How Much Does Your Call Center Cost?

The rivals in the call center market are traditionally on-premise and cloud call center software solutions. The function of these call centers is the same but expenses on technology and maintenance are different.

Remember, you don’t need a sophisticated business transformation program. All you need is the right tools.

On-premises and what it costs to you

In the case of on-premise contact centers, you need to have the necessary hardware, software, infrastructure, and telephony professionals for maintenance. Frankly, you need to have physical servers, PBX systems, and physical telephony lines.

Call center managers advised about the adjustment and customization of on-premise solutions. They also know that an on-premises network must be connected to the public switched telephone network (PSTN), telecommunication service provider (TSP), or internet service provider (ISP). 

It’s also vital to keep in shape this system with constant updates and minimum downtime. The system requires professional telephony engineers for fixing problems and updating the system. Only after the implementation of all these features, you’re qualified to expect decent customer service quality.

The nature of cloud-based solutions 

The cost of deploying, changing, and maintenance of on-premise call center software is huge and on the rise, and there is an opinion that on-premise is an expense these days. 

On the other hand, a cloud-based call center software solution has embedded hardware and technology that allows you to orchestrate without additional technical requirements or maintenance costs. 

However, in a cloud, all infrastructure is already deployed, and top-notch professionals of the call center vendor constantly maintain a system, fixing and updating it via the internet while your call center managers are never bothered by sophisticated technologies and use the software to reach their business goals. 

There is no additional staff for updating, maintaining, or fixing problems with telephony. It’s all that small and mid-sized businesses (SMBs) need for 5-star customer service quality and revenue velocity. 

Did you know that cloud-based solutions ensure business continuity better than on-premisses? Talking about the cloud, consider that cloud is not the only transformation of the ordinary call center into a cloud call center. 

It’s the way innovations impacted the industry with irresistible benefits.

How to reduce expenses without losing quality?

Use a VoIP (voice over internet protocol) telephony with no special technical requirements for operating and maintaining. All you need to have is a desktop, laptop or tablet, software, headsets, and a good internet connection. That’s it, you’re in the business.

One of your call centers cost reduction strategies is the reduction of attrition

According to Gallup's research, the cost of a call center, in the case of agent attrition, with all consequences like hiring, training, and onboarding will cost from one-half to almost two times of annual salary per agent. 

So if your agent achieves the salary from 38, 490$ (the state of Massachusetts) to 42, 420$ (Washington DC). The cost of attrition in an easy way ranges from 19,245$ in Massachusetts to 21,210$ in Washington.

Or like it always does in the real world, the replacement of the agent who works for you for more than 1 year costs 76, 980$ in Massachusetts and a hefty 84,840 in Washington per agent. 

So the first goal you need to reach is to increase call center cost savings by eliminating your attrition, by right hiring, training, and retaining agents

Anticipate сustomer’s desires upfront 

The work of contact center agents will be significantly easier if they apply the strategy of anticipating. This strategy includes knowing what customers need and observing their journey. 

Once an agent decides that customers want to purchase certain goods, he or she communicates with them through preferable channels: phone, chat, or SMS. 

This strategy not only reduces inbound call volume in a contact center but ensures a high rate of sale closings. Because customers were caught before they changed their minds.  

The proven ways of reducing handle times

Long handle times are identified by customers as one of the most annoying factors in their relationships with a company. Long handle times increase hang-up rates, repetitive calling on the same issue, and expanding of the queue line in a call center. 

One of the best tools for reducing long handling times and consequently side effects is an Automatic Call Distribution (ACD) system. Based on routing logic it routes customers to relevant contact center agents, balances the agent’s workload, and improves customers’ experience.

Numerous vendors versus one solution

Because of the exceeding number of technology vendors for communicating with customers, agents experience additional toggling back and forwards between applications. 

During the shift, these small chunks of time for switching will reduce overall productivity. And if agents need additional training for each of the technologies, it increases the cost of a contact center.

On the contrary, all-in-one multichannel call center solutions are much easier to use. The solution has a phone, chat, email, SMS, and more features for successful communication with a customer. Because of ease of use, there is no time for training or sophisticated knowledge. 

SMS is profitable

The option of agentless informing of customers is one of the priorities successful contact centers consider. It’s easy to implement through SMS notifications about relevant events for customers’ day-by-day repetitive tasks. 

Customers achieve SMS notifications about a delivery, stock, discounts, and more information within a seconds and any contact center agents whatsoever.

Keep an eye on customers

Does your contact center everything to satisfy customers’ needs? Then, you’re qualified for achieving a constant cash flow and new customers.

The proven way to implement the pattern for satisfying customers’ needs, while reducing the cost of a contact center is building contact center automation features, for both self-service and live service.

Self-service features, like the IVR software, significantly reduce inbound call volume. For instance, customers deliberately check their bank accounts, achieve relevant information, make orders, and more. While conversations with real agents are left for challenging situations.  

Foster training sessions for agents 

Want to improve customer satisfaction? It’s pretty easy though. Now, it’s time to provide an amazing customer experience and sales velocity. The cheapest way is to make agents of call centers constantly shape their skills. 

They have to train in practical and emotional appeals to sound confident. The more experienced agent helps newbies and less experienced agents to sound more confident. It’s better to have such training once a week. 

All the necessary information about the subject has to be in front of the eyes of agents. 

When there is a lack of information or vital data, agents are stressed and irritated by unexpected questions from customers. If you want to drive revenue velocity to your call center, you need to ensure that agents know everything about the subject they are talking about. 

Agents that have constant training sessions, necessary information, and a lot of experience, are likely to handle customer requests within one call. Resolution from one touchpoint on the same issue increases the first resolution rate (FCR), revenue velocity, customer satisfaction (CSAT) and reduces handle time. 

The more effective agents can handle each call, the more profitable they are. They initiate and receive more calls and earn more money in a call center. 

Customers are likely to have relationships with companies that tackle a customer request with top quality. As a result, saving talking time without losing the quality of customer service levels is the fastest way to boost ROI by an order of magnitude.

Constant reviewing of achievements and benchmarks

Wondering how successful call centers excel in delivering A-class customer satisfaction? The answer – they’re constantly reviewing their achievements and losses to make changes towards fewer losses. So you should do the same. 

Constantly review your call center’s achievements, such as the number of sales closed per week/month. The number of first, second, and third call resolutions. 

Measure the KPIs of your call center, and most importantly FCR, AHT, and abandon rate, and constantly review them.  

Unified call monitoring features 

The cloud software gives the option to have monitoring features such as recording, listening, barging, and whispering. The activity of the call center’s agent must be constantly monitored to resolve unexpected customer issues. Even experienced agents sometimes have unexpected situations and can’t handle the issue. 

There has to be an experienced manager that can take control of the situation and resolve the call. Monitoring allows you to understand how many calls were processed, sales closed, and customer issues resolved.

Streamline leads with omnichannel communication

The goal of call center software is to help agents to tackle day-by-day needs–to work more efficiently without losing quality. These agents have an option to use omnichannel sources of communication to the high volume of calls and messages. The most important features of a call center are:

• Phone;
  
  
• Live chats;
  
  
• Emails.

Simplify a callback 

When customer calls on an obvious question, the interactive voice response (IVR) system helps. It is designed to reduce the agent’s interactions if there is no necessity. Customers tackle their questions by using a simple key-pressed mechanism that allows them to serve themselves.

It’s also cost-effective because holding a customer in a queue is a money expense. If there is one call in a queue it’s not a case, but when you have tens and hundreds of numbers waiting for an operator on the line, it’s spending the company's money, without providing a service. 

To save money and not to disturb customers with unnecessary waiting in a queue it’s better to have an option of a callback. Voiptime Cloud has the option to give a callback from a queue or when a call is missed.

Restrain the routine chores of your agents

It’s an obvious mistake of call centers when customers have to repeat a few times what they want because their call is transferred from one agent to another. The best practice for call centers is to resolve issues within one call. And this is what smart routing is all about. Smart routing is designed to tackle this issue in an astonishing fashion. 

Smart routing works with agile statistical data and a history of interactions with customers. They will be routed to the most relevant agent in a call center that suits their needs. 

It reduces strain from all agents of the call center and frees up an important time for solving the most challenging calling issues. It also reduces the cost of an incoming call for a call center. 

Process excellence with workforce management

Switching to the cloud maintains a level of control over the agents. You’ll see all the necessary information about the activity of each agent. The main advantages of workforce management are:

• Logged in time;
  
  
• Talking time;
  
  
• User occupancy, etc

Mitigate lack of employees by proactive hiring

During remote management, it’s easy to increase the number of agents in your cloud call center. You’re able to include an agent in your call center from any place in the world. Whether your agents work from home or any place in the world, you must have all tools to manage their work.

It’s possible to set the work of your call center 24 hours a day, with remote agents from a particular time zone. 

Spend less and earn more with Voiptime Cloud

Cloud gives numerous options for cost reduction and earning more at a bargain price in comparison with on-premise technology. There are several amazing advantages for those who consider switching to the cloud.

Calling features

Providers are different in services, prices, and packages of features. You can pick one provider with an irresistible feature for your call center, or you can pick the package of features that satisfy all of your necessities. To orchestrate in a cloud call center activity, you can pick up one of three provider plans:

• Basic pack. It’s limited features for your call center and it's not enough to make successful telemarketing campaigns;
  
  
• Medium pack. Has all the necessary tools for inbound and outbound calling.
  
  
• Advanced pack. Is the type of calling feature that allows you to have unlimited calling features to satisfy all the needs of your call center.

On the request, the Voiptime Cloud team gives top-notch expertise on how to choose the best provider in your area.

Calling rates important part of your call center

Calling rates depend on the area your calling operates and terminates. In the US, Europe, Asia, and other countries prices differ. Each provider has its prices and services:

• Price of calls per minute or a short-term plan. If you use a certain provider to make calls during a week.
• Cost-effective per minute plans from a certain provider, months-term plan. If you consider making calls during a month.
• Unlimited minutes per seat. These types of plans are expensive, and allow you to make a number of calls and to execute the telemarketing ideas in your favor. In this case, cost reduction pays off due to high calling volumes. The fee for this plan is usually taken per seat

Discover calculations for call center expenses

Want to know the real agent performance in a call center? Then, it’s time to make simple calculations of your contact center costs. Here we have a concrete example of how to calculate the cost per call for a big company.

Let’s take a look at operational costs for big outbound call centers:

To identify the average cost per call in a call center, just use this formula:

Calculations of cost for SMBs

In the small- or mid-sized business, it’s slightly different. It’s simple to calculate cost per call for your call center, operational costs and define simple yet accurate data about expenses.

Let’s take an agent and presume that shift is 8 hours and 110 calls. We’ll define on average several calls per day Average calls per day: 13,75 calls per hour.

To define a cost per call for an agent, we need to use the formula: 

Cost per call for call center with 20 agents, defined by the formula:

These formulas are not ideal for calculating call center expenses, because they take into account the wages of agents. And don’t take into account operational, software, etc. Yet there is a way to calculate accurately the cost of your call center and consider all other expenses.

Let’s presume your call center expenses each year are about 50 000 and it handles 200 000 calls each year. In this case, the formula for calculation is:

Call centers use different sources of communication, so you need to consider how many conversations are made via chat and email. Talking about the total revenue generated by the call center it’s important to take into account successful sales and customer support via phone, chat, and email. And here’s expanded information, if you want to know your cost per contact.

How to earn maximum money in a minimum time with Voiptime Cloud?

Taking into account the cost of switching to the cloud is the single most important thing you need to do. Comparing and evaluating providers to understand the prices, expenses, and features you achieve is crucial. The competitive cloud call center market gives you the option to save money and switch to the cloud. 

Changing the call center you need to understand these main factors:

• Is the cost of the start and the monthly payment will establish a lasting ROI?
  
  
• Is the cost of a monthly payment for a particular provider, suit your budget and guarantee revenue velocity?
  
  
• Define the most important features of your call center to drive the proactive customer experience and workforce management.

Bringing the change by switching to the cloud is the opportunity to explore new landscapes for your call center. The digital age has to work for you and not against you. The evolving cloud solutions are a keynote for success. 

For more than a decade, Voiptime Cloud has brought a bold view on the call center industry. Receive the vehicle today, for your call center with the Voiptime Cloud call center solution and hit the ground with all necessary tools.

To contact us, just dial our phone number 1-720-362-5005, contact us via chat, or fill out the quote form.