About Call Centers
Call Centers are a tricky topic when it comes to customer services. We have all had the opportunity to experience their effectiveness or inefficacy, and some of us have even encountered the opposite side and had a job as a call center representative. [spacer height=”20px”]
Those who worked in this field know how hard this job can be. The customers are fighting their way to through the IVR (Interactive Voice Response -the actual menu- its purpose is to direct the customer to the right person) so they can find a real person who is competent and is able to solve their problems, ask their questions. As customers we can be inpatient, angry, frustrated, so the representative must not only perform professionalism, efficacy and promptness, but enthusiasm, politeness, positivity, and most importantly honesty.[spacer height=”40px”]
That’s where mystery shopping comes in! 
Some call centers have their own monitoring system with mentors and colleagues who are experts in this field so they can help improve the service. But for those companies who would like to build up a more neutral and comprehensive picture about the quality of their call center services, the obvious choice is a mystery shopping service. They know it can be more effective and genuine when mystery shoppers do this, because mystery shoppers are always closer to the target audience of the company, and the way of their work is much more spontaneous and lifelike than an internal monitoring system.[spacer height=”20px”]
The so-called Front Office is the most important part for any service-provider company, because it’s where the company meets the customers: through the employees, and also the customers see the business through the customer service center representatives. That’s why it is vital to pay close attention to the customer service.
[spacer height=”20px”] Simply put, there are 5 main pillars of an efficient call center, so either as a customer, or a representative of a call center, here is what you should pay attention to:
- IVR : is it clear, fast, and concise? How long have you been waiting?
- Call Center Representative : is he or she polite, kind, a professional, helpful? Was he or she able to solve your problem? If not, what did he or she do?
- How many times have you been put on hold? And how long?
- How long was the call in total? Was the length appropriate according to the problem?
- What opportunities do you have for giving a about the phone call service? How it seems, does the company take it seriously?
Author: Adrienne 
Adrienne is a guest blogger of BARE International. She is interested in many things: from playing music, riding horses, to reading ancient texts in their originally written languages. Basically she never gets bored.
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