Contact Centers: Keep the Hub Humming

- Measure and report the appropriate customer service metrics, for example, percentage of calls answered in 20 seconds or less, call-abandonment rates and average time in queue.
- Implement call-monitoring processes to help CSRs improve their skills in what inevitably is an ever-changing and increasingly complex business environment.
- Improve product training. Multi-title businesses and large SKU breadth often make the job of answering customers’ queries a difficult one. Prior to the catalog mailing, have your merchants offer to the contact-center staffers product demonstrations on new items.
- Offer more training on systems, procedures and company policies. Many companies give only a couple of weeks training before putting new-hires on the phone. But some CSRs need more training before you let them loose in your contact center.