High Tech Enough: Sophisticated Technologies In Philippine Call Centers

Technology is the reason why outsourcing tasks is very much possible. This would not have happened if technology (or at least high technology) was present. It would be pretty challenging to handle calls and customers contacting the company, which may be based in countries like the United States or the United Kingdom. The company would have to find a possible way to transfer that portion of their operations to the Philippines, where they have outsourced their tasks. It would be quite a complex thing to put together. However, these things can happen quickly thanks to high technology, and you would not have to sweat a drop.

Whether you are an outsourced call center provider or only providing back-office tasks does not matter. Just think about all the possibilities that technology has brought to us. Just think about how companies can now easily focus on core tasks when they have people operating the lines and are not even on the same continent. This is quite a considerable feat and quite an amazing one at that.

How Important Is Technology?

Would you be happy to live in a world where technology seems to be non-existent? Well, at least, high technology? It surely would not be a wonderful world since we are all used to having technology around. So how important is it?

Ask around, and you will get a variety of answers. It could be for the most straightforward reason, like it helps them do work better, and for others, it is a form of assisting them to be entertained when things get a little boring. And those doing outsourced customer service would surely get answers like “Technology is the reason we are doing this job.” Indeed, without technology, customer service as we know it would not exist.

Technology brings many benefits to the world of call centers, so do not be surprised if each one you visit tries to get hold of the best things technology offers. It is the tool that call centers use to provide the service that they offer. Imagine a technical support call center that does not use the right technology. How ironic would that be?

The Sophisticated Technologies Used In Philippine Call Centers

Automatic call distributors and automatic call dialers

Without a system like this, it would be difficult for any contact center to handle all the calls. It can be chaotic, and there would be agents taking a lot of calls while others would not be able to get anyone. With all calls having seemingly urgent issues, any person working in a technical support call center in the Philippines could tell you that this is one technology they rely on to get things done and get them done correctly.

With this technology, team leaders and supervisors would not have to check which agents are getting enough calls and which ones are not. The system would automatically route the calls to the available right person. That way, customers get attended to the soonest possible, which would mean customers that would be a lot happier with the customer service they are getting from you.

Inbound contact centers would use the automatic call distributor, while outbound ones would use automatic call dialers. The automated call dialers would work like the automatic call distributor except that this one would route each dialed number, not each incoming one.

CRM application and call center servicing application

CRM stands for customer relationship management. With that, CRM applications would pertain to the technology that provides better customer relationship management. This is, more or less, the same as a call center servicing application that aims to help customers in the best way possible. This is essential technology, especially if you are an order-taking call center.

With this kind of technology in place in your contact center, you can be assured that the agents trained to handle all your customers would be able to quickly know the history of each customer with regards to their company. It would allow them to efficiently provide the needed solution and address any previously documented issues that may be connected to the new one. Magellan Solutions Outsourcing uses this technology to provide better service to its customers.

It may seem like too much information, especially if an agent is new to this type of technology. However, with the proper training and time to be familiar with it, agents can quickly glance at it, know the customer, and know-how, know with them app, and learn management system

This is also known as the CMS. Most contact centers make use of this technology to be able to get to lists that they need to work on quickly. There will be businesses that would tell you that they would only need to contact all those who may have indicated an interest in the online magazine they offer. With this modern technology, agents can easily access a list of those who have mentioned such and be able to contact them.

Without this in their place of work, it would be difficult for agents to find who to contact. It may take them a lot of time to review all the information that customers provide. Instead of getting a whole lot of contacts in one go and communicating with these customers, without this computer technology, agents would have to deal with finding the right customers and then make contact when one fitting the description has been found. It would be a waste of a lot of time.

Call recording applications.

Business owners outsourcing to contact centers want to know how agents handle their customers. Of course, this is not a surprise, as the very reason why most owners choose to outsource is to make sure that all customers are given the proper care. This is why many contact centers invest in call recording applications. This is one of the latest technology trends that are helping a lot of contact centers prove to their clients that they are doing well with the customers. It is also suitable for businesses as they can quickly listen to calls if they wish to or point specific calls.

If this were not present, there could be agents who may mishandle calls and later deny having done so. It would be the customer’s word against the agent, which can lead to a chaotic situation we all would want to avoid. With a call recording application in place, all calls would be automatically recorded and stored for reference purposes. Thanks to this latest technology, each call’s quality will always be maintained.

Interactive voice response systems and speech recognition systems 

We all know about Siri and Cortana, two features embedded in the popular iPhones and Windows mobile phones. These two intelligent personal assistants allow customers on the go to access stuff on their phones without pushing any buttons. It would all be about voice recognition. This is the kind of new technology invention many contact centers use. With more and more customers on the go, this option allows customers to listen to the options and choose the one they want through voice commands. There are still a lot of call centers that would only let customers get to certain information if and only if buttons are pressed.

With the recognition that customers are too busy and have too much to do, such interactive voice response systems and speech recognition systems would allow customers that may be doing something else still to contact customer support with a lot less hassle. A Philippine call center may easily find this exciting and invest in it as it would help them land more businesses.

Workforce management software

When you work in a call center Philippines, and you have tons of employees to deal with, it would be difficult to plot their schedules, their days off, those absent, and those on leave. Thanks to workforce management software, you can now easily do that. It should also let you know how many calls you will get in one day. That way, you can easily plot how many people should be working on days when the demand is relatively high.

With the help of this software, those working in the workforce should also be able to see the excellent break schedules to ensure that there are not too many people taking breaks when the volume of calls is too high. Plus, it would also allow them to create a good plan so that there would always be enough people on the floor to take calls, even if there are people on leave and people who may need to take time off work because they are sick.

Quality management applications

Quality is of utmost importance. It should not be practiced not only when you are doing call center hiring. It should also be practiced with each transaction that you do when you are at work. That is why companies make sure that they invest in quality management applications so that they would be able to measure how good agents follow policies and convenient protocols. You would find a variety of call centers in the Philippines making use of different quality management applications to provide quality service and be competitive in the market.

Managers usually make use of such an application. However, the people who constantly use such would be those quality assurance specialists who take their time to listen to calls and ensure that everything is being followed correctly.

Computer telephony integration

This computer telephony integration is also known as CTI. You can find this in almost any call center in the Philippines. It is quite a convenient technology to use as agents would not need to spend too much time looking for their customers’ information. With this one, a pop-up window would appear on the computer used by the agent when a call is connected. That way, everything the agent needs to know about the customer would be ready. This would save them a lot of time, and they could immediately attend to the customer’s needs.

Instead of putting the customer on hold to pull up accounts, the agent would simply continue with the verification process and review any previous calls and issues that have been made and tackled.

Other forms of technology

Call centers invest in other essential technologies, including a good internet connection. Most companies ensure that they have their source so that when ordinary links go out, they will not be affected by such. This would be to ensure that operations continue and would not be affected.

It is also essential for them to invest in good computers that would help all agents perform their tasks better. If these agents were using old computers, then the chances of that agent being able to handle many calls could go down as he (or she) would have to deal with the slow computers at work. This is why contact centers are investing in new equipment.