Customer satisfaction should always be the call center’s top priority. However, managing customer expectations isn’t as easy. A lot goes on behind the scenes — from training and development to adopting quality assurance and monitoring tools — every call center activity needs proper resource allocation, which comes at an operating cost.

In this blog post, we discuss 10 tried-and-tested ways to reduce call center costs and optimize operations.

10 Actionable Tips to Reduce Call Center Costs

Follow these strategies used by well-established organizations worldwide to excel in performance:

1. Improve First Contact Resolution (FCR)

First contact resolution measures how often client questions or issues were addressed during the first contact. Therefore, it’s a direct indicator of satisfactory customer service.

Improving agents’ skills to resolve inquiries faster in the first contact can reduce support expenses.

Here are some ways to train the agents for effective call handling:

  • Offer deep product knowledge so that agents can understand the products or services, including common issues and troubleshooting steps
  • Teach practical communication skills, including active listening techniques like summarizing customer issues and asking clarifying questions
  • Use real-world examples to train agents so that they can practice problem-solving skills
  • Provide coaching and real-time assistance to new agents so they can get help during challenging calls

2. Monitor KPIs Regularly

To ensure your agents are performing well, evaluate their performance regularly and provide feedback.

Some of the KPIs to track in a call center include:

  • First Contact Resolution: It indicates if agents can resolve issues without the need for follow-ups, which improves customer satisfaction and reduces call volume
  • Average Handling Time: It’s the average time spent on customer interaction, including talk, hold, and wrap-up time
  • Customer Satisfaction Score: It’s based on customer feedback and provides a direct overview of customer experience
  • Call Abandonment Rate: It’s the percentage of calls that are terminated by the customer and helps understand underlying issues such as long wait times or system issues
  • Occupancy Rate: It’s the average amount of time agents spend on active calls compared to their available time and helps in balancing agent productivity and availability to handle incoming calls

Monitoring these KPIs regularly can help minimize call center costs by revealing inefficiencies, optimizing staffing to avoid understaffing or overstaffing, and improving agent performance by making data-driven decisions.

3. Use Cloud-Based Call Center Software

A cloud-based call center solution offers the same capabilities as on-premises systems but without upfront hardware costs. You also don’t have to pay for maintenance and upgrades, as these are already included in the package, which can lead to significant savings.

Using a cloud-based call center solution would also mean less IT dependency. In other words, you would require limited on-premise help from IT departments for hardware malfunctions.

Exotel is a cloud-based contact center software offering out-of-the-box solutions to businesses. It is a sophisticated yet user-friendly tool to mitigate operational costs and amplify productivity while enhancing customer satisfaction.

4. Adopt Omnichannel Solutions

Omnichannel solutions provide an interface for agents to manage interactions across voice, call, email, and social media channels.

This can help reduce call center costs in the following ways:

  • Seamless channel switching between interactions without losing context. For example, an interaction might escalate from chat to call with an easy switch, reducing the time spent transferring customers and repeating information
  • Agents have a full view of customer history across channels, which helps in resolving issues faster without needing to backtrack
  • Omnichannel solutions have consolidated systems, which eliminates the need for maintaining systems for each channel, reducing costs and simplifying maintenance
  • It features a centralized reporting and management system and offers unified reporting tools, enabling streamlined management and reducing IT costs

5. Leverage Self-Service Options

Call centers can use smart self-service options like chatbots or IVR to address common inquiries and calls. This can reduce the inbound call flow, which means less workload on the real agents.

Some common self-service options include:

  • Knowledge bases
  • Online portals
  • Chatbots
  • Self-service IVR
  • Voice bots
  • FAQ pages

Modern call center software uses machine learning algorithms and AI to answer customer inquiries and common requests through self-service tools. This can prevent repetitive, time-consuming service while alleviating some of the call center agents’ workload.

6. Use Speech Analytics to Optimize Performances

Speech analytics utilizes speech recognition through artificial intelligence, natural language processing and machine learning to analyze and transcribe calls in real time. It can also help you identify the root causes of inefficiencies in your processes that cause escalations, high call volumes, and customer dissatisfaction.

Business owners and managers can gain in-depth insights into agent performance, uncover specific training needs, and focus on targeted coaching sessions. This can reduce the need for repetitive or unnecessary training, leading to cost savings.

7. Utilize Skill-based Routing 

Transferring conversations from agent to agent can lead to customer frustration if their issues are not handled well. Skill-based routing can solve this problem by routing the callers to the most qualified agent to meet their needs.

Most call center software comes with a feature to route calls to relevant agents based on their location, type of inquiry, and agent’s expertise.

This can help with call center cost reduction by:

  • Reducing escalations by pairing agents skilled in handling their particular issues
  • Lowering the average handling time by resolving inquiries faster
  • Utilizing available resources effectively and reducing the need for excessive staffing or overtime to handle complex issues

8. Leverage AI & Automation

Employing automation is a great way to optimize agent workflows and reduce repetitive daily tasks, which can help reduce call center expenses. Here are some ways to use AI and automation to reduce call center costs:

  • Use AI chatbots and virtual assistants to handle common inquiries
  • Use AI to analyze and prioritize calls from high-value customers or escalate urgent issues first
  • Provide real-time agent assistance with knowledge bases and sentiment analysis to help agents adjust their conversation, improving customer satisfaction
  • Adjust staffing schedules based on demand, agent availability, and peak times
  • Automate insights on customer behavior, agent performance, and operational efficiency
  • Generate automated call summaries and transcriptions, helping agents and managers quickly review all call records

9. Consider a Remote Work Model

A remote work model has several advantages for your team and operational costs. A study conducted across 28,000 full-time employees in 27 markets revealed that 68.3% of respondents favored hybrid work and 20.5% favored fully remote work.

Of course, there will be challenges, such as maintaining consistent communication and collaboration.

However, there can be significant cost savings in the following ways:

  • Less overhead costs such as rentals, utilities, office supplies, and furniture
  • A larger and more diverse talent pool as agents can be recruited from different locations and areas with lower labor costs
  • Greater flexibility in scheduling and adjusting staffing levels during high call volumes and periods of low demand

10. Optimize Hiring

While hiring, ensure the individuals possess atleast beginner-level knowledge on how to utilize resources and manage customers. This can significantly reduce call center costs since you don’t have to train the agents initially. Plus, they would already bring their set of skills to the table. You can always polish their skills with consistent feedback and training for your company’s needs.

Reduce Your Call Center Costs With Exotel

We have shared the strategies; now it’s your time to take action. Implementing even a few of them will help you reduce redundant costs per call. However, what matters most is how well you optimize your call center software to reduce tech spending. This is where Exotel steps in.

Exotel is a cloud-based contact center solution that helps businesses improve customer experience and optimize call center performance with features like:

  • Call routing options, IVR, and predictive analytics to improve first-call resolution, call handling times and CSAT scores
  • Integration with your CRM system to keep all data in one place, improve agent performance and allow reps to access customer information for quick resolution instantly
  • Real-time monitoring and reporting capabilities with speech analytics, sentiment analysis to monitor performance, prevent non-compliance issues, and more!

You can book a demo today with the team to learn more about how it can help your business optimize operations and reduce call center costs.

FAQs

1. How does Implementing Self-Service Options Lower Call Center Costs?

Self-service options such as chatbots, IVR systems and online knowledge bases help customers to resolve issues independently without needing to speak to an agent. This reduces call volumes and frees agents to focus on deeper issues, ultimately lowering operational costs.

2. Can Automating Tasks Make a Difference in Call Center Expenses?

Yes, automation can make a significant difference by automating routine tasks and reducing the time agents spend on repetitive work.

3. How can Data Analytics Help Reduce Call Center Costs?

Data analytics help better forecast call volumes, optimize staffing levels, and reveal common customer points and inefficiencies. This allows the call center to streamline processes and eliminate unnecessary expenses.

Shambhavi Sinha

Shambhavi Sinha is an SEO expert at Exotel with a passion for writing about technology. With a keen interest in the latest trends in contact centers and artificial intelligence, Shambhavi aims to empower users by sharing insightful and up-to-date knowledge. Her expertise in SEO and her dedication to educating her audience make her a valuable resource for anyone looking to stay informed about the evolving landscape of tech in customer service and beyond.

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