The State of the Call Center in 2019

As any organization knows, operational costs are one of the biggest expenses to doing business. The larger the workforce, the larger the facility needed to house everyone and therefore, the higher the costs. Increasingly, businesses are turning to digital solutions to streamline practices and deliver higher standards of customer service. The state of the call center in 2019 is modernizing and going the virtual route.

A virtual call center is a contact center composed of remotely located customer service agents and representatives as opposed to everyone being located in the same location. This means that ‘virtual’ agents work from home.

The benefits of a virtual call center are two-fold. Not only do call center agents have the luxury of working from home (and thus saving commute time), but they also have a flexible working schedule. Such worker satisfaction can greatly reduce turnover and save on recruitment and training costs. For the call center organization, utilizing remote workers means saving on the traditional operating and facility costs of a call center. Additionally, hiring virtual customer service agents and representatives means that a business can recruit skilled workers from anywhere in the world without the worry of geographic proximity. Typically, a virtual call center will operate 24 hours a day for seven days a week and 365 days a year, providing customers with constant on-demand service.

Doing away with a physical operations space does not mean that quality standards decrease. For a call center going the virtual route, implementing a virtual call center software will offer all the same functionality as a traditional center at lower the cost. At minimum, a quality virtual call center software should feature omnichannel functionalities, easy to use reporting, flexible integrations, security, and worker flexibility.

With virtual call center software like the one from Bright Pattern, all the challenges of a remote operation are met and customers can be connected with anywhere in the world across all time zones. Bright Pattern’s omnichannel virtual call center software allows virtual agents to track the entire customer journey over all communication platforms to deliver a quality and personalized customer experience.

For companies that need to provide constant, on-demand customer service, Bright Pattern’s virtual call center software allows the ability to leverage agents from across all time zones, choosing candidates based on skill, cost, and geography. The software will enable virtual agents to provide a unified customer service experience on all communication channels, no matter the location.

Quality virtual call center software solutions maintain voice quality across all geographies. Traditionally, the farther a call has to stretch, the less voice quality there is. Now, however, whenever a customer dials in, their call will be routed to the closet geographic virtual agent. Customers will only be routed to remotely-located agents if no one local is available.

Business continuity is important, and Bright Pattern has a system designed to ensure uninterrupted service in case of a local disaster or facility interruption. Their routing software ensures the seamless integration of calls, no matter what the regional situation is. Cloud-based calls will always be routed to where they need to go, and a call log will help an organization keep up with historical reporting.

A virtual call center solution gives companies the ability to provide consistent and personal customer service across communication channels despite location. When virtual customer service agents and representatives are able to view the entire communication history of a customer, they can provide the same consistent service experience as local agents. Additionally, this software solution complies with data privacy laws and local regulations by appropriately storing information when required.