5 Top features that should be present in a call center software

If a customer wants to give some feedback about a product or service and in some cases, if they want to avail of certain services and products, they cannot communicate directly with the company. They have to communicate with the company through the call centre executives, and they act as the gateway between the customer and the company. Their sole responsibility is to forward the suggestions and complaints to the appropriate department of the company and they also have to look after and handle all the orders, requests by customers, and everything else associated with the customer’s requirements. So, the call center in a particular company must be efficient enough to deliver optimum service to the customers, and apart from the call center executive, the tools available to the call center executive should also be effective. 

An effective call center software should make that job of the call center executive a lot easier and it should carry out a number of tasks as per the request of the call center executive quite easily so the workflow is never hampered and the customer gets the service quickly and within a short span of time. Even though delivering a product or offering some service is dependent upon how exactly the appropriate team is processing everything, and the call center software or the integration of the call center software with the other tools in a particular company also plays an elementary role. So, today I will talk about some useful features that should be present in an ideal call center software.

Top required features in a call centre software to reinforce customer trust in an organization

So without any further delay, let’s get started with the top features that should be present within a call center software to make business processes easier for all the executives and different departments within a company.

1. Voice and expertise of the executive

There is no doubt when it comes to a call center, the voice plays the most important role and if proper care is not taken to improve the experience, all other preparations will be in vain. When the company strives its best to offer the best possible voice communication, at the same time, the expertise of the call center executives also plays a very important role. The call center software should automatically root the call who is the most knowledgeable executive so that the customer can get the best experience. 

Additionally, one more thing that should be looked into is that the incoming calls from all the customers should be distributed equally among all the call center executives to ensure maximum productivity level, and a certain group of executives does not need to take more calls than another group. There should be a balance between the number of incoming calls from the customers and the calls should be equally distributed among all the call center agents. There should also be arrangements to forward the calls to a different executive if the solution to a problem, which the customer is facing is not in the hands of the current executive. All these should be efficiently handled by the call center software.

2. Knowing the customer profile and customer history

When a customer calls the customer care center, he will always expect a cordial welcome, and that comes with a personalized approach from the call center executive, who is taking the call. For this reason, the call center executive should instantly get access to the customer’s history, associated with the organization, and in the case of a new customer, the call center executive should try to build a relationship with the user so that he becomes the next customer of the organization. In the case of a new customer, the problem is not that big, but when it comes to talking with an existing customer, knowing the history is very essential and that gives the customer a sense of satisfaction. The call center software should be properly integrated with the CRM software or any other database, that stores the previous transactions of a particular customer. 

The call center software should collect the data from the necessary database on demand and there are several call center software, which does not have the permission to collect the information whenever necessary. In such a situation, the customer has to repeat his personal details, and also the history which can lead to customer dissatisfaction. Talking about the customer’s history, the call center executive should get real-time information about the customers, and at the same time, the call center executive should also know when the customer communicated with the call center the last time and get information about whether the previous problem was resolved or not. All these eventually deliver satisfaction to the customers while talking to the call center.

3. Generating tickets and noting down customer problems

As I have already discussed, the customer can call the call center for any complaints and also request new products and services. Talking about complaints, after the customer explains his problem to the call center executive, a ticket number needs to be generated instantly and all the customer problems should be noted down against that particular complaint ID. That will ensure the customer will never have to repeat the same problem if the problem is not resolved within the next few hours or days depending upon the amount of time then the call center executive needs to sort out the issue. Additionally, if the call center executive needs to forward the call to another executive or to the senior, the ticket number should also be sent to the executive. 

This will ensure the problems will be resolved, or the other executive can know about the problems directly from the ticket number without asking the customer to repeat the problems. After the problem is noted down, the same information should also be added to the CRM or the respective database so that the customer can be looked after in the future, even after the problem is resolved. This will ensure the customer does not have the same problem all over again. When it comes to noting down the problems of the customer, it is the expertise of the call center executive, who will note down the problems and it should be noted down with a lot of precision to ensure that all the smallest points are noted down in the complaint section so that solution can be delivered at the earliest without calling the customer multiple times to know more details about the problem that he is facing.

4. Seamless integration with all the other tools

When a customer calls the call center and explains all his problems, or requests some product or service, it is also the responsibility of a well-equipped call center to deliver immediate information about whether the problem can be solved instantly, or whether the product the customer is looking for, is available in stock. If the customer is looking for a certain service, the call center executive should also be able to instantly check the service persons available, and inform the customer about when the problem can be solved with the existing number of service persons, and their pending appointments. 

All these require a seamless connection with the CRM and other business tools, which should again be an important feature of an ideal call center software. After a request is registered, a message should be sent to the customer on his mobile number, email, and other places, depending upon the information available to the company. Message delivery is also a part of the CRM, and the call center software should also be able to initiate message and email deliveries, whenever necessary. So, seamless integration with all the tools is one of the most important requirements in any call center software, and that is the key to increase confidence about the brand, within the mind of the customers. 

5. Use data to nudge customers

The user should be informed from time to time about the new products and services, along with the new offers the company has for its customers. This will be a lucrative opportunity for the customer to avail of new services and products. This process of informing the customers about everything should be handled by the call center team. So, when the new and exciting offers are available, or there is the arrival of some new products and services, the information should be available and could be accessed by the call center software automatically from time to time. Additionally, if the company has a data-driven ecosystem and it keeps tracking the orders of the customer, along with the shopping habits, the same set of data can be utilized to find out the upcoming products and services the customer can be interested in.

This will enable the call center executives to follow up on the customers to know, whether they are interested in the new products and services. This requires a synergized connection between the business tools that are using the customer’s data and the call center software in question. So the call center software suite should also be data-driven to deliver useful insights about the customers, and that way, the call center executives can call the customers from time to time and offer the most relevant products and services they are interested in. So yes, a data-driven ecosystem can do wonders, when it comes to the best possible call center software.

Depending upon the type of organization, call center software might require additional tools to serve the customers with the best possible services. But those that I have mentioned here, are some of the elementary abilities that should be there within a call center software. With more abilities, the better will be the effectiveness of the call center team. As a great call center is a key to bolster customer satisfaction, having a great call center software is yet another big key to increase the confidence of a customer in case of startups.

So, those are the features that should be present in a model call center software. Do you think there are additional features to increase the usefulness of a call center software? Feel free to comment on the same below.