Service as a differentiating value in your Call Center

We invite you to watch the full webinar in this link.

This webinar was done by our Commercial Executive Vanessa Chavarro and our Commercial Coach Carlos Blandón.

Vanessa: The topic that we are going to talk about today, which is super cool, is everything that is related to that part of service, customer service, that part that is so important in any company and well, I think that in life in general it is something As quite important, today's webinar is "Service as a differentiating value in your Call Center", let's start by breaking down that name a little and heading into What is a Call Center? See what those characteristics of a Call Center are, suddenly clarify if there is a difference between Call Center and Contact Center, which are two terms that may sound very similar, but they can be different things.

Carlos: Anglicisms have completely taken over in Colombia, so today we talk about Call Center, today we talk about Contact Center, today we talk about Marketing and as if suddenly we don't know those names that are truly in Spanish, when we can talk about what a call center is, what a contact center is where the company seeks to have a thousand and one ways to approach its customer, we are all looking for precisely that, to get closer to the customer, to make my relationship with the client is closer so that I can have it closer at hand and I can detect any type of signal of need that the client is giving me.

The importance of a call center, a call center or Call Center is an area where there are agents, where there are advisors, supervisors or executives, especially with a technique that is provided by the company itself dedicated to telemarketing or customer services, they are people who receive or make calls with special management given to them by their operator, their company, their director, so here the most important thing is that we have someone, a dedicated 100% person or several 100% people dedicated to receiving and making calls to communicate what they our clients need.

Vanessa: This is like an introduction to what we are doing at this moment for our clients. It may already be very clear what a Call Center is. The characteristics, the difference between a Contact Center and a Call Center. Maybe we have people who still do it or companies that don't do it yet. part of our community at iKono.
(Channel unification)

Carlos: In a contact center we have the telephony that we just talked about, we have text messages, we even have voice messages, we have email, there are social networks that today are essential and important in every organization, There are the videos, look how hard all the companies are working today with the theme of Instagram and also Tik Tok, how many companies today are doing marketing through Tik Tok, remember friends that recently when there were presidential elections one of The candidates became strong precisely through making videos on Tik Tok, so that is the importance of all these elements that the Contact Center works with and there was one of the most important and that is having that moment right now. of brilliance, that moment where everyone wants to have it, which is the theme of the Chat Bot. 

However, before talking about the ChatBot, tell you that the Contact Center is an area of the company that is in charge of all communications made to our clients, we return to what we had mentioned a few minutes ago and that is that we seek to have permanent contact with the client, being informed about what the client wants, what the client needs, where the client is going, is being there at their side and this is the way through having very close communications.

Vanessa: The Contact Center is where we are going to have more service channels to be able to receive our clients and well, there are several channels at this time. iKono can also provide them with the Chat channel so that they can centralize all those communications there, as Don Carlos has said. from Instagram, from WhatsApp, from the website, from Facebook and well there through Chatbot as well, which could be like a tool and we have already seen it in other webinars, you will also be able to find it in our Blog, there we have a fairly extensive blog around everything that is service, around everything that is this clarity between what this Call Center and Contact Center is, we invite you to review that information that we have already created with great love for all of you.

Carlos: Before, the way we were aware of what was happening with the client was in a physical way, always going in person to the client, we were permanently present through our salespeople, through our customer service people, perhaps through through the marketers, the promoters, most likely through the medical representatives or through any of the means that the companies at that time of physical presence had created to be close to the customer.

But the technology, these media in which we are working today, has led us to another new mission, like moving up that part a little bit and we find ourselves with this issue of call centers, the contact center.

Knowing how to communicate through a good email is important, a well-written email, through a well-made call, through a Chatbot and well-built Bots that communicate and know how to reach the customer, which fully what we We are saying or meaning to say or what we want to communicate is transmitted correctly, also with the issue of voice messages and text messages that are part of all this that is the Contact Center.

A call center is a place where there is an interactive vocal response to many of us who know a little about the technological part and suddenly tell us, look, it's not that it's necessary to have a IVR.

This is an interactive vocal response, we are in full communication with the client, they talk to us, we talk to them permanently, it is a site in which there is an automatic distribution of calls, it could go to the production, marketing, sales, accounting or find out what happened to my bill.

It is a place where there are automatic assistants and that is very important because directly without me having to ask more questions, because most likely there the agent will place me in the place where I will be able to enter. 

Supervisors and bosses will have a way to monitor calls and know what calls came in, what calls were made, and basically it is information that will be left there so that they can do a breakdown and why not do a Track what is happening in the call center.

Something very important is that they will be recording calls and that seems extremely important to me because I will be able to truly realize how my agents are speaking with my clients, you must be close to the clients and know how to talk to them .

Integrated reports: They are information in graphs that tell me what is happening, what the client is needing, what we are seeing in the day-to-day life of my call center, logically dashboards where the superior, the supervisor looking there at what is happening with each of those people who are working with me, what is happening with the live call status (whether there were cuts or not), if it is being attended to well, if what should be said was said. .

Control panels, panels with waiting times that are very important and that suddenly is something that touches a lot, in the sense that when I am in the position of client I do not want to have a lot of waiting time, agent sessions and integration with CRM.

The integration with the CRM It is very important, especially when the agent can review all the information of the client who is calling, there he can find out what products the clients have, what products they need. Find out about the possibility of cross-selling and being able to go a little further with the information that I have at hand, better said, a call center, we are talking about the administration of my company through this very important medium. what is a Call Center. 

Vanessa:  Of course yes, as Don Carlos has already mentioned, these are some of the characteristics that we should look for when we have a Call Center solution, we already know that a Call Center is when we have one or more people dedicated to telephone management, companies would enter there. as iKono to lend and support you in that technological part so that you as a company can have that part of the Call Center well managed and we can now get into the matter Don Carlos.

Carlos:  We are going to really talk about what can make the big difference, if you hired or are looking to have a Call Center, if you need to have something very important because you are finding the reason for being of Call Centers, if you are figuring it out or if you already You have it, because this is the reason: you have it simply because you want more sales, because you want to sell more and more and get more and more clients and see through a Call Center the possibility of expanding further in the market taking into account that there are platforms that allow them to have detailed reports and statistics and monitor their agents like our software iKono Call Center.

A second reason is to serve the client well so that that client feels close so that his client can say, I have someone close and at hand who can give me information about the different products that my supplier has, so I approach this client. And I tell him I need this and through that customer service, that very good customer service, then I can think that this client will stay with me in the future and most importantly he will recommend me to other possible clients that I can reach. Let's have it, another reason for a Call Center is to provide technical support, they call me, they need me, something in my company is failing and through the Call Center I call, this happens to me and there a person enters the technical support agent and tells him where to act to solve. 

The call agent cannot be a person that I hire and who is a random person who has no culture, who does not have a good way of presenting himself, who is suddenly a person who does not know how to speak.

A call agent has to know your economic, political and social environment.

A call agent is the soul of the company because he is the one who will give me the image of my company to the outside, that is why I would place the manager next to the call agent, because he is the one who has to be aware of how Your call agent is speaking. If you are speaking in terms with the protocols you put in place to get your brand right. My brand, that brand that is worth gold, cannot be in the hands of just anyone.

So as a manager you have to be aware of what the terms are, what the protocols are, what are the words that the person there is using. I have to make sure my image is okay.

Now when I make sure, I know that the other people who are in this environment are doing it and logically I will realize that the supervisors are speaking in the same terms and are ensuring a very good provision of customer service.

That the person who is training the call agents is telling them the exact words, the exact protocols, the perfect slogans so that people hear what they want to hear from my company. There are also data analysts, those who tell us what is happening in the call center, what is happening with everything that is received or with everything that I am delivering and with everything that I want as an entrepreneur through this call center and logically we also have systems engineers, who are those wonderful people who can help us get ahead through these technological means. 

Vanessa:  Of course, Don Carlos, it is quite important and entering into this issue of service as a differentiating value because, although it is the manager, the one who is clear about where the company is going is the agent or the supervisor, how should that agent attend to the In the end, it is the agent who provides the attention, the one who shows the face, a virtual, non-physical face of the company and when we speak with or call a company, be it from any sector, the automotive sector, real estate, the health sector, we are encountering with a representative of that company we are calling and that representative has to know that it is important and in that sense they will surely be able to provide better care.

Carlos: Unquestionably Vanessa, what do I want from that agent of mine and what marks the differentiating factor, what is the differentiating factor and in this differentiating factor we are unquestionably going to talk about people, about human beings, about who I am, who is caring for me, how important it is, because every time there are more technological means, every time more of these important aids arrive, I have to be more aware of the human factor, of the person who is caring for me. , that person who makes the difference and that is where we invite you to have very kind people, very courteous people, people who are empathetic. 

Empathy is putting myself in the other person's shoes, when I put myself in the client's shoes, if they fit me, if they don't fit me; That's what I have to know when a customer calls my Call Center, it's time to be kinder, it's time to be more courteous, it's time to be gentler, it's time to have a broad smile, It is a moment of having true active listening, that is where I truly put myself in a position of active listening to know what the client is looking for, why at that moment they contacted me, then active listening has to be total. and my agent must be totally involved in the subject because there, when he started his operation, he is actively listening to what he tells the client. 

Vanessa: Well, I think that there Don Carlos, let's take a break from this seriousness of the topic, you have said that no one calls for a fight, but I believe that there are people, in fact, yesterday I saw a very funny video of a lady So he says that he is going to set up a business for elderly people who are already retired and who have all the time to go fight, to do errands, so obviously there are people who are going to call with that tone of fight, But as you say, Don Carlos, try to ensure that the agent is empathetic and offers solutions that in the end, as you have said, is the objective for which one is calling.

Carlos: Vanessa, I love your intervention at this moment, and as you just said, because if people call in a fighting tone, but they call because they are looking for a solution to their problem, because they need something solved, and because he is already out of his role of holding on and when he calls it is because he already wants a solution, so as a client, I can be allowed to be in a bad temper and to be saying things in a bad temper, but as an agent I have to be patient, I have to listen actively, I have to be calm, I have to let the client vent, let the client say what they want and I have the appropriate protocols and policies to serve and to speak well to the client I I speak well, the client is the one who can get angry, the client is the one who says this, this is not working badly for me, I need this, but I know the solution and I know where to go in a calm way, without fighting .

I love what Vanessa just said, the client may be in a bad mood, so I'm going to talk to her calmly, calmly, I'm going to reassure her, and I'm going to tell her that I'm taking great care to solve her problem. problem, that is where everything changes completely and here is something important, after I have given the solution to the problem, after I have directed my client towards what he needs, I also say to him, please, would you like to give me a comment? How did I serve you? Did I solve your problem? Did it take me too long? What can I do to improve? Help me, because what we want here is to do things better and better so that you are well cared for. 

Vanessa: I believe that at some point I have heard you talk about this part and perhaps a very direct message for the agents is that they understand that they cannot be taken as those comments that they sometimes make personally because the comment is for the company, but not for the agent, then it is an opportunity where he can present himself more as an ally than as a defender and then start the fight and well, I think that part also emphasizes what customer service is so that be a differentiating factor in the call center.

Carlos: I believe that many of you came today to expect to see different things, new things and that was the truly differentiating factor of my Call Center and I come to tell you with all the simplicity of the case that the differentiating factor is you, it is you, it is you , customer service must be exceptional and it is exceptional through what you do, it makes the difference between the success or failure of the company, customer service marks everything, says it all, my attention, my kindness, my affability, my cordiality, my kindness, my smile; That says it all, it's the difference between success and failure, there it is.

The one who makes the difference is you providing excellent customer service, taking an interest in your client, speaking well to the client, a well-served client is much more likely to use the company's services again; But here the most important thing is not that I use the services again, but that I continue using them, a well-served client brings more clients, a well-served client speaks well of me, a well-served client attracts other people because he speaks very well to them. of my company, never think about what can happen to a client who serves you poorly, takes away a number of clients and prevents others from coming to me. For this reason, I insist that the differentiating factor is you and the attention we give to you. Through a very good service, a well-served client totally recommends my company and logically I am going to have many, many more clients, many of us who are in sales, many of us who are in commercial life say how we can sell in a good way. easier way and the sale is not so complicated, because working and getting cold clients is very, very complicated.

Getting cold clients is very complicated, but there are so many good ones that it is when they refer to me because things are solved for me, because they give me an advanced step so that I can sell, of course because they are recommending me and they are telling me that I I am good and that is what makes the difference good customer service.

Vanessa: Of course, Don Carlos, I think that is what you have said, it is the key, the key and the differentiating factor, the differentiating value is the agent, it is the person who is going to be showing the face of the company. 

Carlos: What are the skills of a good call center agent? We have already talked there about the good that can be done when I have good service. Now I would like to talk to you about those skills that my agent must have, the skills that he has to qualify, those skills are understanding the needs and caring about clients, feeling the company, put on the t-shirt, when I have the t-shirt on it hurts me that my client has a problem, it hurts me that my client has something that is not working and that he may be uncomfortable with what I am providing as a service so It is essential that I, as a Call Center agent, fully understand the needs and that I care totally, totally about what the client is needing if his agent comes to understand and if his agent comes to care about what is happening to him to your client, you have a very good Call Center agent; That is one of the greatest skills, the other thing is to have very good communication, knowing how to talk, not argue. 

We return to the topic, if the client is in a bad temper, as an agent I have the ability to communicate, the ability to know how to speak, the ability to calm them down, that if my client is speaking in a high tone, I must speak in a low tone. So that? To reassure that person, those are skills that empathy must have and we return to the topic of putting ourselves in the shoes, not the feet, in the client's shoes, of course, because when I put myself in the client's shoes, well, logically I am Knowing what's going on with that client, I know what's making them difficult and what's really calling them to raise their hand and make a call to tell me, 'I need this.'

If I meet an agent who treated me well, who spoke to me well, who called me by name, who told me Carlos, welcome to iKono Telecomunicaciones, we love that you are here, what can we do for you, he immediately contacted me there, came in, Remember that just now we talked a few minutes ago about the CRM and he skillfully entered his computer and saw in the CRM that the client had such and such products and he found out what he could have, he was able to speak to him by name and knew what he is needing. , the client perceived what that person knows about him, his company and his environment.

It is a person who has total knowledge of the product and the service and who has total knowledge of what the client is, that is why he personalizes the service, that is why he speaks face to face with the client, when I say face to face it is not necessarily using familiar names, although I know that nowadays young people do it with an ease that we older people do not do, but when I say it from you to you it is because it tells him what he has, what he may be suffering from and What is the solution you have for that problem.