Inbound Call Center
The Inbound Call Center , or inbound call centers, are those that take care of receiving or answering incoming calls, as well as text messages, emails, and even live chat inquiries from potential customers or users. It seems easier for the customer to call the company that sells and not for it to call the customer. This is how sales support started handling customer inquiries about products, or pre-sales questions, using that inbound workflow.
Today, most Sales Call Centers offer incoming or Inbound Call Center services , as well as outbound services, the latter being the one called Outbound Call Center .
In both cases, it is necessary for the company to have a tool that allows it to take advantage of existing internal systems, thereby increasing the productivity levels of the Inbound Call Center agents , helping to increase the profitability of the center. In this sense, the organization must resort to the customer relationship management strategy, that is, CRM (Customer Relationship Management), seeking the incorporation of an application programming interface, API (Application Programming Interface), to integrate that strategy to the Inbound Call Center .
With the use of tools such as those mentioned, the productivity of the team improves, since the time that is invested in answering just one call will be much shorter, being able to serve more clients. It also allows or facilitates the recording of each and every one of the interactions, fostering the responsibility of the Inbound Call Center agents . Another tool that can be combined is the use of CTI or Computer Telephony Integration.
What Is Inbound Call Center
In an Inbound Call Center, a variety of customer-focused or customer-oriented services are offered, helping the company to provide timely responses with instant, effective and efficient solutions, and, above all, honest and sincere, to the clients who make their respective inquiries, raise their complaints, problems and doubts.
Through an Inbound Call Center , support services are handled in real time; inquiries are handled through multiple channels (voice, email, live chat, text messages); This feature helps improve the customer experience through excellent service; allows the expansion of the customer base at low cost; all with the fundamental purpose of the business, which is based on the improvement of commercial income.
As in any type of Sales Call Center , it is very important that the company has well qualified and trained people in its team of agents to interact with customers, thus guaranteeing excellent service to them.
Services that stand out the most in an Inbound Call Center :
- Inquiry handling services.
- Client services.
- Virtual receptionist services.
- Information request services.
- Sales and closing service ratings.
- Order reservation services.
- Technical problem solving services.
- Appointment scheduling services.
- Inbound sales services.
- Customer support services.
Among which it is necessary to highlight:
Customer Support. Serve customers before, after, and during purchase to meet their needs through interaction. Inbound call center agents handle everything from complaints to product malfunctions, as well as taking immediate action to resolve the customer’s problem. It also plays an important role in customer recovery.
Incoming sales. Recently more profitable than their traditional exit counterparts, as their focus is primarily based on being found by potential or desired customers. It basically refers to services in which the customer who asks the organization for a product or service then receives an additional request to buy it or, at a minimum, adds it to the database for future sales.
Help Desk / Technical Troubleshoot – This is a very important part of Call Center Inbound which not only provides technical answers but also evaluates issues related to IT difficulties and related products. Information Technology, such as pre- and post-sale technical support, on-site (on-site) technical support, network support technology, applications, desktop and warranty support, maintenance services, others. Providing excellent help desk service is vital to maintaining a loyal customer base.
The company interested in selling must decide whether to structure its own Center or to hire the service. There are many organizations that offer this type of service, making it somewhat difficult to select the correct Inbound Call Center . There are many elements to consider in order to select the best, having to take into account aspects such as the following:
- The call focus organization will be located in the customer area.
- Discover or identify the organization that works in the customer area.
- Choose a calling approach that represents considerable relevance in the industry in which the company participates.
- Support should preferably be in the local language, with the English version.
- That the organization to be hired provides multi-channel support.
How to receive the customer?
In an Inbound Call Center, agents are waiting for the call to arrive, and once it comes in, it must be routed to the correct agent without any delay. For this, automatic call distribution is used, a tool known as ACD , Automatic Call Distribution , which allows directing or routing the incoming call to the agent that is available. This facility saves customers considerable waiting time, who seek to receive a customer service in the shortest possible time.
Another facility or application that is used is the Interactive Voice Response, known by IVR (Interactive Voice Response) , which helps the client by providing options from which they can choose, also serving as self-help so that the client himself address answers to the problem you present, or what is the same, find, on your own, the solution provided by the company.
All the incoming tools that have been designed, what they seek is to maintain a high level of occupation of the agents, and the response capacity of the company, reducing downtime in the Inbound Call Center . Proper and effective call routing ensures that missed calls represent a very small part of the grand total of incoming calls.