That depends on how you start and manage a call center.
Just because there is a demand for call centers doesn't mean that your call center will successfully attract it and become profitable. As a matter of fact, several call centers start and fail because the owners don't appreciate how to start a call center successfully.
In this post, we share a handful of things you should know before getting your call center off the ground so you can build yours with confidence and give yourself the best possible chance of succeeding.
Keep reading to learn more about call center profitability and management.
1. Client Funnels Make Or Break Centers
You could have the best call center the world has ever seen. If that center doesn't have a diverse base of clients, you'll go under.
Sounds obvious, right? Still, many people that start centers don't have a client acquisition plan in place before they launch which leads them to scramble to meet their expense obligations.
Avoid falling into that trap by scaling your operation around clients that you get rather than building a big operation and finding clients to fill your time. Client acquisition for call centers can be gone about in a variety of ways from paid ads to manually networking via LinkedIn.
2. You Must Have Outstanding Agents
People are the hardest piece to locate of any business puzzle. It's easy enough to find any old person but to find the right person that's capable of doing great work can present serious challenges.
Keep in mind as you build your team of agents that it might take time to find the right ones.
We've seen several call center builders get frustrated by poor or average agent interviews and start hiring sub-par people rather than staying committed to hiring people with potential. Don't follow that example.
3. Understand The Virtues Of Efficiency
Like any business, the more you maximize your time, the more you maximize your money. In the world of call centers, that means being able to field as many calls as possible while keeping people waiting for an acceptable amount of time.
Think about it, if you improved team efficiency by 25%, you'd have 25% more hours in the day to bring on a new client and inject more money into your business.
Benefits like that make clear how important it will be for you to institute various operational efficiencies into your team's workflows. You can explore this topic in more depth by studying the ins and out of how to calculate call center shrinkage.
4. Great Service Leads To Great Results
While efficiency is important when building a call center, you can't make your whole business about being efficient. If you do that, you're going to have a floor full of agents rushing through calls, providing bad service, making customers upset, and making your clients not want to do business with you anymore.
Therefore, as you scale your efficiency, keep in mind that ensuring callers are still feeling taken care of and enjoying the results of their calls is the number one priority. Balancing that, efficiency, and quality will undoubtedly be one of the hardest things you'll need to manage as you grow your call center business.
5. Investing In Your Agent's Skills Is A Must
The best way to ensure your call center puts out quality services is ensuring that your agents are equipped to achieve that end. How can you equip your agents?
For starters, you can equip them by training them.
The most successful call centers we've seen conduct regular audits of agent's calls and offer them the help they need to improve their skills. Furthermore, group training is a big deal at successful centers, not just when onboarding people but throughout their time at the company.
You should plan on having bi-annual training for your team at least. That training will walk them through everything from grammar improvements (if English is their second language) to various service techniques.
6. You Will Also Be Investing in Tools
When building a call center, you are not just going to hire a group of people, buy some phones, and call it a day. You will also need to invest in call center software to really enable your agents to do their best work.
Call center software gives agents the ability to pull up caller's files which describes everything from callers' previous call history to their purchase history if the client you are contracted with allows for such information to be shared.
The more information your call center agents have at their disposal, the faster they will be able to assist customers. That will make you more efficient and your customers happier.
7. Always Put Customer Experience Over Profits
You likely surmised this by now but to reiterate, successful call centers put people over profits in your realty business. Period and end of story.
That may sound counterintuitive to your goals but believe us when we say that if your team is first and foremost invested in providing a quality customer experience, the money will follow.
Are You Ready To Build Your Call Center?
Building a call center is no small task. Armed with the insight on call centers and telemarketing we have shared, we are confident that you are better equipped to prioritize various elements of your business in a way that you will be positioned to find success.
If you find yourself in need of more call center guidance, we welcome you to browse our blog for additional insight on more of your business questions. If you have the calling to seek out profitability, we are here to answer your call at Bootstrap Business!