customer journeys, and nurture leads through different sales funnel stages. They allow businesses to talk to their current and potential customers in a more personal and timely way without having to do everything manually.

Marketing automation platform features

Below are some outstanding features of marketing automation platforms. 

• Email marketing for targeted and personalized communication.
• Lead nurturing workflows to guide potential customers through the funnel. 
• Social media marketing to engage with audiences across various platforms.
• Landing page creation for capturing leads.
• Analytics for measuring campaign effectiveness.

Top 5 marketing automation platforms in 2024

Below are the foremost marketing automation platforms to optimize marketing efforts.

1. HubSpot Marketing Hub
2. Insider
3. ActiveCampaign for Marketing
4. Braze
5. MailChimp

6. Customer data platforms

Customer data platforms (CDPs) unify customer data from various sources to create a comprehensive, single view of each customer. They personalize marketing and help make customer service management more effective.

CDP features

Below are some exceptional features of CDPs. 

• Data integration to aggregate data from multiple sources. 
• Segmentation for targeted, account-based marketing.
• Identity management to recognize customers across platforms.
• Personalization tools for improving customer engagement and experience.
• Analytics for deeper insights into customer behavior.

Top 5 CDPs in 2024

Below are the best CDPs with advanced data management and personalization capabilities. 

1. Treasure Data
2. Segment
3. BlueKai
4. Adobe Audience Manager
5. Klaviyo

7. Chatbots

Chatbots offer 24/7 customer support and answer basic questions without human intervention. They’re an efficient way to provide immediate assistance and improve customer satisfaction.

Chatbot features

• Natural language processing for understanding customer queries.
• AI-powered responses to provide accurate answers.
• Integration with other systems for seamless service delivery. 

Top 5 chatbots in 2024

Below are the prominent chatbots for automating customer service efficiently. 

• Zendesk Support Suite
• Intercom
• Qualified
• Tidio
• Kore.ai

8. Feedback and review sites

These platforms encourage customer reviews and help businesses manage their online reputation. They build trust and help customers’ decision-making processes.

Feedback and review platform features 

Below are some notable features of review platforms.

• Review collection to gather customer opinions.
• Sentiment analysis for understanding customer sentiments.
• Reputation management to monitor and improve online presence.
• Response capabilities to engage with customer feedback.

Top 5 feedback and review platforms in 2024

Below are the leading feedback and review platforms that help businesses manage their reputation online. 

1. G2
2. Trustpilot
3. Google My Business
4. Yelp 
5. Capterra

Customer Management Best Practices

Customer experience statistics show that how you manage customers directly reflects on your sales and profitability. Consumers are five times more likely to recommend a brand after an excellent customer service experience.

Happy customers amplify positive messaging directed at the target market. Below are a few best practices you should follow to run effective customer management processes in your business.

Make it personal

Create content aligned with buyers’ needs and interests at various customer journey stages to create an engaging experience. Set up your CRM, CDP, and surveys to aggregate customer data and use it as input to ensure informed follow-ups and make marketing messaging effective at various touch points. 

You can see purchase history and assess how a customer segment interacts with your web pages. Based on these insights, update your calls to action and make them more personalized. Personalized messaging and content delivery help businesses get closer to their customers and reap the potential rewards of a fruitful relationship. 

Streamline support

Customer service automation and AI can take over tedious tasks, including entering data, sorting through emails, or answering simple FAQs. This lets your team focus on more important things, like talking to customers. AI can also help you understand your customers better and offer them exactly what they want.

Ask for feedback

Ask for customer feedback and encourage them to answer what they like and dislike. Your customers are the best source to recognize opportunities to improve. Use these opportunities to create operations that deliver better experiences for customers. 

You can respond to feedback promptly and make necessary improvements, showing the customer their opinion matters and that you care enough to act on it.

Choose the right technology

There are several tools you can use when it comes to customer management. Tools enable you to make customer experiences seamless, but they require you to add a human touch by making customer experiences personal.

Choosing the right tools to integrate with existing business apps and systems can help you centralize data, allowing you to work on delivering experiences rather than connecting different systems.

Related: Learn about Nextiva’s customer management integrations

Track metrics

What you can measure is what you can improve. Track customer metrics such as resolution time, customer satisfaction score, retention, churn, lifetime value, and other valuations that help you improve your customer management approach. 

Adapt the strategy and processes based on these metrics as a source of truth. This will ensure your business grows with more repeat sales and improved profitability.

Tackle Customer Management in One App With Nextiva

You need to make sure customers can reach your support staff without any hassle, helping you make an excellent first impression. 

Nextiva lets you take contact center operations to the cloud, adding more scalability and capabilities to deal with high call volume. It offers call queuing, customer service automation, call forwarding, and several other features, making customer service management a must for your business.

Many companies use customer service automation to boost their support team’s productivity and assist customers with fewer human interactions. It’s a great way to handle high call volumes, speed things up, and reduce errors.

But here’s the thing — automation isn’t perfect. It lacks that personal touch and may not be best for handling complex issues. So, how do you know whether and how to use it for your business?

If you decide to give automation a go, the trick is to balance efficiency and human interaction. In this article, we’ll walk you through customer service automation and how you can benefit from it while giving your customers the human connection they appreciate.

What Is Customer Service Automation?

Customer service automation refers to the use of technology, such as chatbots, AI, and self-service portals, to handle customer inquiries and support tasks without human intervention.

Traditionally, companies have relied on customer service agents to handle issues through various communication channels such as phone calls and email. However, as a company grows, the need for additional support staff increases, leading to higher expenses.

Customer service automation offers a cost-effective solution to scale customer service while maintaining quality. It enables businesses to provide efficient, round-the-clock customer support and boosts customer engagement.

Implementing automated systems helps businesses reduce response times, improve customer satisfaction, and free human agents to focus on complex and high-value tasks, better-allocating resources and increasing efficiency.

What Are Some Examples of Automated Customer Support?

How does customer service automation work? Here are some key examples of automated customer service systems to help you understand the key functions:

1. Chatbots and virtual assistants: AI-powered chatbots and virtual assistants can handle simple customer queries, provide information, and guide customers through basic troubleshooting steps. They use natural language processing (NLP) to understand customer questions and provide relevant responses.
2. Interactive voice response (IVR): An automated phone system that interacts with callers, gathers information, and routes calls to the appropriate department or agent based on the customer’s needs.
3. Knowledge bases and self-service portals: Companies create comprehensive knowledge bases containing FAQs, how-to guides, and troubleshooting information. Customers can access these resources through self-service portals to find answers to their questions independently.
4. Automated email responses: When customers send emails to support addresses, automation tools can analyze the content and send pre-written responses based on the identified issue. If the query is too complex for automation, it is routed to a human agent.
5. Ticket routing and prioritization: Automation tools can categorize and prioritize incoming support tickets based on predefined criteria, such as urgency or customer type. This ensures that high-priority issues are addressed promptly and tickets are assigned to the appropriate support team.
6. Workflow automation: Repetitive tasks, such as updating customer records, sending follow-up emails, or generating reports, can be automated using workflow automation tools. This frees up human agents to focus on more complex issues.
7. Integration with other systems: Customer service automation tools can integrate with other systems, such as CRM software or order management systems, to retrieve relevant customer data and provide a more personalized experience.
8. Artificial Intelligence (AI): AI plays a crucial role in customer service automation by enabling systems to understand, learn, and make decisions based on data. AI and machine learning algorithms can analyze customer inquiries, identify patterns, and provide personalized responses. AI can also help route inquiries to the right department or agent based on the nature of the issue

Benefits of Automated Customer Service

Automating customer service processes comes with a host of benefits. Besides lower costs, let’s dive in to learn why more businesses are automating their customer service.

1. Improve efficiency and reduce workload

Automation is a game-changer when improving efficiency and reducing workload for customer service reps. It streamlines workflows and gives support agents more time to deliver personalized service for complex issues.

Instead of worrying about hitting daily call metrics, they can concentrate on actually satisfying customers. Automated tools boost collaboration, make sure no tickets slip through the net, and even suggest helpful knowledge-base articles.

2. Offer 24/7 support

Another big plus is that automated customer care is always on, 24/7. No more waiting around for office hours to get help.

Chatbots can handle common queries any time of day or night, which is a real win for customer satisfaction. And it’s not just about service — clever chatbots can even gather leads outside of business hours and make sure sales teams follow up ASAP.

3. Speed up resolution times

When it comes to speed, automation is the way to go.

Addressing straightforward issues quickly, automation saves reps from getting stuck into trickier problems. This means faster resolutions all around.

Key customer service metrics like first contact resolution or average handle time should see a real boost from implementing automation.

4. Reduce customer service costs

Automation is way cheaper than using live agents for every interaction. Some estimates reckon businesses could slash service costs by up to 40% by introducing automation and other tech.

It also means you don’t have to keep hiring more reps as you grow. Bonus: automated service could even bump up customer lifetime value.

5. Focus better on complex issues

Automation lets your human experts shine.

With basic tasks taken care of, reps can focus their brainpower on delivering the kind of empathetic, personal service that’s especially important at key moments — like when a customer’s making a big, complex purchase.

Automation also helps you cater to younger, tech-savvy customers who are all about self-service options like FAQs and virtual assistants. This keeps them happy while freeing up your team to knock the more complicated issues out of the park.

6) Establish a uniform tone and voice

Automation allows your team to provide customer experiences that are on-brand for your company. For instance, if your brand uses a certain phrase, you can program a chatbot or auto-attendant to stay on-brand.

Your team can set up on-hold music and messages in your business phone system to align with your brand.

What Are Some Cons of Automating Customer Service?

While automation in customer service has its benefits, it also comes with risks and drawbacks:

1. Lacks human touch: AI systems can feel robotic and lack the empathy needed to de-escalate frustrated customers, potentially harming brand trust and leading to escalations.
2. Unable to solve complex issues: Current AI platforms can handle simple queries but struggle with more complex issues that require human intuition, like understanding sarcasm or frustration.
3. Threatens customer service jobs: Automated systems may be seen as a threat by customer service agents, who will need to provide more personalized support to stay relevant.
4. Needs significant resources: Deploying robust AI solutions requires substantial technical resources and expertise, which can be expensive. Conversational capabilities must meet high standards to avoid frustrating customers.
5. Increases reliance on automation technologies: Over-reliance on AI and other automation technologies may weaken customer relationships. It’s important to establish customer service best practices that endure regardless of the toolset and use chatbot data to improve human customer service skills.

Automated customer support can handle many routine tasks efficiently, but it’s essential to have human support available for more complex issues that require empathy, critical thinking, and personalized solutions.

How To Automate Customer Service (4 Simple Steps)

1. Use self-service options

One of the most effective ways to automate customer service is to provide self-service options. These include:

• Knowledge-base articles and FAQs: Develop a comprehensive library of support articles that address common questions and concerns. Regularly update and improve these articles based on customer feedback and new product developments.
• Online tutorials and video guides: Create engaging, step-by-step tutorials and video guides that walk customers through various processes, such as setting up an account, troubleshooting common issues, or using specific features of your product or service.
• Downloadable resources and troubleshooting guides: Offer downloadable PDF guides, infographics, or other resources that customers can access offline. These guides should provide detailed troubleshooting steps and solutions to common problems.

Offering a robust set of self-service options empowers customers to find solutions independently, reducing the burden on your customer service team.

2. Leverage chatbots and virtual assistants

Chatbots and virtual assistants can operate 24/7, providing customers with immediate assistance and reducing wait times. They can handle a variety of tasks, such as answering frequently asked questions, guiding customers through troubleshooting steps, collecting customer information, and routing inquiries.

Make sure to train your chatbot to recognize and respond to common customer queries, providing instant answers and reducing the need for human intervention. It should be able to walk customers through basic processes, such as resetting a password or updating account information.

You can also use chatbots to gather essential customer data, such as their name, order number, or issue type, and then route the inquiry to the appropriate support agent or department.

Intelligent virtual agents are even a step ahead. You can use advanced AI and NLP to simulate human conversations and personalize your customer service.

3. Bank on automated ticketing systems

Implementing an automated ticketing and help desk system streamlines your customer service processes. These systems help by:

• Organizing ticket creation, assignment, and tracking: Automatically create tickets based on customer inquiries through various channels, such as email, chat, or social media, to offer omnichannel support. The system can then assign tickets to the appropriate support agents based on predefined rules and track the progress.
• Automating basic responses and notifications: Set up your ticketing system to send automatic responses acknowledging receipt of a customer’s inquiry and providing an estimated response time. The system can also notify customers when their ticket status changes or when a resolution is reached.
• Integrating with CRM systems for improved customer data management: Connect your ticketing system with your CRM to ensure customer interactions and data are stored in a central location. This integration allows support agents to access a customer’s complete history, enabling more personalized and efficient service.

4. Use email automation

Email automation is another powerful tool for enhancing customer service. You can easily send personalized welcome messages and order confirmations after a purchase, including important information, such as account details, or order tracking numbers.

Set up automated email campaigns that trigger based on specific customer actions, such as abandoning a shopping cart, completing a purchase, or requesting a product demo. These timely emails can help re-engage customers and provide relevant information.

Don’t forget to create email templates that address common customer problems and include step-by-step solutions. When a customer reaches out with a specific issue, the system can automatically send the appropriate email template, potentially resolving the issue without a support agent’s intervention.

Best Practices To Effectively Implement Customer Service Automation

🔎 Identify opportunities for automation

The first step is to identify opportunities within your existing processes.

Look at your customer service workflows and pinpoint areas where automation could streamline tasks, reduce response times, or improve efficiency. This could include automating common inquiries, routing tickets to the right agents, or providing self-service options for customers.

✅ Choose the right tools and technologies

Once you’ve identified these opportunities, choose the right customer service tools and technologies that align with your specific needs. Consider scalability, integration capabilities, and user-friendliness when evaluating different automation solutions.

Get a cloud-based call center or contact center software to handle a volume of calls, plugged with rich automation features. The tools you select should handle your customer service volume, integrate smoothly with your existing systems, and be easy for your team to adopt and use.

⚙️Integrate automation with existing workflows

Integrating automation into your existing workflows is another key aspect of effective implementation. Automated processes should blend seamlessly with your current operations, rather than creating silos or disruptions.

This may involve mapping out your customer journey, defining clear handoff points between automated and human service interactions, and providing adequate training to your team on working alongside automated systems.

📝 Establish clear guidelines for human intervention

While automation can handle many tasks, some situations might require human intervention. Establishing clear guidelines for when to escalate issues to human agents is essential.

This could include complex customer requests, sensitive situations, or cases where automated responses fail to resolve the customer’s problem satisfactorily. Setting these guidelines helps you offer customers the right level of support while enjoying the benefits of automation.

📈 Continuously monitor and optimize automated processes

Implementing customer service automation is an ongoing process. Continuously monitor and optimize your automated processes so they perform optimally.

Track key call metrics, use call analytics, gather customer feedback, and make data-driven decisions to refine your automation strategies over time. Regularly assessing and improving your automated processes enhances the customer service experience and drives better results.

Balancing Automation With Personalization

Customer service automation should complement, not replace, human interaction. Clear escalation paths to human agents are crucial for addressing complex issues.

Human agents play a vital role in building customer relationships, fostering loyalty, and creating emotional connections. By balancing automation and personalization, businesses can deliver exceptional customer experiences that combine technological convenience with human expertise and empathy.

Start with using the right business phone system. Try Nextiva’s customer service tools to eliminate busy work and let your team serve customers across many channels without distractions. For the ultimate in customer service automation, our advanced IVR solves customer concerns without any live agents needed.

Learn More About Customer Service Automation (FAQs)

What Is a Virtual Call Center? Virtual call center software is a cloud-based application that uses Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) technology, allowing call centers to make high-quality online calls without bulky and costly physical hardware.

Traditional call center technology doesn’t cut it anymore. It slows down operations and drives up costs. Plus, remote work benefits employers and employees across industries — and that goes for call centers, too.

Virtual call center software helps distributed teams deliver a superior customer experience, even with high volumes of inbound calls.

With the right virtual contact center, you can reduce costs, scale your team, and go live faster.

Below, we’ll cover the fundamentals of virtual call center software, key benefits, functionality, and top tools to enhance agent performance.

Best Virtual Call Center Software: Top 5 Comparison

The best call center software can help you with organization, customer communication, third-party integration, and much more — all with one solution.

These are the five best virtual call center software solutions available for businesses.

Virtual Call Center Software	Key Features	Starting Price	Best For
Nextiva	Cloud-based VoIP calls Call forwarding Conference calling Voicemail to email Mobile app	$50 per month	Small, medium, and large businesses with a wide range of needs.
Five9	Predictive dialer Scripting and guided interactions Customizable APIs	$149 per user per month	Large enterprises and contact centers.
Aircall	Cloud-based phone system Helpdesk and CRM integrations Callback requests	$30 per license per month	Sales and customer support teams and small businesses.
Twilio Flex	Voice APIs Dynamic call routing Real-time call monitoring	$150 per named user per month or $1 per active user hour	Developers (requires manual coding).
Freshcaller	VoIP phone integration Ticketing and case management system Workflow automations	$15 per user per month	Ticketing and helpdesk teams.

Note that each service varies in pricing depending on features or the number of users.

Next, we’ll dig into the details of the top five software options.

1. Nextiva 

Nextiva provides virtual call center functionality alongside its cloud-based phone system.

Cloud communications empower your call center to take more customer calls with fewer agents.

You can also automate multichannel customer support and self-service options with Nextiva’s call center system.

It includes everything your team needs to provide exceptional customer service and skyrocket your business to the next level, like:

• VoIP calls to make and receive high-quality calls over the internet.
• Call monitoring and whispering for supervisors to assist agents in real time during challenging calls without the caller hearing. 
• Call forwarding rules to redirect calls to alternate numbers or agents so no call goes unanswered.
• Voicemail to email to automatically forward voicemail messages to email, so agents can easily access and respond to messages even when they’re away from their desks.
• Conference calling with multiple participants so agents can easily collaborate or start group discussions with customers.
• Call center performance metrics for call center managers and supervisors so they can track KPIs and make informed decisions.

Related: How Much Does a Call Center Cost?

Nextiva’s mobile app even keeps agents connected to handle calls from their smartphones to simplify remote and on-the-go call center operations. It’s a contact center solution with every support feature available at your agents’ fingertips.

💰Pricing: Nextiva starts at $18.95 per user per month. Nextiva’s virtual call center solution begins at $50 per month for smaller businesses and around $150 per month for larger ones.

2. Five9 

Five9 is a cloud-based call center software and contact center solution with features that improve call center operations and customer service.

It can help support your customers across different touch points with features such as:

• Omnichannel support to help manage customer interactions across multiple channels, voice, email, chat, social media, and more. 
• Predictive dialer to optimize the calling process by automatically dialing numbers and connecting agents to live calls. 
• Workforce management tools to optimize staffing levels to meet customer demand while controlling costs.
• Scripting and guided interactions for agents to access pre-built scripts and guided workflows.
• Customizable APIs to tailor the call center platform to their needs and integrate with other business applications.

You can use these features for marketing efforts like predictive dialer campaigns that increase how many callers your agents can handle in a certain period.

💰Pricing: Five9 starts at $149 per user per month for a digital or voice-only contact center solution.

3. Aircall

Aircall is a business phone and communication platform specifically designed to handle sales and customer support calls.

It can help with everyday call center duties with features like:

• A cloud-based phone system for flexible and scalable call center operations.
• Multichannel communication to support voice calls, SMS, and other communication channels.
• Integrations with CRM and other help desk systems, such as Salesforce, Zendesk, and HubSpot, to access customer data.
• Call-back requests so customers can conveniently schedule a return call.

Like most cloud-based offerings, cloud telephony offers better reliability for less money than their traditional phone counterparts.

💰Pricing: Five9 starts at $149 per user per month for a digital or voice-only contact center solution.

4. Twilio Flex

Twilio Flex offers an array of cloud communication APIs and services for developers to build a contact center and integrate it into their tools.

It has many features for customer contact center needs, including:

• Voice APIs to build and customize voice-based communication applications, interactive voice response (IVR) systems, call routing, call recording, etc.
• Automated messaging through SMS, chat, and social channels to send notifications, alerts, and updates to customers.
• Dynamic call routing based on customer profiles, call volume, and agent availability.
• Highly customizable interactions over VoIP and messaging.

Twilio does require coding, so consider the costs of hiring developers to implement your solution, too.

💰Pricing: Twilio Flex starts at $150 per named user per month or $1 per active user hour. The first 5,000 hours are free.

Related: Top 6 Alternatives to Twilio Flex Contact Center

5. Freshcaller

Freshcaller from Freshdesk is a customer support and help desk software best known for its email and ticket support. It also offers features for handling phone-based customer support.

Outside of its free tier, Freshcaller offers a suite of features, like:

• A built-in phone system to integrate with popular VoIP providers, enabling call centers to make and receive calls directly within the interface.
• Interaction history to see all your past customer conversations so your agents have a history to draw from
• Warm transfers when passing off calls to give agents context before they jump in to address an issue

Customer service automations can help boost agent efficiency and increase cross-team collaboration to move customer tickets along.

💰Pricing: Freshcaller starts at $15 per user per month. There is also a free tier for small teams that are just getting started.

How Virtual Call Center Software Works

Virtual call centers typically use a web-based application hosted in the cloud by a VoIP provider. This application enables call routing between the public switched telephone network (PSTN) and logged-in agents. 

An automatic call distributor (ACD) manages the call routing, distributing calls to the appropriate agents based on factors like:

• Customer availability
• Agent skills
• Language preferences

You shouldn’t have to worry about the underlying technology of virtual call center programs — the call center service provider takes care of it. Instead, invest the saved-up resources and time to coach and develop their customer service and sales skills.

🔎TLDR: Virtual call center software uses VoIP to connect calls over an internet connection rather than analog phone lines. This allows a call center to be configured based on agent availability rather than their location. Anyone with a reliable internet connection can work as a call center agent from anywhere using an internet-connected headset, computer, or smartphone.

Traditional vs. virtual call centers

Virtual call center agents can work from anywhere. 

Traditional call center agents must work from a single location, often with on-premises telephony hardware in the building. 

Here are some key differences between virtual and traditional call centers.

Function	Virtual Call Center	On-premises Call Center
Monitoring	Live data in an easily accessible & intuitive dashboard in the cloud.	Managers dial into ACD to monitor calls.
Location	In the office, on the road, at home, or anywhere.	In a physical building.
Collaboration	Asynchronous communication, team chat, and video conferencing.	Voice-based or in-person meetings.
Real estate costs	Pay-as-you-go cloud-based model with minimal upfront costs. $0 if telecommuting.	High setup and infrastructure costs, including real estate and office equipment.Up to $5,000 per employee.
Startup costs	Low: Web/thin client, mobile or desktop apps, headsets.	High: PBX, telecom, IT, VoIP phones, headsets, etc.
Ease of scaling	Easy: Unlimited scalability, features anytime you want them.	Limited by physical space and telecom hardware.

Benefits of a Virtual Call Center: Why You Should Upgrade

Whether you’re deciding to move your existing call center to a virtual team or looking to start a virtual call center altogether, it pays to know the potential benefits.

1. Organize your customer data

A virtual call center platform collects and organizes all the required metrics in a single dashboard. This empowers your team to create actionable, data-driven strategies and your agents to provide the stellar, personalized experiences your customers expect.

Your agents will be able to provide more personalized experiences for each customer when they can:

• See previous conversations with a customer across channels.
• Connect insights from your sales and support teams by integrating calls with your CRM.
• Create automations for follow-ups and reminders.

This type of omnichannel contact center environment removes barriers to integrating data between channels and encourages cross-team collaboration. In return, your customers can benefit from a more fluid experience.

2. Communicate across several channels

To reach the most customers, your team needs to provide outreach via business communication channels such as email, social media, text messages, chatbots, and more.

A true omnichannel environment offers advantages like:

• Separate apps, tools, or dashboards for agents to help customers on multiple communication channels
• Intuitive, effortless travel between channels without endless phone tree menus
• Faster customer service by routing the customer to the appropriate virtual call agent instead of bouncing around between departments and transfers

Your call center’s efficiency and your customer and agent satisfaction are tied to how quickly and how well customer questions are answered. Answer them faster with a more integrated omnichannel solution.

3. Boost customer satisfaction

Virtual call centers help agents help customers faster, increasing customer trust, loyalty, and satisfaction.

A solution that leads to positive customer satisfaction scores is worth investing in, thanks to:

• Predictive routing to quickly connect customers to the right team member, which helps them straighten out issues the first time.
• Live monitoring to ensure customers struggling to resolve their queries get help from supervisors jumping in on calls.
• Continuous improvement from training and feedback customized agent-to-agent based on performance in live calls.

Together, these features empower agents to improve their customer service skills and capabilities.

4. Help your agents work smarter

The right virtual software can guide customers to help themselves, which eases burdens on your team, improves productivity, and raises satisfaction scores for employees and customers alike.

Virtual call centers help agents work smarter, which:

• Improves agent productivity and efficiency
• Reduces employee burnout
• Lowers turnover rates

Running your virtual call center in the cloud can also help you handle higher call volumes. Nextiva’s software, for example, handles over 500 calls per line. You can take more customer calls with fewer agents to streamline call flows and distribute calls without issue based on varied daily and weekly agent schedules.

💡Tip: Nextiva’s AI-powered voice and chatbot power a comprehensive, customizable contact center solution that can help you take “smart” one step further — starting at $100 per agent per month.

5. Integrate seamlessly with third-party software

If your agents have to manually enter data from their customer calls into your other tools, you might benefit from adopting virtual call center software.

Connecting old-school call center software with modern apps and tools your business uses can be challenging. But virtual contact center tools include the following pre-built integrations for third-party software:

• CRMs
• Helpdesks
• Ticket management
• Productivity
• Power dialers
• Email
• Shared team workspaces

Nextiva’s integrations work with (most) of your in-house tools and processes. Your agents will be equipped to seamlessly move between resources to help your customers better, enhance customer service, and boost overall efficiency.

A solution like Nextiva offers out-of-the-box business integrations for popular online tools like:

• Microsoft Outlook
• Zendesk
• Salesforce
• Act!

It also provides options for configurable setups with no-code API integrations.

The best call center software alleviates your contact center challenges and headaches. And if you’re thinking of migrating your entire operation to the cloud or starting a virtual call center from scratch, learning the benefits you stand to gain may make your decision easier.

6. Free up office real estate

A virtual call center is better for some companies than an on-premises one because it doesn’t require physical office space.

Since agents only need an internet connection and a headset, you can set up and install your virtual call center a few hours after signing up. When the time comes, simply onboard new virtual agents and scale up when you need the software licenses.

IT support also frees up time by reducing the number of hardware support cases they’d have to deal with on-site. They can focus on larger, more beneficial initiatives, like:

• Enhancing VoIP security measures to protect the increased flow of data with a virtual call center
• Optimizing and integrating software to improve agent efficiency
• Exploring artificial intelligence (AI) automations to streamline operations

You can start a virtual call center with minimal investment or lower your operational costs for an existing one. You also score a more risk-free solution to scale as your business grows.

7. Increase reliability and geographic redundancy

When geographical boundaries don’t restrict agents, supervisors, and managers, everyone can stay connected from anywhere. Whether using the app from a home computer, tablet, or smartphone, calls and messages move seamlessly into the cloud.

This work-from-anywhere approach means you can provide 24/7 customer support and impeccable service without worrying about:

• Bad weather
• Traffic delays
• Sick days

Scheduling remote agents in each time zone around the globe always gives your customers someone to connect with fast — and they won’t be able to tell the difference between an on-site or virtual call.

How to Choose Virtual Call Center Software

Finding the right solutions for your business is essential because every customer interaction counts.

The best call center software has key features that help businesses stand out from the competition.

So here are the top capabilities to look for to boost efficiency and help you scale:

• Omnichannel functionality so agents can handle requests and share information across multiple channels
• Virtual phone numbers so your team can make and receive calls from customers worldwide, whether working in an office or from home
• Cloud-based VoIP calls to streamline business communications and increase security
• Advanced calling features like ACD, IVR, customizable call flow, and call queues
• Third-party integrations to reduce time your call center staff spends switching apps and hunting for information
• Real-time analytics and contact center reporting to view the status and statistics of a call center’s activity and its agents’ productivity
• Training options like supervisor resources, admin guides, and user tutorials to speed up adoption
• 24/7 customer support to reach help easily via web, chat, email, or phone
• Regulatory compliance to meet industry standards for specific requirements like HIPAA
• Call center training and automation to guide agents, including peer-to-peer listening, live call monitoring, and conversational AI

If you opt for a virtual call center solution that has these features, you’ll be better equipped to meet your unique customer needs and scale while you do it.

Related: Enterprise Contact Center Solutions: Overview & Key Features

Choose Software That Helps You Scale

Virtual call center platforms enhance the calling experience and offer customers convenience. On the business end, they intelligently distribute your workload across departments. That means your agents can work smarter, not harder — and your profits can increase.

With campaign-specific analytics, automation, and advanced call routing, confidently handle a high volume of inbound or outbound calls from anywhere in the world with Nextiva.

Virtual Call Center FAQs

For more info, check out these frequently asked questions about virtual call centers.

If you can’t see what’s happening in your call center, making business decisions like staff forecasting and queue optimization is impossible. It’s a finger-in-the-air process that’s flawed throughout.

That’s where call center dashboards come into play. They provide a visual overview of what is happening, has happened, and is likely to happen. When implemented, dashboards help call centers optimize their call flows, agent assignments, and self-service efforts.

In this guide, we introduce the following:

• What does a call center dashboard consist of?
• Call center dashboard examples
• Best practices when building your call center dashboard
• Dashboarding made simple with Nextiva

What Does a Call Center Dashboard Consist Of?

Call center dashboards have lots of configurable components. In this first section, we walk through four high-level areas and dig into specific reports and metrics. 

You can display these as line graphs, bar charts, pie charts, and even heatmaps, depending on your call center technology. You can use all or some of these based on your business needs.

1. Call volume and trends

The most basic report you need on your real-time dashboard is the number of calls. As well as calls received over a period of time, you can filter the following:

• Total calls
• Missed calls
• Answered calls
• Abandoned calls (when a caller hangs up before an agent has answered)
• Channel mix (voice, email, chat, SMS, social media, etc.)

When you receive many calls per day, you have a large pool of data. Within this data, your call analytics software starts to spot call volume trends:

A call center dashboard can report on:

• Hourly trends
• Daily trends
• Weekly trends
• Monthly trends
• Annual trends
• Peak times 
• Seasonal fluctuations

When there’s pressure to answer every call within a target time frame, it’s important to set a reachable benchmark. 

Running a service level agreement (SLA) compliance dashboard allows you to view the percentage of calls answered within your target time frame.

For example, you answer 80% of calls within 20 seconds, which seems okay. But you also might notice that your average speed to answer is 28 seconds, so you know there must be some anomalies:

Having this data available means you can start to investigate why some calls take so long to get answered.

2. Agent performance

In addition to displaying call volumes and trends on your call center dashboard, you can show specific agent metrics.

Agent availability shows thenumber of agents logged in, on calls, and idle. Displaying these metrics on real-time wallboards allows supervisors to make decisions about when to free up agents who aren’t needed to take calls right then. 

The opposite is also true during times of high call volumes without the right number of agents available to handle what’s coming in.

At the end of the day/week/month, you can get an overview of each agent’s time available versus unavailable, too:

Average handle time (AHT) displays the average time spent on each call. You can use this metric to form a benchmark for junior agents to strive for on completion of their training.

First contact resolution (FCR)reports on the percentage of calls resolved on the first interaction. This is a vital metric to work out whether agents are resolving all your customers’ queries or simply trying to end the call quickly. 

This can happen in some call centers when agents are concerned with hitting time-based metrics rather than quality.

Agent satisfaction is a less-used but highly important key performance indicator (KPI) that puts your employees’ experience first. After all, happy employees mean high retention and happy customers.

Scores are collated from internal surveys and availability states to provide a snapshot on how happy your agents are at work:

3. Customer satisfaction

Customer satisfaction is, quite simply, how happy your customers are with the service you provide. You can use several metrics, with data gathered from your customers, to display on your call center dashboard.

A customer satisfaction score (CSAT)is the average rating from customer surveys or feedback forms. Here, you’re directly asking customers questions about their experience with your company over the last quarter/year.

Note: This metric is different from how happy they are with your product. The questions you include in your survey should be asked accordingly.

Net promoter score (NPS) is the likelihood of customers recommending your service to others, gathered by asking the literal question: 

“Based on your last interaction, how likely are you to recommend our service?”

CSAT and NPS are great metrics to compile over time and include on a KPI dashboard. For a live data view of how your customers are feeling, sentiment analysis provides the overall emotion of customer interactions (positive, negative, or neutral).

You can get a score out of five points for tone, greeting, and call rating. When calls drop below a certain benchmark or specific words are used, calls are automatically flagged to a supervisor.

Related: How to Build a Customer Experience Dashboard (+ Best Practices)

4. Operational efficiency

Your call volume and agent performance metrics can all be broken down to provide actionable insights.

Call center metrics such as call abandonment rate show the percentage of calls abandoned before being answered:

If you have a high abandonment rate, it means you have lots of customers giving up before you answer their calls. This can lead to unhappy customers in the moment and churn in the long run. 

Tracking this metric in real time helps you keep a handle on whether you have enough agents answering inbound calls.

Average hold time is another KPI that impacts customer happiness and helps you judge whether you have enough quantity or quality of agents answering calls. 

This metric shows the average time customers spend waiting on hold (it can also compare against your best and worst days):

Resolution rate indicates the percentage of calls resolved within a specific time frame:

Let’s say your target response time is 10 minutes, but agents tend to spend 13 minutes start to finish on calls. Your resolution rate is over by 30%, denoting either a dip in call center productivity or an inflated target time.

Resource utilization includes tracking the efficiency of agent assignments, comparing how long each agent spends logged in or on a call versus time spent on breaks, wrap-up, or training:

You can track all these metrics in real time and historically on your analytics dashboard. 

You can also display them on a live wallboard in your office and/or in meetings with supervisors and other stakeholders in your business.

Call Center Dashboard Examples

1. Live wallboard

The purpose of a live wallboard is to present real-time insights to agents and supervisors: 

Agents can see how they (or their team) are performing compared to other agents and past call center performances. Using wallboards in this manner inspires gamification and continuous improvement. 

A live wallboard gives supervisors a holistic view of day-to-day operational efficiency, alerting them to any abnormal call patterns or customer behaviors. 

Common metrics on a live wallboard include:

• Total number of calls today
• Average wait time
• Percent of calls resolved
• Abandonment rate today
• Best-performing agents
• Current agent states

2. Historical call center KPIs and metrics

A performance dashboard with historical reports is often used by supervisors and managers to make business decisions like agent recruitment and call queue configuration.

You can also dig into factors such as drops in CSAT and call resolution to work out whether agents need more training.

Common historical metrics include:

• First-call resolution rate
• Comparison of daily calls per month
• Trends in CSAT
• Spikes and drops in call resolution
• Average handle time
• Average time on hold

3. Channel mix

If you’re an omnichannel contact center rather than a phone-based call center, tracking how your channels are used is vital to proving your return on investment.

For example, if you spend extra to enable email and SMS but none of your customers use them, it’s hard to justify the expense.

Likewise, if all your customers use email and social media, it’s time to train more agents so you can meet your customers on their channel of choice.

You can even see which channels are active right now. If the majority of your customer interactions are happening via phone, free up social media agents to handle incoming calls.

Be it live or historical, call center monitoring and management are aided through the introduction of a contact center dashboard. 

Best Practices When Building Your Call Center Dashboard

It’s one thing to turn on your dashboard. It’s another to start using it and driving serious business value. Abide by these best practices to make the most of your investment.

Customization

While most call center software comes with preconfigured templates, aligning what you see with your unique business requirements is key.

• Use role-based dashboards with specific layouts and metrics for supervisors, agents, and managers to cater to different user needs.
• Select the KPIs that mean the most to you, choosing from a library of predefined metrics or creating custom metrics.
• Apply branding to match your company identity and use themes and colors to highlight specific departments, reports, or users.
• Connect with other business systems (CRM, ticketing, etc.) for a holistic view of how call metrics impact wider business KPIs like ticket closure rate and sales conversion.

Real-time updates

When something goes wrong, you need to know about it right away. Failure to act fast can sometimes mean losing a customer. 

Configure the following to stay ahead of the curve:

• Streaming updates: Continuously refresh data for immediate monitoring of call volume, agent status, and customer sentiment.
• Dashboard refresh intervals: Set custom refresh rates to balance data accuracy with efficiency.
• Live agent activity: Track individual agent call handling in real time for coaching and support.

Filtering and drill-down

With call center features like auto attendant, interactive voice response (IVR), and CRM integration available as standard, having a reporting tool or view is vital to ensure they’re set up as efficiently as possible.

For example, if everyone presses option 8 on your auto attendant, it’s a clear sign to move it to the front of the queue. 

Use the following filters to get a view of the components you use the most:

• Advanced filters: Filter data by specific criteria like feature, agent, call type, resolution code, and time period.
• Multilevel drill-down: Dive deep into specific metrics to uncover underlying causes and trends.
• Interactive elements: Use clickable charts and tables for further exploration of data points.

Alerts and notifications

If your call center dips below certain thresholds for key metrics, getting an audible beep, an email, or a notification in your supervisor interface means you’re best positioned to respond to what’s happening.

Use the following interactive dashboard features to always be in the loop:

• Configurable alerts: Set thresholds for critical metrics like SLA breaches, high call volume, or low CSAT scores.
• Multiple notification channels: Receive alerts via email, SMS, or in-app pop-ups.
• Customizable escalation rules: Define escalation paths for different alert types and severities.

Dashboarding Made Simple With Nextiva

The difference between using and ignoring call center dashboards is clear:

• Those who use them can refine their processes, have happy customers, and employ productive agents.
• Those who don’t may panic when the smallest change happens, be unable to respond to dynamic customer demand, and experience high churn rates.

Having access to metrics that make a difference, in an easily digestible view, ensures supervisor productivity and customer satisfaction.

Phat Scooters, for example, needed visibility into how their calls were performing. They needed a system to record calls and help the customer support team maintain conversation quality as the business grew.

After choosing Nextiva to support their customer experience, Phat Scooters is now maintaining quality via advanced call recording and analytics. 

The ability to replay past calls helps them uphold their legendary customer service.

If you’re ready to start using the right metrics to drive more customer value, see what Nextiva can do for you.

With a variety of preconfigured dashboards and a team of experienced call center consultants, we can create the right dashboards that match your business.