01Service levels can fluctuate, creating an ongoing claiming to businesses in providing the kind of customer service your customers expect. When things suddenly go incorrect and service levels drop in a short space of time, troubleshooting is the first essential step in returning to excellence.

Contact heart specialists INOVO accept identified some of the critical areas that tin affect functioning:

Agents and processes

In conjunction with examining the effectiveness of software, hardware and technology, how it'due south existence used (or non) by the teams working with those processes and systems can reveal manageable fixes that are inside the control of your business to implement.

Call length and volume

If interactions are taking longer than usual or call volumes spike – as is ofttimes the example when a service is down or there'southward a promotion underway, service levels may drop. Ongoing training and effective interdepartmental communication can play a crucial role in ensuring that calls are handled efficiently. Information technology will also help agents and the contact centre prepare for potential incidences that could impact call duration, book and general service levels.

Effective information usage

Workforce management and call forecasting assist in determining staffing levels and schedules, thereby directly influencing service levels. Analysing historical data can effectively reveal patterns in call volumes/demands based on the twenty-four hour period of the week, season, type of promotion etc. This helps contact centres ensure that the correct number and type of agents are bachelor to service customers at all times.

Scheduling

Agents could exist disappearing without logging activity – taking unscheduled or long breaks. This could result in calls going unanswered or putting pressure on the agents that are bachelor at any time to handle calls. In that example, ensuring that agents stick to schedules as far as possible and that they log off systems when not available volition mean that calls can be routed more than efficiently to available agents, resulting in improvements in service levels.

Occupancy tracking

The amount of time agents spend on piece of work-related tasks relative to the time they are logged in is known as the occupancy rate. If occupancy rates are high, fewer agents will be available to accept calls, so customers will wait longer to be serviced. If their workload is too high, information technology could also increment their stress levels and ability to perform their jobs optimally. If occupancy rates are besides low, agents will be idle for long periods, which will increase staffing and service costs and could potentially outcome in boredom and dissatisfaction. Contact heart and operations managers should constantly monitor occupancy rates and service levels to ensure that this is counterbalanced correctly.

Management nuts

Ensuring that teams are using solutions correctly and that they're trained to monitor the correct metrics is vital to maintaining high service levels. When individuals movement out of the company (or are promoted to dissimilar areas) handover procedures must be in place to ensure that the right employ of solutions is maintained and that this institutional noesis is passed on to the relevant staff members.

Streamlining business organisation tools

Agents are only going to be as efficient as their tools and training allow them to be. Streamlined business tools ensure that your agents don't accept to waste also much time updating or searching for data, or attempting to transfer calls to the correct department – all at the cost of your customers' patience and the availability of your agents.

Cheque that the amount of time an amanuensis takes to cease all tasks associated with the telephone call is not excessive; tasks such every bit updating the database, helpdesk or CRM, completing paperwork, speaking to colleagues, sending emails, or updating a agenda, accept agents abroad from being available to customers. Come across what you can do to make later on-call responsibilities more efficient.

"Consistently delivering service excellence is often a difficult task – monitoring and measuring the correct metrics and watching out for anomalies is key to maintaining the kind of great service levels your customers look. Ever exist prepared for potential challenges to reduce their impact – if you can get it right, yous'll observe y'all have fewer service level fluctuations and more satisfied customers" – Wynand Smit, CEO, INOVO