Remote Call Centers: 4 Systems You Need for Success

Starting up a call center is expensive. Between office space, furniture, computers, phones, and more, it’s estimated that an on-site call center will cost you between $2,500 and $10,000 per workstation. But offering your customers accessible customer support doesn’t have to break the bank. 

Many companies have switched to a remote work model for their employees in recent years. This shift has been particularly effective in the customer service industry. Support agents work remotely in a remote call center, handling customer issues from home offices instead of cubicles.

A remote call center is much less expensive to operate than an on-site one. Still, many managers and business owners worry that a cloud call center won’t be able to offer the level of support their customers demand.

All you need to ensure your remote call center runs smoothly and effectively are the right systems. This post will cover the top four systems you need to offer amazing customer support with one-click remote support.  

4 Systems for Transitioning to a Remote Call Center

Before we discuss the systems you need to implement to operate a successful remote call center, let’s address the elephant in the room: Transitioning to a remote call center can come with some growing pains. During your transition, you’ll want to ensure you focus on the following:

• Encouraging Communication: Schedule regular team check-ins as well as one-on-one meetings to ensure none of your employees feel like they’re slipping through the cracks.

• Measuring Productivity: Studies indicate that remote workers are actually more productive on average than office workers. However, you should still set up metrics to track the productivity of your employees, at least during the transition period. This will help ensure that your employees start off on the right foot working from home.

• Establishing Trust: The last thing you’ll need to ensure you have set up before moving to a remote call center is trust in your employees. It’s nearly impossible to micromanage a remote team. Establishing two-way trust with your employees is essential before you make the shift to a remote call center.

Blitzz has helped dozens of teams switch to a remote model of customer support using the Blitzz Concierge tool. Along the way, we’ve learned some of the essential systems you need in place to make your new remote call center a smash hit with customers. Let’s dive into those four systems in more detail.

1. Develop the Right Culture 

One concern managers and employers have regarding remote work is company culture. How can we maintain a positive culture when we’re not in the same building? The good news is that company culture is about more than potlucks and small-talk in the hallways. In other words, it’s possible to develop an incredible company culture with a remote team. 

One key to developing the right culture in your remote call center is encouraging staff to turn on their cameras. Cameras should be on for internal meetings and customer meetings. The advantages that come with face-to-face interactions—even on video calls—can’t be discounted. Relay to your employees the benefits of creating a sense of visual empathy with customers on support calls.

Related Read: Motivating WFH Teams to Adopt Video Calls

Another critical piece of the culture puzzle includes training and professional development efforts. An effective remote team is a team filled with motivated self-starters. These employees will crave opportunities to improve their skills and gain expertise and experience in new subjects. Group training will provide team-building opportunities, and individual professional development will help keep employees engaged. 

2. Inspire Call Center Agents with an Incentive Program 

Another concern managers have about adopting remote work for their employees is regarding accountability and productivity. How can managers ensure employees are doing their best work when they can’t supervise them in person? If you inspire your workers in the right ways, productivity and accountability will never need to be a concern for your remote call center. 

One great way to inspire your employees is by gamifying their efforts. Give your employees access to their call metrics, and give them targets to shoot for. These simple measures let employees know how their work impacts the organization as a whole and increases their motivation to make their impact a positive one.

You can also provide incentives for workers who hit certain targets. Provide a gift card to the employee whose Average Handling Time decreased significantly, or if First-Call Resolution increases for the whole team, pay for everyone to order lunch in one day. The incentives don’t have to break the bank, they just need to show your employees that their efforts matter to you. 

3. Adopt the Right Remote Support Tool

If you’re going to operate a remote call center, you are going to need a remote support service tool. But beware, not just any remote support tool will do. To offer amazing remote customer service, you need to ensure that you select a remote support tool with the following features:

• Remote Video Support
  To provide excellent customer service remotely, you’ll need more than just audio support. Remote video support will allow your customers to interact face-to-face with support agents. Additionally, your agents can get their eyes on the problem at hand, making it much easier for them to solve it. 

• Augmented Reality
  Video goes a long way toward helping your support agents solve issues remotely, but to provide a truly efficient experience, you’ll need augmented reality features. Augmented reality features allow your support agents to interact with their customers’ video footage in real-time, helping them guide the customer through the solution to their problem. 

• OCR-Powered Text Extract
  How annoying is it to call customer service, then read off four different serial numbers and model numbers before you can even get help? Text extract features eliminate this frustration altogether. Customers can just point their viewfinder at the model number and the software will extract the text from the image for the support agent’s use. 

• Call Recording Features
  Recording calls is essential to ensure you are offering consistent support to all customers. You can use call recordings as training opportunities or simply keep them on file for future reference. 

• Reporting and Analytics
  Would you rather your call center be proactive or reactive? By leveraging reporting and analytics tools, you can identify patterns in customer calls and complaints, enabling you to address problems head-on instead of waiting for customers to call you.
  

Blitzz Concierge Enterprise offers all of these features and more. 

Another important consideration regarding your remote support tool is simplicity. If you want rapid adoption for your remote support tool, you want to ensure you have all the features you need, but you don’t want to frustrate your customers or staff with an overly complex user interface. Consider a solution like Blitzz that offers a user-friendly interface and requires zero app downloads or installations to join a call. 

4. Enact Robust Quality Assurance Processes 

As we briefly discussed above, call recording is essential to the operation of a successful remote call center. Recordings should be tagged by issue and customer for future reference. 

You should also provide your staff with regular training. Often, we will train a new hire, then just leave them be once they’re up and running. However, even the most senior member of your customer support team can benefit from refresher training. 

Over time, workers can forget less-used information and develop unfortunate habits. Providing consistent training to all staff can prevent these issues from taking root. 

Lastly, you should survey your customers to find the weak spots in your processes. After all, if you’re not offering five-star service every time, you’ll want to know why. Only by understanding the gaps in your customer experience efforts can you begin to fill them. 

Running a Successful Remote Call Center with Blitzz

Switching to a remote call center can be challenging, but the savings associated with remotely operating your customer support line make the growing pains worth it. With the right company culture, a motivating incentive program, and outstanding quality assurance processes, you can set your call center up for success. The right remote support tool will allow you to leverage the cost benefits of operating remotely without sacrificing quality.

Blitzz Concierge offers all the advanced features your team needs to provide amazing customer support, packaged in a convenient, simple-to-use interface your customers will love. No app downloads, no installations, your customers can receive first-rate support with a single tap of a button. See for yourself by taking the software for a free test drive today!