You may be able to get away with email and regular phones if you don’t have to do much customer service. But if handling customer calls is a significant part of your business, you can’t get away from getting the best call center software.
The good news is that you have plenty of call center software to choose from. The call center software industry is expected to continue growing to a size of $47.76 billion by 2025.
But with so many options, how do you know which software will work best for your business? Keep the five things below in mind when you decide on the software you’re going to purchase.
1. Software Integration
We’re passed the days of stand-alone software. If you want to build a competitive product, you need to be able to integrate with other software in your industry. Call center software is no different.
Take an inventory at the other software you use for your business. You should be able to integrate things like CRM, social networking, and help desk software.
2. Scalability
Business has its ups and downs. If you commit to a high-usage software, you’re out of luck if you can’t make the most use of it. All you did was waste money.
Make sure the software you pick can scale. You should be able to scale your plan based on the resources you use.
3. Ease of Use
Even if a piece of software has all the features you need, it won’t work well if nobody can figure out how to use it. The more sophisticated software is, the more support you’ll need for it.
A lot of call center software only needs you to log in and start using it. You can find this mainly in cloud services.
If you decide to use on-premise software, you’ll probably need a consultant to get things set up. Make sure it’s easy to use after the initial set up because you’ll be paying for help well into the future if it isn’t.
4. Customer Service
It would be great if software worked out of the box and didn’t break. But that idea isn’t reasonable.
Even the best software breaks sometimes. Make sure the company you do business with has the customer support you need. The longer it takes you to get help, the longer it takes you to help your customers.
5. Good Reporting
You can’t manage a call center properly if you don’t have the right metrics. Good call center reporting software will help you do that.
There are several metrics you need to measure for your call center:
- Number of inbound calls
- Average call time
- Number of calls per employee
- Total time on calls
There are a lot of other metrics out there. The more information you can collect, the better you can manage your call center.
Do Your Research Before Buying Call Center Software
Finding the right call center software for your business is one of the most critical choices you will make. There are a lot of options out there, and not all of them will fulfill all your needs. Make sure you do your research so you can make the right choice.
Are you looking for tips on managing your call center team? Head back to our leadership section to learn what other managers have to say.
