The global cloud-based contact center market is expected to grow 25.2% every year until reaching a whopping $93 billion in 2022. Moreover, while offshore contact centers are more cost-effective, companies are transferring their client support back to the U.S. due to customer dissatisfaction. In other words, this is a great time to launch your own contact center.
What Do You Need To Start a Contact Center?
Opening a contact center has never been easier. In the past companies would have to invest in servers, specialized IT personnel, and more. Like many other platforms, contact center software has evolved and various providers are now offering cloud-based contact center tools for a very affordable price. You no longer need to invest in an office and expensive equipment to deploy an on-premise contact center: you just need a laptop with an internet connection and a headset.
Because of this, the initial investment to start a contact center has never been lower, as you can get all types of features – including the most advanced ones – for a price of around $80 per month per user. You can also get more affordable subscriptions but considering that the contact center will be your core product, this is where you should invest the most.
Essential Factors To Consider When Opening a Contact Center
Like any other market, it’s vital that you study the contact center industry before deploying your own. With the internet and the launch of the first smartphone, customers now expect higher levels of customer support than they did back in 2008. To make sure you provide all the necessary features your clients are looking for, consider the following key aspects:
Handling Calls Isn’t Enough
While phone is still one of the preferred methods to contact customer support, many consumers are switching to other communication channels for assistance. From web chat to text messaging and social media, your contact center needs to have the tools required to answer requests through any channel. Because of this, when creating your contact center make sure you have omnichannel capabilities.
It’s All About the Customer Journey
A big reason why companies are ditching their offshore contact centers and coming back to the U.S. is that customers are discontent with having someone from the other side of the world assessing their problems. It’s not a patriotic thing, though – it’s all about connection. We’re living in a time where most markets are saturated, and many companies’ differentiating factor is how they handle customers. So, it’s essential you show proof that you’re able to provide the best customer journey possible by offering seamless customer support regardless of the channel being used.
Choose an Industry and Stick With It
From ecommerce stores to airline companies, every industry needs to handle customer support. However, it’s inefficient to run a contact center that provides customer support for all types of businesses. When someone contacts customer support, they’re expecting to interact with an expert that will solve every problem they have. So, you and your employees must know your clients (and their industry) inside out, which means investment in hiring the correct people and training them. Therefore, it’s better to focus on one industry first before branching out.
How to Run a Successful Contact Center
With so many options available, it can be challenging to understand which platform offers you the best solution for the lowest price. Each provider delivers a different set of features, but there are a few things that you should always guarantee:
Optimize Costs Through Automation
Automation tools are essential to run a cost-effective contact center. So, make sure the provider offers advanced IVR and call routing features. These allow customers to reach their target department quickly and even solve small issues through self-service. This will decrease contact handling, which frees up your agents to work on other important tasks.
Metrics Are Everything
As Peter Drucker said: “If you can’t measure it, you can’t improve it.” That’s why measuring anything in business is so important, including customer support. You need to track various metrics to run a successful contact center, but what’s most important is that you get a platform that allows you to track real-time metrics and create periodical reports.
There’s no doubt that we’re living in a time where starting a contact center is worth your investment. The external factors are more than favorable, and it has never been easier to deploy a virtual contact center. Best of luck on this new adventure!
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