In Call Management we have an active sales team which contacts potential clients in order to offer our services: telephone answering service, e-mail handling, live chat support, social media customer care and much more. We have over 180 clients on our books including start-up companies, SME’s and large & multinational companies. How? Well our contact centre caters to every company size because we tailor make our services to fit our clients’ requirements. They are not classified within a group; each client and business is unique.
What it is a contact centre?
A contact centre can have various definitions depending who you ask and what services are they using. Our definition is…
“A contact centre is:
- A partner:We grow together and compliment each other.
- Part of you team: We answer the enquiries in your name following your FAQ’s, processes and procedures
- A Team of Dedicated Professionals: Training and dedication is paramount in our profession. We need to answer quickly and properly any enquiries.
- A Multi-skilled team: The contact centre agents are able to listen to the enquiry, research the correct answer, communicate professionally, and every now and then use a large dose of psychology, to provide a high quality customer experience. But also, agents require informatics, analytics and numeracy skills.
- A First point interaction for your clients: By phone, e-mail, live chat, social media or mobile text, clients will interact initially with a contact centre agent. They will answer clients FAQ’s and if it is appropriate escalate it to a relevant in-house team member.
- Much more (check our employee page)”
You can check our children definition here.
Why a Contact Centre is for everyone?
The key elements for any business are the clients and customers, without people buying services and products, companies cannot exist. A contact centre is for every type of business which requires contact with past clients, existing clients and potential new clients. The contact between business and clients may vary but so also do the services from a contact centre.
A contact centre can offer a receptionist service, a meeting room, an information line, a complaint line, an e-mail handling service, social media management and much more. Not every business requires the same services, nor the same level of service or number of hours. But everyone can benefit from having extra resources and paying only for what they are getting.
For example a start-up may need someone to take their calls when they are in meeting with clients. A small company may want a secretary to make appointments with clients. A medium size company may want a full customer service support whit out investing in new office space. And a large company may need support for a specific campaign. Everyone can benefit from a contact centre.
Fear to outsource to a contact centre
Playing devil’s advocate… I will list a number of reasons why you should not outsource:
- “We are too small”: Then you may need us the most. Why take calls on your mobile during meetings, divert your phones to a professional outsourcer and we will answer calls in your company name and e-mail or text you immediately. It is relatively inexpensive and no more missed sales opportunities. It will allow you and your team concentrate on revenue generating projects and your chosen outsourcer can handle your receptionist duties. Being small is one of the main reasons we have a SME shared service division within our company.
- “What about data protection?”: Reputable outsourcers will be registered with the Data Protection Commissioner of Ireland and have professional accreditations such as ISO or Deloitte. There is also a contact centre governing body in Ireland www.ccma.ie and the better contact centres will have measures in place to protect your data. Data protection is highly regulated in Ireland.
- “It is too expensive”: During the start up phase, inbound phone calls are at a premium, so take a typical scenario of 5 to 10 calls per day during office hours. That means you are receiving 2000 phone calls per month. A professional outsourcing company with a dedicated team of trained agents will costs on average a fifth of what it would cost to hire a receptionist. There are other added benefits, no payroll function, no prsi, holidays, lunch cover and lastly sick leave. These will all become the outsourcers headaches you pay for your calls to be answered in a professional and timely manner.
- “We prefer to use in-house solutions”: It makes complete sense to keep everything in-house for a quality control and confidentiality reasons. We offer 24 by 7 support and it may not be possible for your team to work weekends and after hours. We can compliment your in-house solution by providing support after office hours and also as an overflow function.
- “We have an answering machine”: research has shown that most people hang up and move on rather than leave a message. With the advent of the internet and on-line sales via shopping carts, your potential clients expect you to provide support when they need it not just when your office is open. People expect you to be available on Saturday and even Sunday’s to assist them with their purchase and an answering machine is not going to fill that brief.
- “It is something that would not interest you”: We are all resistant to change to some degree and the old adage ‘If it is not broken why fix it’ still holds true but we have evolved and it may not be broken but your competitors are using more advanced technology and found less expensive solutions to fix the process and without realising you are loosing valuable resources by not embracing new ideas.
Benefits for everyone
In summary these are the key benefits in outsourcing to a contact centre and to Call Management:
- Human resources:
- Extra resources when you need them
- Highly trained and experienced team in customer care
- Part of your team
- Opportunity to be open 24/7
- Technological resources
- No requirement to invest in technology
- Access to your calls on-line through our website by using your personal username and password
- Availability to receive over 600 calls every minute through your dedicated line
- Our team can use your software on the cloud or by VPN link to guarantee the security of the data
If you want more information contact us!
