Contact centers are often the face of a small business. Customers will visit to make inquiries, complaints and to purchase goods and services. As a result, the contact center must efficiently and effectively handle customer queries and complaints.
However, the contact center can often become a bottleneck in the customer journey and be costly to maintain. This is particularly true for small businesses, which often lack the resources and technology to support an effective contact center.
What are the top 10 challenges, issues, and problems in a small business?
- Customer engagement
The most common complaint among small businesses is poor customer service. It is the first customer contact challenge for small businesses. This is typical because the company isn’t equipped to handle customer queries and complaints. Unfortunately, many small businesses find it challenging to engage with customers, leading to higher costs and unhappy customers.
- Call handling
The majority of small businesses handle calls from customers who are not happy with the service they are receiving. It is the second customer contact challenge for small businesses. Unfortunately, the contact center cannot always be the best place to resolve a complaint, and customers are often left in limbo as their issues are not addressed. This can lead to higher costs and even a loss of business.
- Security & Compliance
Small businesses have been forced to make changes due to the coronavirus pandemic, putting many at risk of breaching regulations. It is one of the top customer contact challenges for small businesses. Small businesses are now being urged to comply with new rules and to ensure they are adhering to these regulations, they need to have processes in place that are easy to follow and secure.
- Call Quality & Voice Analytics
Small businesses are often unable to provide the high-quality customer service that customers expect. Therefore, it is crucial that customers receive the best quality of service and that agents are properly trained to deliver that service.
- Customer Service
Small businesses are often not equipped to provide the high-quality customer service that customers expect. Many small businesses lack the resources to handle customer queries and complaints properly. This can lead to a loss of business and increased costs.
- Data Management
Small businesses are often not equipped to manage the data that they generate. This problem creates a greater risk of data breaches, and it cannot be easy to collect the generated data. This can lead to a loss of business and increased costs.
- Data Security
Small businesses are often not equipped to protect the data that they generate. This can create a greater risk of data breaches, and it cannot be easy to manage the generated data. This can lead to a loss of business and increased costs.
- Routing & Queuing
Small businesses are often unable to route and queue calls effectively. This can cause a bottleneck in the customer journey and can lead to higher costs.
- Call Recording
Small businesses are often not equipped to record calls in a helpful way. This can lead to a loss of business and increased costs.
Things to look for about a Contact Center by small business owners
A contact center is an essential component for developing your business. Investing in one enables you to grow, build enduring relationships with customers, and develop a competitive edge in a harsh business environment. Call centers are a logical extension of the sales process. They help you reach the people who want to buy your products and services but can’t contact you on their own.
Call centers have many moving parts, and it’s easy to overlook some of the essential things that make a great call center. The following points will help you to avoid the issues, problems, and challenges faced by small business owners.
To help you out, here are some things to look for and keep in mind when building your contact center.
- A Great Customer Experience
Contact centers are a lot like your own front office. They’re the first touchpoint for your customers, and they need to be a great place to conduct business. That means they need to offer a fast, easy, and convenient experience. They should be friendly and polite—even if the customer is a pain. Finally, they should be helpful and knowledgeable—even if the customer needs more information than they can provide.
- A Dedicated Team
Contact centers are often staffed by the same people who answer the phones at your company. While you should always have the right people answering the phones, you also need a dedicated team to handle all the incoming calls. That means you need to apply the same practices and hiring standards to your contact center as you do to your front office.
- A Good Technology Stack
Contact centers are just like your front office. You need to have a good technology stack, including a CRM, contact center software, and an IP PBX. However, the technology stack also needs to be flexible and scalable. That means you can add new features as your business grows. For example, if you’re using a CRM, you’ll want to consider integrating your contact center with it.
- A Dedicated Help Desk
Contact centers need to have a dedicated help desk. That means you need to have a reliable person accountable for answering the phones, resolving issues, and guiding customers through the process.
- A Good, Standardized Process
Contact centers need to have a standardized process for handling customer service, sales, and marketing. The approach should be flexible enough to accommodate all your customers, but it also needs to be standard enough to be followed by all your agents.
BUOPSO CRM, a Business Operating Software, is a system that will be helpful to avoid the issues, problems, and challenges faced by small business owners and industries. BUOPSO CRM can record all the interactions between the customer and the employee, records minute details about the customer, and predict the customer’s future preference for customization as per the user’s choice.