When it comes to setting up a call center, there are four main factors that must be considered: staff, call center software, business plan, and call center equipment. Even though call center equipment may look like the least important part of this list, it isn’t.
Choosing the proper call center equipment directly impacts operating costs, call center performance and employee satisfaction. Thus, paying too little attention to call center equipment may have negative effects on your business, and sometimes it can even ruin the entire business.
So, what is call center equipment and what is included in it? How to choose reliable contact center equipment? What are key call center equipment requirements?
Let’s learn all about it in our new guide.
What call center equipment is a must-have?
Computers and headphones
Let’s start from scratch - these are the things without which a call center can’t function at all. So, when it comes to choosing call center equipment and supplies, it all begins from these two tools. Personal computer or a laptop is the workstation for both call center agents, team leaders, and managers - they run call center software on it and answer incoming calls. Thus, a computer should be capable of running the contact center solution without lags and freezes as well as running all other business tools that are used in your call center, no matter whether they are integrated with the main solution or not.
Properly selected headphones can also make difference, because one of the things that annoy customers the most is noises and other defects of the sound during the call. Therefore, trying to save a bit of money on headphones often causes more harm than good, so we recommend to find headphones that have noise blocking feature.
Internet connection
No matter if you are running an in-house call center or remote one, Internet connection is the main factor of getting your contact center all set. Let’s be honest, all call centers now use IP telephony or VoIP (Voice Over Internet Protocol) technology to handle customer calls, which means that the need in using traditional telephony hardware, like wire telephone lines, but it also sets requirements for Internet connection speed and quality of the connection. Thus, you have to make sure that every employee has access to the fast and reliable Internet connection in the case of setting up a remote call center, or set up such a connection in the office with options to ensure Internet connection stability and continuity in the case of an emergency.
Office supplies and equipment
Even though the remote workforce management model keeps growing in popularity, there are still numerous call centers that work from the office. This requires specific call center supplies, such as working desks, office chairs, other supplies, such as lights, climate control, space for lunch and breaks, training tools, pens, notebooks, and so on. Every office has its own call center equipment setup, nonetheless, all of it focused on ensuring effective and productive work of call center employees, especially if taking into account the turnover and attrition rates for call center agents. Providing appropriate call center supplies for your in-house call center agents is a key to establishing healthy environment and relationships inside the team, which will help you to reach your business goals faster.
Call center hardware equipment
First of all, let us come back to basics - there are two main types of call center software: cloud-based call center solutions and on-premises call center software. On-premises call center software requires specific call center hardware besides the software license itself, amd this hardware includes servers, server licenses (if set up on Windows), routers, uninterruptable power supply (UPS), climate control for server room, and so on. This also doesn’t include telephony infrastructure if it is used, and also data backup infrastructure for ensuring business continuity.
On-premise call center solutions require much more time and resources to be all set than cloud-based contact centers, if not to mention that cloud call centers don’t require most of above-mentioned contact center equipment at all. Nevertheless, some businesses, especially large enterprises still rely on such solutions as they offer more control over the architecture and infrastructure of the call center than cloud systems. Nonetheless, single-tenant cloud-based call centers provide almost the same level of control over the solution for customers.
What are key call center tools in call center software?
Both on-premise and cloud call center software have almost the same features, without which modern call center just can’t operate properly and provide expected level of customer service and overall performance.
Intelligent call routing
Effectiveness of routing calls from customers to agents determines the customer satisfaction and quality of customer service. Manual call routing is now a legacy, but automated call routing works in different ways. You have to select the most advanced call routing algorithms to ensure its efficiency, and this relates to skills-based routing that allows the system to not only identify the nature of the customer request, but also choose the most appropriate customer service agents to service this call based on their skill set. You can also use different call routing modes to optimize agent workload or to speed up the call processing.
IVR software
IVR (Interactive Voice Response) software is a must-have tool for any call center, even though some experts have doubts about its effectiveness as a self-service tool. First of all, a properly designed and configured IVR system can provide efficient self-service options for customers with common questions which will free agents from servicing such elementary requests and let them allocate more attention to really valuable customer calls. Also, IVR software is an essential tool for call routing as it is the system that collects data about every call before it is connected to a certain agent which makes intelligent routing possible. Finally, IVR system is required to manage call queues with IVR callback options.
Outbound calling
Even though not every call center is going to use outbound calls, there are many of those that do telemarketing campaigns or use outbound calls for other purposes, such as lead generation, customer feedback collection, marketing research, customer notification, advertising, and so on - and even totally outbound call centers. Thus, call center software has to offer features that will improve the efficiency of outbound calling, and they do. This includes using automated calling features, such as auto dialers - Predictive dialer, Power dialer, Progressive dialer, and Preview dialer. All of them are used for specific purposes: Predictive dialer ideally fits for cold calling and lead generation, Power and Progressive dialers are perfect for warm calls and working with current customers, and Preview sialer is designed specifically for servicing current customers who require VIP service with high level of customer service personalization. All auto dialers can automatically identify invalid phone numbers, busy rings, answering machines, and so on and set up redialing rules for unsuccessful calls.
Call analytics
Modern outbound and inbound call centers are totally based on a data-driven approach to decision making, which makes call analytics and reporting a fundamental feature of any call center system. Call analytics have to be provided in a comprehensive format, so the managers and other decision makers could easily analyze received data and make fast changes. Also, you have to have fast access to measuring key call center metrics, such as call abandonment rate, call duration, service level, average handling time, call transfer rate, numbers of inbound calls in a queue, and so on. All these metrics will allow you to notice problems in call center performance and resolve them before they will cause too much harm.
Call monitoring and recording
Call monitoring is needed for call center supervisors and managers to help agents deal with difficult customers, or just to monitor agent performance and quality of service incognito. Thus, there are three different types of call monitoring: whispering mode, where only agent can hear the supervisor, which allows supervisor to advise agents in the case of a need, hidden mode, where the call is monitored incognito and no one can notice it, and barge-in mode, where supervisors can connect to a call as a third-party.
Call recording isn’t only a legal requirement in most jurisdictions, but also a real business requirement as call recordings are the best source of information for call center agent training and quality assurance control.
Quality assurance scorecards
Quality assurance scorecards are required for such purposes as agent training, customer service quality control, and for identifying imperfections in agent qualifications. Therefore, quality assurance scorecards are the important tool for any call center, as without managing the quality of customer service provided by the agents it is impossible to ensure stable service level and high levels of customer satisfaction, which also means inability to provide positive customer experiences.
CRM software integration
CRM (Customer Relationship Management) software is, without a doubt, an irreplaceable tool for any business, which means that an option to integrate this business system with your call center software is a fantastic opportunity for improving overall business efficiency and productivity. CRM software integration will allow your agents to review customer data before or during every call, which will open advanced opportunities for providing personalized customer service, and this will result in improved customer, loyalty, and customer experience. Also, this feature is great for outbound calling as it improves. The possibility of successful close of a deal.
Workforce management tools
Workforce management tools in the case of call center equipment of the contact center solution relates, not only to agent scheduling, but also to such vital aspects of call center functioning as task management, time tracking, internal communication between employees, and so on. All these features are irreplaceable for a nowadays call center as they allow you to avoid purchasing third- party software, which means not only reduced upfront costs, but also higher efficiency of workforce management because of the fact that all needed features are accessible from the single interface of a contact center solution.
Conclusion
For effective resolution of customer issues and productive management of customer interactions, you need specific call center equipment and call center tools - all contact center operations require you to use specific tools, as this improves operational efficiency, average handle time, agent productivity and customer loyalty. Efficient call center has to use some specific hardware for operating communication channels with highest agent efficiency possible, including headphones, computers, air conditioning, ergonomic chairs, and surely cloud contact center software as the best option among other call center software solutions.
Virtual call center software has to include all needed contact center software features to process customer conversations and outbound phone calls when needed, especially for cold calls in predictive dialing mode, provide insights into previous interactions, provide call center managers with real-time analytics, Automatic Call Distributor (ACD) to route calls to agents, and so on.
If your look for a reliable and powerful call center solution, we would like to offer you to get acknowledged with our offer - Voiptime Cloud Contact Center, a modern contact center sotware with all needed features to make the performance of your call center go sky-high compared to competitors.
