When VSA made the strategic decision to make inbound call center services one of our core focuses last year, it wasn’t as if we were starting from scratch.
Inbound services have always been available to VSA’s clients. And our Philadelphia office handles inbound calls exclusively for the city’s largest transportation system.
But last year marked a turning point in that a full range of inbound services were now available for any client that required them. Large or small programs … dedicated or shared agent options … 24/7 coverage or customized schedules … it didn’t matter. VSA could accommodate.
After two-plus decades of being known primarily for our outbound lead generation and appointment-setting work, full-time inbound services were now among our slate of customized offerings.
VSA’s first major inbound project at the time involved offering 24/7 tier 1 help desk support to field questions from healthcare facilities. A year later, we have broadened our inbound capabilities by investing in a powerful new omni-channel Contact Center solution that significantly enhances the customer experience for our clients’ callers. The new technology allows us to respond to customer concerns with increased speed and efficiency, while continuing to provide our clients with the data and insights they’re looking for.
Here are some of the expanded features our new platform can deliver:
Sophisticated Interactive Voice Response (IVR) capabilities
These days, call centers can’t function without some sort of IVR, not if they want to ensure that all callers receive prompt attention. But just having IVR is not enough; the technology must help make for a frictionless customer experience. According to a recent Zendesk Customer Experience Trends Report, roughly half of customers said they would switch to a competitor after just one bad experience, and 80% said they would switch after more than one bad experience. You can’t afford to frustrate callers with an unresponsive or difficult-to-navigate IVR.
The Zendesk report reveals that 68% of customers are annoyed when their calls are transferred between departments. Our platform’s effective call distribution capabilities help make sure that callers are directed to the right agent the first time, while also allowing for shorter wait times and expediated service.
Messages on hold and customer surveys
IVR’s aren’t just about “Press 1 for …” Advanced functions can enhance the caller experience and grow customer loyalty.
With our messages on hold capabilities, we’re able to create custom recordings for callers to hear during their hold times, making the wait to speak to a live person seem shorter. Callers still feel like they’re receiving attention, even while they’re on hold.
Customer surveys, meanwhile, are a valuable tool for generating top-of-mind feedback and another way of letting callers know they’re appreciated. These surveys help us gain immediate insights into customers’ needs and concerns and, ultimately, allow us to improve the overall caller experience.
Real-time chat, email correspondence, and chatbot functionality
While many people still insist on speaking directly to a live agent (and VSA makes sure that’s always an option), there are plenty of others who are perfectly content to use other communication channels to resolve their issues.
The statistics back this up. According to Salesforce, 57% of customers prefer to engage companies through digital channels. Meanwhile, HubSpot reported last year that 48% of customers feel comfortable with interactions managed by bots, and 71% say they’d be happy to use one if meant an improved customer experience.
Our platform supports real-time chat, email correspondence, and chatbot functionality. These channels are automated through Application Performing Interfaces (APIs) and AI, including ChatGPT. All these tools allow callers to get the responses they’re looking for almost instantly, further enhancing customer satisfaction.
The ability to distinguish calls by severity and respond accordingly
It’s vital to take all customer inquiries seriously, but some calls require more urgent attention than others. Through close collaboration with our clients, we learn which calls are considered higher-priority, and we develop multiple escalation plans to address the various scenarios.
While our platform allows us to prioritize certain calls, it doesn’t mean much if our customer service reps aren’t handling these calls professionally and respectfully. This is never an issue at VSA. Our empathetic, U.S.-based agents are drawn from a national talent pool and highly trained on their assigned programs, ensuring that they’re able to provide knowledgeable assistance, regardless of the nature of the call.
Enhanced reporting
Companies that invest in outsourced call center services need to know that their commitment makes good fiscal sense over time. But without the right data and insights, it’s almost impossible to tell.
VSA’s platform allows us to capture data and report on a wide range of performance statistics and metrics, including proof of uptime/downtime tracking, dropped/abandoned calls, average hold time, average time to answer, calls answered, call volume over time, average call length, caller demographics, and more. We can also report on variables such as whether the call was resolved by IVR or a human representative and other factors that impact future decisions about the program’s sustainability.
Conclusion
VSA has always recognized the importance of staying ahead of the curve when it comes to technology. It’s allowed us to provide our outbound clients with best-in-class services, and now we’re able to do the same for our inbound clients.
But it doesn’t have to be one or the other. Our outbound clients have utilized inbound services in the past and now have the opportunity to do so on a deeper level.
“We’ve really grown up as a company doing outbound. It’s what we’re known for, and what we’ve invested so much in,” says VSA Founder and CEO Valerie Schlitt. “Every once in an while we’d get requests for inbound, and it’s exciting to be able to provide those services at this level. Not only is it a new line of business for us, but it’s also a chance to support clients who already know us and trust us in an entirely new way.”
If you’d like to learn more about VSA’s inbound—or outbound—services, give us a call. We’re always excited to learn how we can help your business.