Your level of call center productivity is a good temperature check for just about every success metric out there. When your call center operations aren’t running at full speed, chaos ensues.

Let me paint a quick picture of that chaos for you. Calls go unanswered. Customers sit on hold for too long. Then they get frustrated and start drafting a bad review in their heads before an agent even picks up the call. Agents are drained and overwhelmed by endless phone calls. Everyone feels the strain of limited staffing in their souls. Oof.

Your call center productivity correlates to customer satisfaction and profitability. In the same way, tedious and unproductive work leads to agent burnout, a decrease in revenue, and customer frustration.

Consider this: as many as 65% of consumers expect customer service to be faster now than it was five years ago. And 81% of people claim good customer service makes them more likely to buy again.

Luckily, improving call center productivity is easier than ever with an increasing number of digital tools available. With the right tools, you can boost productivity, keep customers happy, and relieve agent stress.

Let’s look at four tools to improve your call center productivity.

4 Tools to Improve Call Center Productivity

1. AI Chatbots and Automation

Artificial intelligence (AI) is all the rage. Many estimate that AI is going to grow as a differentiator in customer service. In fact, 57% of leaders plan to increase their AI investment by at least 25% in the next year.

Why?

Because AI chatbots and automation tools significantly improve call center productivity. Plus, they relieve agents of tedious, repetitive tasks that eat away at their time.

With AI, call centers can field simple customer inquiries using IVR technology. With chatbots, customers reach faster resolutions, allowing human agents to spend more time on complex customer issues.

Automation tools also increase call center productivity. Let automation handle repetitive routine tasks, like documenting and organizing customer details and filtering call queues. This saves time because agents won’t have to spend extra minutes on mindless tasks, alleviating burnout.

2. Unified and Integrated Interfaces

Confession time: I have a problem with browser tab overload. Even as I write this, I have two browser windows open with 15 tabs on each. Ack! As a result, I waste time every day hopping between tabs in search of that one document I was supposed to be working on. Because my work isn’t in a unified place with integrated tools, I’m less productive.

It’s the same with your call center software and tools. Call center agents often work in a variety of applications. Some even work on several devices at once. They need to move seamlessly between your CRM, your call center platform, your IVR queue, etc.

But if these tools aren’t integrated and unified, your agents waste a lot of time hopping from one window — or one tool — to the next. Integrating your tools under a unified interface helps consolidate work and resources into a single system. With unified tools, agents work faster, improving your overall customer satisfaction.

3. Reporting and Analytics Dashboards

Reporting and analytics tools are essential to improving call center productivity. If you want to improve productivity, you need to identify when (and where) you aren’t productive. Reporting and analytics give you insight into areas of improvement.

For instance, let’s say your team is great at answering phone calls quickly. But once the customer starts detailing their question or problem, some of your agents tend to place the customer on hold to ask a friend or manager what the next step is. This increases average handle time, slows resolution, and decreases productivity.

Reporting dashboards let you see these scenarios in real-time so you can track the trend. Maybe that agent needs more product training. Or perhaps they need a better understanding of where to find internal resources to answer questions without pausing to ask for help.

To effectively boost call center productivity, call center managers need tools that provide snapshots of their team performance so they can improve workflows over time.

4. Robust Knowledge Bases

Self-service tools give your customers a place to go for answers before they pick up the phone and fill your call queue. In fact, 40% of consumers now prefer self-service over reaching out to a human agent. To improve call center productivity, reduce the volume of incoming calls by building a robust knowledge base and FAQ pages.

Knowledge base software helps organize your resources into one location. A knowledge base is your call center’s one-stop shop for documenting, storing, and sharing guides for your customers and employees. In addition to helping customers answer questions, internal knowledge bases help agents continuously learn, providing them a place to reference guides, look up step-by-step instructions, and search for call scripts.

Increase your call center productivity with Broadvoice CCaaS. Learn more here.

3 (More) Tools to Help Increase Agent Productivity in the New Year

Start 2024 strong with better call center productivity right off the bat. Here are a few more call center tools that boost agent productivity and operational efficiency.

1. Call Center Outsourcing

Outsourcing is a popular way for companies to improve productivity and reduce operational burdens. Outsourcing occurs when companies hand over specific tasks to an external partner. This partner then handles calls, surveys, or other operations for you.

Oftentimes, an outsourcing partner can offer specialized expertise and high-quality technology. This makes outsourcing a great option for small and mid-market businesses that don’t have the resources to handle these operations in-house.

With a BPO marketplace (have you checked out CXHub?), companies can find a pre-vetted partner that’s hand-selected to fit their needs without a lengthy research and RFP process.

2. Queue Callback

Long hold times contribute to a poor customer experience. And a long call queue can overwhelm agents, leading to lower morale and decreased productivity. With a queue callback feature, customers can request a callback while in the queue. This means customers can go about their day instead of waiting around on hold, growing more irritated as each minute passes. Then, when it’s their turn in the queue, the agent will call them.

This feature improves customer experience, reduces hold times, and cuts down on the wave of incoming calls so your agents can properly handle each interaction.

3. Smart Scripting

Scripts are a great way to improve call center productivity. They help guide customer interactions by providing agents with information to stay accurate and consistent. With Smart Scripting, agents get the right information at the right time. And it’s customized to keep customers engaged and satisfied.

Some smart scripting tools also include an easy-to-use drag-and-drop interface that lets managers craft scripts with personalized customer info and data. With smart scripts, you can offer seamless, productive customer experiences.

Want to learn more about how Broadvoice can help improve your productivity? Schedule a demo with one of our consultants.