A myth, parable or fable… what are they and why do they exist? Well, they tend to be borne from fantasy, a belief or believed truth, a manifestation of something resembling reality. Their purpose? To comfort, confuse, construe… whatever the intention, they rarely represent the truth. It would be fair to say that the idea of ‘contact centres’ have certain connotations to those that have never experienced, worked in or passed through one. There is an unfair stigma attached to contact centres and, for many, imagery of glazed-eyed employees crammed into a dimly lit room can be conjured.
There are a number of myths surrounding contact centres, most of which are unrepresentatively negative. The purpose of this blog is to debunk contact centre myths and highlight the important role they play in the ever-changing world of business.
Myths Concerning Contact Centres
“Customers don’t dial into customer support these days”
While chatbots and social media have grown in prevalence, especially amongst younger generations, calling customer support is still the method of choice for most consumers. The reason is simple: customers want to know they are talking to a human being, who understand their issue, and is able to resolve it, there and then.
Chatbots can be useful when addressing trivial issues that can be answered with a simple ‘yes’ or ‘no’, but for more complex issues or queries, calling into customer support is still number one. This is especially true when call centres and customer relationship management (CRM) tools are unified, allowing businesses to deliver a real-time, personalised resolution to customers.
“Call centre workers will soon be replaced by robots”
The idea of automation, artificial intelligence and robotics holds an importance place in the future of business and should be welcomed rather than feared. All three can be used to streamline processes and to elevate burdensome and time-consuming tasks. The sole purpose is not to render humans redundant, rather support them. People also enjoy talking to people. Contact centres are founded on this principle, and this is unlikely to change anytime soon.
“Call centres are too pricey”
For business owners, the bottom-line is always at the forefront of their minds. While setting up a bricks and mortar call centre, with administrators and on-premises personnel can be costly, this is noy the only way set up phone support for your business. You can operate a Cloud-based call centre at a fraction of the cost, as you can select flexible packages that will increase, or decrease, depending on your company needs. This means that organisations can benefit from the many advantages of a call centre, without having to incur unnecessary costs.
“It’s difficult to set a call centre up”
Another sentiment that is simply not true. Again, as is true with costs, establishing a physical call centre can take time. However, opting to set up a Cloud-based call centre can take as little as five minutes. Your agents simply need to connect their devices, whether it is their desktop, laptop or smartphone, to perform their role. Not only is this easily done, but it means you can have agents based in a variety of different locations and time zones, without having to go through the stringent legal procedures of setting up an offshore entity.
“Agents will be unproductive if they are working remotely”
A gripe of many business owners. Productivity is essential, and the success of an organisation could very well hinge on it. When organisations made the shift to the hybrid, or remote, working model, productivity was a huge concern. However, there have been troves of reports that indicate that working in an office does not necessarily mean employees will be more productive or work harder. This is also the case with call centre agents, who may actually benefit from the added autonomy and flexibility that comes with working from home.
The Call Centre is Far from Dead… It’s Thriving
Communication is key, and your communications are an integral component of your business. Solgari have a wealth of experience helping organisations of all sizes establish their Cloud-based call centres in a cost-effective, efficient way. To find out how the experts at Solgari can help you build your call centre, get in touch, today.
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