Call centers are considered essential tools for businesses, playing a vital role in improving customer experience. Despite the growth of digital communication channels and the increasing demand for self-service, many consumers still prefer to use the phone to connect with customer service representatives.
If you’re looking to establish a call center business in 2024, there are clear steps you can follow. Establishing a call center—whether for receiving calls, making calls, or combining both functions—may seem challenging at first, but knowing the right steps will make it much easier.
8 Steps to Start Your Own Call Center
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Set Goals
Starting a call center business requires careful planning. Before you actually begin establishing your call center, you must have a clear understanding of why you want to create a call center and define the goals you aim to achieve. Make sure these goals are specific, realistic, and achievable given your budget and resources, and align with your business objectives.
Write a detailed business plan, which should include the following key points:
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Company description, short-term and long-term goals.
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Market analysis, industry overview, and key competitors.
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Organizational structure, management team, and recruitment plan.
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A comprehensive description of the services your call center will offer.
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Marketing plan and sales strategy to promote your services.
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Operational plan outlining your daily operations, facility requirements, and technology needs.
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Define the Type of Call Center
There are various types of call centers, including:
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Inbound Call Centers: Primarily handle inbound calls from current or potential customers. These centers are created by companies to provide general customer service, technical support, order processing, payments, returns, exchanges, and handling update and renewal requests.
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Outbound Call Centers: Employees make outbound calls to customers, typically for lead generation, telemarketing, sales campaigns, and surveys. This requires an automated dialing system.
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Hybrid Call Centers: A combination of inbound and outbound calls, suitable for businesses of moderate size. These provide support for both activities.
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Traditional Call Centers: Employees work on-site, offering direct collaboration and security, but face higher costs and limited flexibility.
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Remote Call Centers: Fully external call centers, which might be an ideal option for small businesses looking to avoid the costs of office space, equipment, and infrastructure.
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Virtual Call Centers: Not tied to a specific location, employees work from various places using cloud-based software, offering ease of access and cost efficiency.
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Non-Multichannel Call Centers: Require a phone system with call handling features like IVR and call routing.
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Multichannel Call Centers: Combine both voice and digital channels, enabling customer interactions to be managed from one platform.
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Define Your Budget
The total cost of setting up a call center depends on a variety of factors, including:
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Office space and equipment: Includes office space, equipment, and devices, which can be minimized by setting up a remote call center.
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Call center software: Costs related to software licensing and setup vary based on the features and number of users.
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Employee salaries: Agent salaries vary depending on location and experience. Additional costs include bonuses and training.
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Training and customer support: While most software providers offer basic training and support, custom training and extensive support might incur additional costs.
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Obtain Call Center Equipment
If you choose to establish a physical call center, you will need to invest in several pieces of equipment, including a PBX system, dedicated servers, data centers, phones, and network equipment. This requires a significant investment, which should be considered in your budget.
Alternatively, you can avoid expensive equipment by setting up a cloud-based call center, which is an attractive option for small businesses. To set up and operate a cloud-based call center, you only need a reliable internet connection, computers or other devices for employees to access the call center software, headsets, VoIP phones, or softphones, and some office equipment, while the provider manages and maintains the rest of the operations.
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Determine Staffing Needs
You’ll need an appropriate number of staff to handle both inbound and outbound calls. If you have too few employees, your center will struggle to meet demand, resulting in long wait times and missed calls. If you have too many employees, you’ll incur unnecessary costs due to low employee utilization.
Factors to consider in estimating the required staff size include call volume, average wait times, call handling times, and missed calls. Clearly define positions such as:
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Agent: Directly interacts with customers, provides information, processes requests, and sells products or services.
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Supervisor: Manages and trains agents, monitors performance, and ensures adherence to quality standards.
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Manager: Sets goals, manages staffing levels, monitors quality, and analyzes key performance indicators.
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Train Your Team
Training for call center systems is a lengthy and complex process, but when done correctly, it brings long-term benefits such as improved interactions, increased employee efficiency, and reduced turnover.
Building an effective team doesn’t end with orientation; continuous skills improvement through regular training is essential. Basic training materials should include:
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A comprehensive internal knowledge base containing frequently asked questions.
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Live or recorded training lectures.
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A set of successful call examples taken from call recordings.
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A set of scripted responses to handle various types of calls.
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Call handling procedures and hands-on practice with real calls.
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Measure Call Center Performance
You can track a range of metrics and key performance indicators to measure call center operations and employee performance. Key metrics to track include:
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Average Handle Time (AHT): The average time an employee takes to handle a call, including wait time, talk time, and post-call tasks.
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Average Speed of Answer (ASA): Measures the average time customers wait before being answered. A high ASA indicates the need to improve operational efficiency or adjust staffing levels.
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First Call Resolution (FCR): Measures the ability of employees to resolve customer issues on the first interaction. A low FCR ratio may indicate that employees need further training.
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Call Abandonment Rate: Call Abandonment Rate is the percentage of calls that customers hang up before speaking to a support agent. A high rate suggests there aren't enough staff or poor call handling.
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Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT): Measures customer satisfaction with service and shows how well the call center meets their expectations. Low scores may indicate the need to improve other metrics like ASA, AHT, and FCR.
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Build a Supportive Environment
Call centers are known for high employee turnover due to the stressful and demanding nature of the work, which poses a significant challenge for businesses. This isn’t just due to the time and effort spent on recruitment, setup, and training, but also because employee turnover can disrupt operations. For this reason, it’s essential to create and maintain a positive and supportive work environment. Here are some ways to achieve this:
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Offer flexible work schedules and remote work options.
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Maintain a psychologically safe environment where employees feel free to share opinions and suggestions.
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Provide and gather feedback regularly through one-on-one meetings.
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Develop and implement a program to recognize and reward outstanding employee efforts.
Common Challenges in Call Center Businesses
Call centers face several challenges that impact their efficiency and service quality, including:
- Ensuring Customer Satisfaction
Reaching customer satisfaction is tough because of long wait times, complex problems, and uneven service quality. When employees are under pressure, they may find it difficult to deliver good service. Moreover, resolving complex issues requires time and effort, leading to frustration for both customers and employees, ultimately affecting satisfaction scores. -
Managing Call Volume
Call volume can fluctuate significantly in a call center due to marketing campaigns or other factors. A sudden increase in call volume can result in longer wait times if there are not enough employees. Conversely, a drop in call volume may result in underutilized employees, leading to inefficiency and low morale. -
Data Security and Privacy
It’s important to protect customer data and follow privacy rules to avoid data breaches. Strong security measures such as encryption and access controls must be implemented. A cyber attack on the call center could severely damage customer trust and result in significant financial penalties and legal issues.
Employee Burnout
The high-pressure environment and repetitive nature of the work can lead to employee burnout, affecting performance and increasing absenteeism. Continuous exposure to difficult and negative calls lowers productivity, exacerbates the lack of support mechanisms, and impacts service quality.
Conclusion
Why choose Modn? Whether you’re starting a new call center system or looking to enhance technology in your existing contact center, Modn’s solutions could be the right fit for you.
Modn’s solutions help support and sales teams work more efficiently, enabling them to interact with customers across multiple channels.
Additionally, you can easily integrate the call center with your other tools, such as your Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system, to boost productivity and ensure data synchronization.