Do a quick Google search and you’ll easily find statistics about the impact poor customer service can have on a business:

  • An estimated $41 billion is lost each year to poor customer service.
  • 67% of customers cite bad experiences as a reason for leaving a brand.
  • A third of consumers would rather “clean a toilet” than call customer service, which we think says a lot about how businesses make customers feel on the phone!

The reasons listed above are just skimming the surface of how important it is to have the right contact center supplier at your side. But how can you ensure your supplier is one that will grow your business?

Below are a few best practices to follow to ensure you’ll get the best supplier for your contact center.

1. Have an idea of what your business may need beforehand

It’s important to at least have a general idea of what you’d like before meeting with potential partners. Experienced suppliers, such as Vericast, can estimate your call center’s need based on the event (and the information you provide) and put together a flexible program tailored to your financial institution, with the ability to scale (or decelerate) as needed.

2. Select a supplier that fully understands your brand and business

There are many contact center suppliers out there, but few with the financial industry experience that Vericast has. Having a supplier heavily experienced in working with financial institutions ensures you get a contact center full of representatives that know how to position your business and best answer customer questions.

3. You want a supplier that can provide flexible staffing

Contact center call volume can increase, particularly during an enterprise event such as an online conversion, natural disaster or merger and acquisition. The ability of your supplier to quickly ramp up capacity and augment your contact center ensures your business gets what it truly needs to meet customer expectations, while simultaneously being cost effective.

4. The supplier understands the importance of timeliness 

When it comes to account holders dialing into a contact center, the speed of answer for calls from account holders impacts the bottom line. A 1 percent improvement in first call response can translate into $276,000 in operational call center savings for a business. Having a supplier committed to answering calls at “first touch” is both crucial and cost effective.

5. Choose a supplier that can seamlessly integrate into your existing practices and onboard quickly

There are a few common pains we hear when it comes to call center outsourcing. Time to onboard and fears about disappointing/confusing customers with inconsistent messaging are chief among them.

Financial institutions looking to overcome these common challenges should be sure to choose wisely at the outset when evaluating an outsourced contact center solution. Decreasing time from engagement to an “up and running” contact center not only saves your company time and money, it also ensures your account holders get more experienced reps and a seamless brand experience when they do call in.

Our Contact Center solution is a short-term, scalable and secure answer to your contact center and can meet all the above needs and more.

> Download Vericast’s “Ultimate Guide for Successful Contact Center Outsourcing”.