Wait, Do We Already Have A Call Center?

I once hired four salespeople for a client of mine — I was the consultant hired to build and manage a sales team. These sales pros sat in a cubicle and dialed our prospects. They each had a quota of 20 new “logos”, new accounts, each month. I tracked opportunities and closed deals in Salesforce. But I wasn’t tracking call metrics. I wasn’t listening to their calls. I wasn’t using any kind of analytics to get key market data from those calls. 

Because I didn’t know I was running a call center.

We outfitted our crew with great VOIP phones, headsets, and computers. We had a break room full of carbs. We offered flex time and “unlimited” vacation hours. 

But I didn’t know I was running a call center — until our VOIP provider asked us to be a beta tester for their new call center agent and supervisor seats. Sure! Let’s give that a try. What harm could it do?

Oh my god! It’s like somebody gave a blind man sight. I could see! Right before my eyes, I could see call success rates, average call times, number of dials per day, the heaviest talk times each day of the week. My new wallboard gave me real-time numbers on active calls, calls in the queue, abandoned calls — yes, prospects were calling back!

Turns out I was running a call center. And now I knew it! 

I could plan for those “unlimited” vacation days. I could hire based on real data rather than a hunch. I could listen in on calls to make sure we were telling the right story. My crew could escalate a call to my desk. They could easily move calls to the right queues — billing, support, sales, etc. And I could see how long (or short) those queues were.

And the intelligence we were then gathering was gold! The Product group made changes to products. Marketing made changes to marketing. Operations made changes to support. The whole company got better. We were running a call center!

Is there a call center happening right before your eyes, and you can’t see it?

Here are signs you might be running a call center:

1. You have two or more people on the phones all day, doing one thing — sales, support, etc.
2. Your leadership is asking questions you don’t have answers to about those calls.
3. You wish you could listen in on a call or even “barge” in and join the conversation.
4. Inbound calls go unanswered — and you don’t know how often that happens.
5. You suspect you’ve hired too many people or not enough people, but you don’t really know.
6. Morale is low in those cubicles, and they all act like they don’t have the right tools. Everybody wants to be successful at work, even if they hate the job.

If you recently discovered that you’re running a call center, let’s put together the right call center software for your team. You’ll be amazed at the difference it makes. And so will your customers. And so will your leadership team. And so will your partners.

Let’s connect and get acquainted. I’ll let you know what other call centers are doing, the costs…all the details.