Your contact center has been busy over the last year. Call volume is up, handle time is up, hold time is up. You get the picture.
With the influx of interactions, your agents cannot seem to catch a break. They’re feeling overwhelmed, overworked, and overstretched. So, they’re leaving. In fact, according to a report from the SWPP, average turnover for the call center industry as a whole ranges between 30–45%. What’s worse, HBR researcher Keith Ferrazzi estimates the total organizational cost of agent turnover ranges between 100–300% of the exiting employee’s salary.
Using the HBR’s estimate coupled with standardized salary information we can get a pretty good feel for the cost of attrition in your call center. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average salary of a customer service rep in the U.S. is $41,190. Say you run a contact center with 50 agents, you spend anywhere between $720K to $2.8M each year on turnover.
Yikes.
To help, more and more companies are turning to BPOs for outsourced labor to solve for increased call volumes, seasonality, and high turnover. BPO operations scale service capabilities without compromising quality.
As a BPO operations manager, it’s your job to ensure efficient and effective operations. But you also have to make sure they support high-quality customer service interactions. Let’s dive into how you can optimize your BPO operations.
3 Tips to Optimize BPO Operations
1. Train Your Agents
A key part of successful BPO operations is having properly trained agents. They should know the ins and outs of business policies, procedures, and technologies. One way to do this is by providing a list of best practices and recommendations.
With proper training, agents will feel more secure in their responses. And that will improve response times and optimize their day-to-day workflows. This affects the customer experience and ensures customers receive consistent, on-brand support.
2. Regularly Monitor Operations
If you’re not monitoring your BPO operations, they just can’t run optimally. Ops managers should monitor operations to ensure objectives are met, identify potential issues, and discover areas of improvement. Track metrics that measure the efficiency and quality of your customer service. Examples include calls per agent, first-call resolution rates, average wait time, and NPS. It’s also important to use any feedback you get from customer satisfaction surveys.
For more information on tracking metrics and KPIs, check out our blog.
3. Invest in Cloud Contact Center Technology
Investing in cloud-native contact center technology is an easy way to optimize BPO operations. With the right technology, you can streamline agent workflows and facilitate excellent customer service. Omnichannel solutions allow agents to interact with customers on a variety of channels using a single platform. The biggest benefit is that cloud-based technology enables agents to work from anywhere with an internet connection.
Optimize BPO Operations With Broadvoice CCaaS
With the right tools and strategies, you can improve the customer experience, increase agent productivity, and improve operational efficiency. Broadvoice CCaaS is a cloud-native omnichannel contact center platform designed to fit the unique needs of BPOs. The platform facilitates consistent customer experiences across platforms and provides data analytics and reporting.
This blog originally published on September 26, 2023 and was revised on February 8, 2024.
Ready to streamline your BPO operations? Schedule a demo with one of our consultants.
