Your Contact Center Could Be Your Biggest Profit Center  

Your Contact Center Could Be Your Biggest Profit Center  

When we look at the most profitable contact centers amongst the landscape of our clients, there is a trend. The more attention from the C-Suite, the larger the investment, and the larger the return on investment. When the CFO makes knowing the numbers a priority and focus, then efficiencies like automation, training, process, advanced reporting, and more become appreciating investments instead of sunk costs.  

If your contact center within your organization is just a line on your quarterly statement we are going to give you a few reasons to set up a monthly meeting with your leadership team and toss in a few things to focus on. In our years working with the C-Suite, we understand the importance of time. We mean it when we say that this quick read can increase profitability and that is always worth your time.   

Increase First Contact Resolution (FCR), Decrease Contact Center Operating Costs 

First contact resolution in a nutshell means exactly what it sounds like. The duration between contacts can vary depending on the company however the premise remains the same. SQM Group recently conducted a study that found for every percentage increase in FCR created an equal reduction in operating costs in the contact center.  

What would a 3% decrease in operating costs mean for your organization? For some it is thousands, for some of our clients, it is millions. Efficiencies scale nicely and quickly in the contact center.  

How do you get the conversation started? We have found that contact center leadership teams have an amazing pulse on what is needed. Traditionally, they are concerned about budgetary concerns as technology is seen as a cost not cost savings. Ask “what are our biggest challenges to efficiency and what automation would you suggest to solve our inefficiencies?”  

You will hear about some amazing advances, and this article to get up to speed on automation in the contact center. There is a lot of automation, and the savings quickly turn the expense into savings.  

Call Deflection Rate With IVR & IVA  

IVR is interactive voice response and IVA is intelligent virtual agent. Both enable your contact center to deflect calls or contacts from your agents. This helps with first-call resolution because it is essentially no-call resolution. No wait time, no time spent from the agent, or anything else that incurs costs. Having these solutions in place can greatly reduce the cost. 

Getting the conversation started: Ask your leaders or even agents, what are some of the most common questions we answer & how can we automate that experience? Chances are you already have an IVR or IVA, increasing your call deflection rate with IVR even further can bring savings and satisfaction relatively quick.