Is It Worthwhile For A Small Business To Have A Call Center?

Put yourself in your customers’ shoes: you’ve ordered a delivery but something has gone wrong. Maybe it’s later than expected, there’s a snag with payment, or an item is missing. Whatever the case, you want to talk to someone about it. 

Mistakes happen. You’re not a giant, faceless corporation; you’re a small(er) business made up of real people. So, when customers have questions or complaints, they want to speak to a real person to resolve the situation. Offering top-notch customer service at these times is crucial for building brand loyalty, ensuring repeat customers, and keeping your reputation clean. 

This is where a call center comes in. But is it worth it for an SMB? 

It might seem like an unnecessary investment when you’re a small or medium business strapped for time and resources. But today’s call centers have evolved from stuffy offices and bulky, expensive equipment. 

Here, we’ll explore how modern call center software can change the game for small to medium delivery companies and explore critical features and benefits. 

What is call center software?

Call center software is an application that helps businesses manage customer communication on one platform. While old-fashioned versions relied purely on analog phones and physical office space, technology today means businesses have more options. 

For example, a virtual business telephone service allows you to connect multiple devices to the same business phone number. Then, there are solutions to facilitate automatic call distribution and call monitoring. 

What does all this mean for your team? It’s about improving productivity by reducing manual tasks and creating a more personalized experience for customers. 

Benefits of remote call centers 

Every business wants to provide the best customer service possible. Luckily that doesn’t require a huge investment. Thanks to current call center technology trends, a remote contact center can prove worthwhile, especially for SMBs. 

Access to a global talent pool 

As agents can work from home, wherever they happen to be, you aren’t limited in your hiring options. Instead, you can choose from top talent worldwide. This is particularly beneficial if you operate internationally (or plan to). 

Reduced costs

Legacy hardware is often expensive to buy, maintain, and repair. Then there are other costs associated with a physical office, including rent, utilities, and furniture. By using call center technologies, you can switch to a cloud-based office and significantly reduce these expenses.

Round-the-clock support

With a more modern setup that makes use of automated functions, you ensure support is available to customers 24/7, whether that's via phone, social media, or live chat. The more options, the better. 

Increased scalability 

You can scale up and down faster with a virtual call center. For SMBs, this flexibility means you can more easily allocate time and resources to ensure growth. 

8 essential call center software features for SMBs

When choosing a software package, look for something that matches your current needs but also has room to expand as your business grows. There are various all-in-one solutions that will allow your team to achieve multiple things with minimum expense or fuss. 

Here are some key features to look for when choosing the best call center software for your company. 

1. Internal communication 

As we mentioned, a major advantage of using call center software rather than a traditional call center is that it eliminates the need for expensive office space and hardware. Instead, your team can work remotely. 

The challenge, then, is ensuring strong channels of communication between team members and managers. We don’t need to tell you the importance of communication in an organization, particularly in a remote work setup. 

Ensure the software you choose was designed with remote work in mind. A good call center software package will let you communicate with agents via video meetings, 1:1 calls, and messaging channels. To improve productivity and provide constructive feedback to agents, you should also be able to monitor and record calls and access call and agent analytics (more on this later). 

2. Omnichannel capability

These days, not everyone is a fan of phone calls. Many customers prefer to interact via live chat, email, or even chatbots, so providing options is key. This can be difficult for smaller businesses but, with the right tools, there’s no reason why you can’t deliver an omnichannel experience to customers.

Look for call center software that lets you manage all communication channels in one place. Then, your customers can contact support via whichever method they are most comfortable with, and your team can move seamlessly between channels.

As well as creating a more positive customer experience, providing options also reduces strain on live agents. For example, if ten people have a query but your only contact option is a phone number, that’s ten calls clogging up the lines. 

If you offer self-service options, nine of these people may be able to resolve their issue or answer their question without waiting on hold. And for the one person whose problem wasn’t solved? They can escalate to a live agent via phone or message.

3. Scalability and flexibility

The ideal call center software can adjust to changing business needs as you grow. While you may be a small team now, what does the future look like? 

Choose a platform that makes it easy for you to add or remove agents when necessary. Consider cloud-based platforms, too, as these tend to offer greater levels of scalability and flexibility. With no physical restrictions or limits, you can expand or adjust your team however you like. 

4. Detailed analytics dashboard

For small delivery companies, time is money — that’s why route optimization is so crucial. With so many things to juggle, managers don’t have time to monitor every single call. At the same time, you need to know how agents are performing and how effectively issues are being resolved. 

With that in mind, pick software with robust contact center analytics. Some platforms have in-depth dashboards that display essential info, such as the average speed to answer, peak calling times, or most used channels. 

Armed with this information, it’s much easier to make data-driven decisions and identify areas for improvement — both in your call center and SMB as a whole!

5. Options for automation 

AI call center solutions automate long or tedious tasks, saving you crucial time and money. Take call transcriptions, for example. Old-school methods of monitoring agent performance meant listening to call recordings and manually identifying areas for improvement. Now, many call center software comes with real-time call transcription features that create accurate transcripts for easy review. 

Transcription isn’t the only AI-powered feature that can help your business. AI ‘agent assists’ automatically present agents with the most relevant information to help customers live, while real-time sentiment analysis evaluates how each call is going and if a supervisor needs to step in with additional support. 

6. Automatic call distribution

After waiting on hold, there’s nothing more annoying than realizing you’ve ended up being connected to the wrong department. Spare your customers this frustration by using automatic call distribution (ACD). The feature routes callers to the best available agent to solve their problem. 

Most call centers also use interactive voice response (IVR), which allows callers to access information and use menu options to make sure they reach the desired department and agent.

7. Ability to integrate with existing systems

Wherever possible, you want to keep things simple. Constantly switching between multiple systems and searching random folders and files for information can make running a SMB feel like a nightmare. Wouldn’t it be better, then, to keep track of everything in one easy-to-use solution?

For example, if you already use customer relationship management software (CRM), look for call center technology that integrates with this. This way, you can centralize your data management and streamline processes so your teams can be more efficient and productive. This also applies to other areas of the business, such as your courier software or dispatch system. 

8. Commitment to security

Finally, it’s important to consider the software provider’s approach to security. When you invest in call center technologies, you are trusting that your data and your customers’ data will be safe. That’s why it’s critical to choose a reputable vendor to buy from. (For more, read: Why is vendor risk management important?). 

A reputable vendor should have a proven history of handling sensitive information with due diligence. This means committing to regular updates, patches, and adherence to industry standards. 

Final thoughts

With the right tools in place, a call center can help your SMB effortlessly manage customer interactions and provide seamless support. In turn, this will improve customer experience and satisfaction while boosting your team’s productivity. 

Plus, if you choose the right call center software, you can start small and scale up the system as your business’ needs evolve. 

But remember, a call center is worthwhile if you make it worthwhile — it’s all about finding the right solution that works for you.