The contact center outsourcing approach has often proven to be more effective than in-house customer support teams. It helps businesses reduce operational costs and improve core competencies. However, a few small-scale organizations still find ecommerce contact center outsourcing to be more cost-driven. Let’s understand how a contact center for e-commerce companies can be extremely profitable.
A brief overview of the contact center global market
According to a Statista report, the global contact center market size was valued at 339.4 billion USD in 2020. Additionally, the industry is projected to grow exponentially and hit the market at 496 billion USD by 2027. This shows how fast enterprises have started acknowledging the strength of contact centers.
5 practices that help ecommerce contact centers reduce their overall costs
Modern contact centers use the best practices to mitigate costs and help small retail businesses deliver satisfactory customer experiences. For example, they utilize AI-powered systems to improve their operational efficiencies. These systems are equally qualified for saving money while also increasing business revenues. There are several other such practices that make contact centers effective for outsourcing customer support services.
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Constant training for agents:
One of the easiest ways contact centers reduce their overall cost is by improving the quality of customer services. They believe that the training and development of agents help to make them proficient at their jobs. Their enhanced knowledge and expertise help customers find appropriate solutions in no time, generating high retention rates. As a result, it eliminates the need for continuous new hiring who may not have the efficiency to decrease average call handling times and maintain consistency. Although contact centers may have to spend a good amount on coaching sessions for current employees, it is always less expensive than hiring new staff.
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Monitoring agent performance:
Every contact center for ecommerce companies wants to maintain quality service in order to avoid high costs per minute. As per experts, the call center cost per minute is estimated at around one dollar. Though it may not seem to be much, it keeps on growing with every call. Therefore, saving every dollar in customer support operations can lead to significant cost savings in the end.
In order to save a good amount and help businesses acquire cost-effective customer support solutions, contact centers spend time monitoring their agents’ performances. They make use of AI-driven tools to track agents’ activities, gain insights into their strengths and weaknesses, and optimize customer support strategies. In addition, the real-time reports and analytics make managers understand agents’ potential in handling customer queries. This further helps them provide appropriate training for better retail BPO services.
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Improve first contact resolution rate:
Next important contact center practice is improving the first contact resolution rate. As has already been mentioned, contact centers are much more concerned about their average cost per call. This is why they focus on benchmarking and monitoring first call resolution.
If an agent resolves a customer’s issue at first engagement, customers do not have to make multiple calls. This reduces per-minute calling and simultaneously cuts down the labor costs. As a result, contact centers prioritize call routing, proactive service, and other practices that reduce call waiting time and improve the response rate. Undoubtedly, these practices help improve the FCR and reduce overall call center costs.
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Make proper staff scheduling:
Contact centers can simply cut down operational costs by scheduling their staff properly. They keep the contact center schedule adherence in check to determine whether or not agents are working as per their schedule. This further helps them make the right decision when it comes to placing agents adequately.
Moreover, many modern contact centers use advanced tools to generate predictive analytics that helps agencies schedule staff in advance and prevent understaffing and overstaffing situations. Indeed, it contributes a lot to decreasing overall contact center costs.
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Reduce call center attrition rate:
Call center attrition rate is a metric that defines the percentage of agents leaving the organization. This has a significant impact on business productivity, operational efficiency, and, most importantly, employee turnover costs. According to recent studies, a company has to spend a huge amount on filling up the vacant position and onboarding a new employee. In addition, a good amount is also invested in offering quality training to the new hires. Hence, it is crucial for contact centers to keep a watch on call center attrition rates.
Save money with eCommerce contact center outsourcing
Ecommerce businesses today are reluctant to spend a lot of money in call centers. However, they equally want to serve the best to customers to generate better CX. This is why retail BPO services providers come up with cost-friendly customer support strategies. It helps organizations to save money and use their budget smartly on other important tasks.
Therefore, e-commerce contact center outsourcing can be the best approach for businesses with a tight budget that still want to meet customer expectations. Their assistance may help you provide an impeccable customer experience.
