Choosing the right call center technology all comes down to weighing its pros and cons. Every tool comes with risks and benefits, but what matters is that it can help you attain your company's goals.
It's important to avoid rushing through the process of selecting the technologies that could enhance your customer service. Doing so would only set you up for more troubles in the future.
Nevertheless, with the abundance of customer service technologies out there, outsourcing companies find it challenging to choose the right tech tools. Thus, we came up with a list of all the things you should not do when choosing the right tech solutions for your firm.
1. Don't pick a single vendor.
Most customer service managers already have a provider in mind when they look for promising tech solutions. We’ll tell you why this should be avoided.
First, the selection process is all about exploring your options. By limiting your view, you’re already eliminating other tools and vendors from your choices without objectively considering their features.
Second, you’ll end up covering for the shortcomings of your vendor (every seller has them) even if you don’t have to. And it’s all because you deprived yourself of the freedom to examine a wide range of providers.
2. Don’t select first, then define your requirements later.
The most important step in selecting a call center technology is to define your firm’s goals. From there, you can specify the tech features that would fulfill these objectives.
This ensures that your resources, strategies, and goals are perfectly aligned. At the same time, you’ll be able to maximize your budget’s worth if you purchase a tool that lets you carry out the functions you need and the performance you must deliver.
3. Don't allow a vendor to control the process
Don’t allow yourself to be talked into buying. Expect sellers to be engaging, charming, and persuasive but don’t let this deter you from considering your choices objectively.
To take control over a transaction, the key is to raise as many necessary questions as you can. More importantly, try to ask the most difficult questions to be able to spot loopholes. Members of your team should also be involved in the selection process, even if only to provide their opinions and suggestions.
4. Don’t make cost a top consideration.
Just because something’s expensive doesn’t mean it’s of top quality. In the same way, just because something’s cheap doesn’t mean you should settle for it, or worse, judge its performance as inefficient.
Although outsourcing companies would naturally want the best deals for high-performing tools, such instances rarely occur. Most probably, you’d need to find the balance between price and features.
5. Don’t fall for impressive specs.
Unless those are the specs that would help you achieve your customer service goals, try not to be blinded by highly advanced features. Learn to distinguish between what you want and what you need out of a call center solution. This will make the selection process a lot easier.
