Post-Pandemic Challenges for Call Centers (And Their Solutions)

While every industry has taken a hard hit ever since the Covid-19 pandemic, call centers are among the industries that saw the biggest impact, thus facing multitudes of challenges. As a majority of customers started preferring digital experience of shopping and interacting with businesses, this has led to increase in call volumes and the number of difficult calls. The direct outcome of this is a significant burden on call centers— from working longer hours to get the issues resolved, adapting to hybrid work environments, and having to be more proactive than ever, to being understaffed.

A survey of customer service points out that about 55% of callers reported that their issues stood unresolved. This calls for quick actions by call centers to improve their services and handle common post-pandemic challenges more efficiently and proactively. With that said, here are the top post-pandemic challenges for call centers, and the steps that can be taken to solve these challenges.

1. Reducing Call Wait Times

   While there has been a slow-paced movement towards digital interactions with companies, customers have been pushed to consider this as their primary way of interacting with businesses ever since the pandemic. This sudden push has caused greater call volumes and an increase in the need to escalate issues. Customers also find it inconvenient to wait on hold as customer care executives take their time to get the issues resolved.

   One of the best ways to deal with this challenge is to adapt callbacks. With the facility of callbacks, customers don't have to be put on hold for long durations while call center professionals also get the time to perform manual escalations. Companies that are trying to transition this option can find great help when they outsource call center services to a professional service provider.

2. Remote Operations

   Companies see remote operations as a flexible approach, especially after the COVID pandemic hit and on and off instances of increasing and subsiding cases of COVID. Furthermore, businesses now realize that remote operations can also help them be prepared for other unanticipated and unpredictable future threats, such as economic disparity and extreme weathers. While remote operations are a solution that solves a series of problems for companies, it demands employees to quickly adapt to the remote work culture. This requires well-planned work at home policies for employees, embracing cloud-based infrastructure, and being trained and prepared for the whole transition.

3. Recruiting and Retaining Agents

   Many industries are witnessing an increase in employee turnover since 2020, and call centers are one of the industries that top this list. When an employee quits the organization, the organization also loses the resources invested in training the employee, their knowledge, and experience. And when a new employee is hired to take the position, it demands training to completely take over the position. One of the short-term solutions to deal with employee turnover and the time it would take for a new employee to be hands on with their role is leveraging virtual agents in the form of chatbots to take care of extra demand.

4. Low Customer Satisfaction

   Customer satisfaction is greatly influenced by the quality of services provided by call centers. Frequent calls places by customers because of unresolved issues, inability of the call center executive to escalate the issue in a short time frame, and being put on hold for long durations are all the factors that can cause dissatisfaction in customers. And with every challenge you face as a call center, it can directly impact how your business performs.

   Your company's call center services can impact customer experience and make or break your impression as a brand. While there are pertinent challenges that call centers face because of a sudden reliance on digital means of interaction worldwide as a result of the pandemic, making a slow transition by outsourcing call center services to a reputed company like Outosurce2india can be a gamechanger.

Outsource Contact Center Services to Outsource2india

As customers opt for digital means of communication, being prompt with emails and calls, and escalating and resolving issues in time is of great importance. With Outsource2india's call center services, you can opt for customized solutions that fit your business requirements at affordable rates. Being an ISO-certified company with years of experience, access to the best technologies and latest resources, and a large team of professionals who are diligent and proactive, you can efficiently meet the challenges you face in providing call center services.

Contact us now and we will provide you with the highest quality call center services customized to your exact requirements.