Scroll on social media for an hour and you already know enough: many companies really fall short when it comes to good customer support and a high NPS. This is the case with in-house contact centers as well as with companies that hire them a call center . How do you keep control of all your external contact centers? We give you four tips.

1. Outsource customer service: get the basics right

It all starts with the basics: the design of all your contact centers. Imagine that you have a dozen contact centers, each with their own way of working, then outsourcing customer service suddenly becomes a chore.

You get countless Excel sheets, login data for systems and you spend more time getting to know all those systems than adjusting them.

It is no different for the agents on the work floor, because a good customer experience starts with them. Equip them with good software so that they remain motivated and driven and radiate that to your customers.

We all know that call and contact centers have a high turnover, so you need to have your work processes in order. Because if your agents aren’t happy, neither are your customers.

2. Make sure you can be reached on the preferred channel of your customer(s)

Next, think about the kind of customer service that fits your brand. How do your customers prefer to get in touch with your company? Do they all prefer to pick up the phone? Provide your agents with good call center software . But we are going to tell you something: the telephone is no longer the only channel on which your customers contact you.

When you are active on social media, it is inevitable that you will one day offer customer service on it. And research by Forrester shows that the majority of consumers prefer live chat.

What do you need then? Omnichannel software . You don’t want agents wasting valuable time constantly switching between channels and searching for fragmented pieces of information.

3. Get to know your customers better

In addition to providing help and support, it’s important that you use your tools to get to know your customers better. Our attention span is short and research shows that Millennials in particular find good customer service more important than product quality.

If you win loyalty, you have gold in your hands. Companies are increasingly focusing on a 360-degree customer view to improve customer support in the future. This is also vital when outsourcing your customer service.

It gives your external customer service a boost and delivers better results across the board.

4. Keep monitoring

Also make sure that you can and continue to monitor. Make sure that every request for help to your external customer service is properly followed up, because this is a crucial part of your company reputation. Good monitoring also helps you learn more about your customers and improve your relationship.

Monitoring conversations and chats from your support department will help your business determine how well you are doing and make it easier for you to execute future improvement strategies.

5. Comply with Laws and Regulations

One of the less fun sides of the profession, but very important: make sure that you are always compliant with the GDPR. Even when outsourcing customer service, you remain in control of your own data.

With software such as Steam-connect you know exactly who has access to certain data and you immediately collect all contact history in a central point.

Make sure that every facility call center has access to its own data and do not make it unnecessarily difficult for yourself.

Read more about compliance with GDPR, the Telemarketing Code and the Telecommunications Act here.

Outsource customer service? Make it easy for yourself with the right software

For many companies, outsourcing customer service makes a lot of sense. But there are several factors to consider, such as how you run your contact centers, through which channels, and how compliant you are with various laws.

With Steam-connect , you keep control of your remote contact centers and ensure that they have a unified way of working. This not only makes your life easier, but also that of your agents.

Curious about all the possibilities? Request a free demo.