subject: Customer Care Models for BPO [print this page] Customer Care Models for BPO Customer Care Models for BPO
This topic has completely grasped my attention of late. Each time my cell phone network shoots trouble, I think of this problem deeper than ever. For all practical purposes, the answering service department has to deal with three primary challenges. The first one is that customers expect the BPO agents to be spot-on with the information that they provide. The internet has ensured that everyone on with a computer and an internet connection can have access to specialized and professional information. This has made the customers acquire a love for precise, prompt availability of information. As a call center manager, you will have to realize this before you go about purging your inbound call center team off inefficiency.
The internet has shown the customers that the world is small. Any customer on this date feels that he can talk to the senior powers of the organization when they pick up the phone. Your answering service agent has to be trained to deal with this psychology. The customers hate it when their concerns are not heeded with the attention deserving of a nuclear threat. The BPO agent may be doing his/her best to get to the root of the problem, but unless you make the customer feel important, there is hardly any meat there. The customer needs to feel privileged about being associated with your company. Your inbound call center agent has to come across as someone who's sitting over there with a job only to deal with the caller who's on the phone line.
Customers have choices. That's what makes them harder to deal with. They always have a part of their brain brewing with the threat that if you don't pull up your socks, he/she has it on mind to walk over to your rival. That is another fact that answering service agents have to deal with. The wide array of choices proliferates the customers' whims. They feel that they are powerful enough to act and will do so. They are not willing to pay extra for better services. As a result, the cash-strapped company will be tempted to hire cheap BPO firms that don't have trained personnel to deal with the projects at hand. Cheaper call center agents also mean a delay in the work, coupled with inferior handling of customers. Ultimately, the customers' unwillingness to pay works right against him/her.
PR courses will teach you that you deal with internal and external publics in separate ways, if needed. You might be tempted to think that you can treat your customers differently as well. Burn those plans right now. Blogs, forums, websites- these pages of literature about the company, the services and the customer feedback doesn't leave anything to the imagination. The sensible customer has the access to all the information on a public domain! Training your call center agents to cover things up and present a happy faade will not work for you. BPO agents trying to do that will be hopelessly in muddy waters doing the cover-up job. Customer service was never an easy walk in the park. It gets tougher!
