The call center is a booming business provided that the service industry adds trillions of dollars to the global GDP. According to the World Bank, it is 65.70% in 2020. Similarly, according to a Statista report, the call center market size should be growing from $340 billion in 2020 to $496 billion in 2027. Call centers are fast-paced workplaces. Here, every second matters. Hence, call center managers rely on call center scripts to guide the fresh and trainee call center agents. If you can create and use the scripts appropriately, you can save time and effort, and also avoid mistakes. However, creating such scripts is a challenging task whether you are starting a new call center or already owning one. If you find it confusing, do not worry anymore. This article will explain to you the call center scripts from a 360° angle. You will also learn some tips and tools to get started with your call center business.
What is a Call Center Script?
A call center script is a document containing various conversations between a customer support agent and imaginary customers in real-world scenarios. It usually outlines the following etiquette or workflow for a customer service call:
Greeting the customer Paraphrasing the issue consumer reports If the rep is on a cold call, explain the purpose of the call Collecting customer information for the call center CRM How to request a hold for a customer Coming back to the call with a resolution and how to deliver it Confirming that the customer got satisfying results Upsell or upgrade services Closing the call
Apart from the above, there could be numerous other information in a call center script. Consider you are supporting any banking and credit card company in the US. Then, you must use the following compliance languages during a call to comply with the legal regulations in the country:
Mini-Miranda Fair Debt Collections Act
Most of the call center scripts may contain confidential business information. Hence, call center companies must protect the document by enforcing appropriate business data security guidelines. Usually, new or trainee customer support agents practice the conversations written on the document numerous times before they handle a live call.
How Does a Script Help Beginners?
Provides a Call Workflow
Most newbies in a customer care center do not know what to do in a live call. Hence, call center trainers to use scripts to train the new joiners. From a call opening to closing, the scripts contain everything an agent might need to close the call successfully.
Professional Language and Tone
New joiners can learn business speaking, vocabulary, and tone from a call center script. These are usually highly standardized scripts. Your call center agents can not go wrong if they follow the script diligently.
Streamline all the Agents
When all the teams in a call center business follow the same script, they open, explain, troubleshoot, and close a call the same way across the teams. It creates a harmonized and organized customer care call-handling flow.
Avoid Errors on Calls
When agents follow scripted verbiage, they do not need to use non-standard language on call. Hence, call centers can avoid errors in language, grammar, business workflow, troubleshooting, etc.
Faster Issue Resolution
Call center scripts train the agents to follow a roadmap when troubleshooting or selling products on call. The script experts design the verbiage in a way that saves time and effort. Hence, agents save time and meet their average call handling time (AHT) metric by following a standard script.
Reduce Training Hours
If you do not use call center scripts, then you need to take your trainee call center agents through expensive and time-consuming business language speaking courses. Also, train them with the technical part of the call center. However, with scripts, agents easily pick up the verbiage they need to use and get ready faster.
Increase Turnover
Standardized scripts reduce call handling time. Hence, your agents can handle more calls in a day. Subsequently, your earnings also increase.
Quality Checks
Quality auditing is an indispensable part of any call center business. Most auditors use the call center script to ensure that the agents are not missing out on important verbiage, call flow steps, troubleshooting processes, and so on.
Call Center Scripts: Best Practices
It takes years of experience to craft perfect call center scripts that work. You do not need to go through that much of an experience. Just follow these tips to create outstanding scripts for your agents:
Keep Room for Flexibility
You must keep the script flexible and provide adequate training on tools and products so that the agents can handle unexpected situations effectively. Flexibility means that the agents can use verbiage that is professional, and accurate but not within the script.
Refer to Previous Recordings
The best way to create a wide variety of call center scripts is to review previous calls and service tickets. The recordings also reveal how agents are performing with the scripts or how customers are reacting. If you find anything improvable, improve it.
Use a Courteous Tone
Customer service is all about etiquette and courtesy. You must insert enough courtesy words like “Please”, “Kindly”, “Thank You”, You are Welcome”, etc., to show empathy to the customer. A highly aggravated customer can become calm and helpful when agents use courteous verbiage to greet and assure the customer that they are there to resolve the issue.
The Script Should be Respectful
You must generalize the scripts so that agents show respect to all the customers. You must not create scripts for different classes of customers based on the caller’s contribution to your business. For example, your agents might get a call from a customer who is a subscriber of your competitor. That does not mean that the agent can abuse the caller. They must respectfully explain to the caller that they have dialed the wrong number.
Quickly Get to The Point
The script should be straightforward so that the agent can immediately start resolving the issue. Unnecessarily lengthening a customer service conversation can go wrong in many ways.
Create Scripts for Various Scenarios
Go through customer service tickets for a quarter. Find out the most occurring issues and create the scripted languages for these. Such scripts will highly help the new joiners since they will know that they have the resolution for all the common issues that the customers face.
Think Like the Customer
While creating call center scripts think like your customers. Avoid including too many industry jargons and technical words in the script. Keep the verbiage light so that customer does not feel insecure.
Include Rebuttal Responses
The key to success is that the agent always drives the call and not the customer. Sometimes, customers can become unreasonable. For those situations, you must include rebuttal responses so that agents can professionally handle false accusations.
Ensure Agents Practice a Lot
Call center scripts are of no use if you do not let the agents practice the verbiage. Hence, create a team of customers and agents within a group of new joiners. Then let them practice the scripts with one another regularly during the training days.
Create Separate Scripts
A call center handled many calls like incoming, outbound, cold calls, service renewals, upselling, etc. According to the business workflow for such calls, you must create separate call center scripts. One script may not work effectively for all the above scenarios. For example, in inbound calls, you do not need to authenticate a customer. Because customers initiate a call from their accounts, and CRMs automatically verify that a genuine customer is calling. However, for outbound calls, you must authenticate a customer before disclosing their account-related issues. Another example could be cold calls for sales. Here, agents must read out a mandatory disclaimer before going ahead with the call. Most countries do not require a disclaimer. However, the US and UK consumer regulations have clear compliance requirements for marketing calls like this.
Call Center Software You Can Try
Find below a few call center tools that most call centers use:
#1. Aircall
Aircall offers a robust business phone system on the cloud along with other standard functionalities that you might need in a brick-and-mortar or remotely-operated call center. The tool facilitates extensive collaboration on the cloud so that you can easily manage a hybrid workforce from anywhere with an internet connection.
#2. CloudTalk
CloudTalk is an online call center software empowering you to set up more than one call center virtually. You can use the web app in on-site and remote customer support centers seamlessly. Moreover, it lets you integrate the tool with other call center applications like Salesforce, Pipedrive, Zendesk, etc.
Wrapping Up
Entering the call center business or career is the right call. And while you are at it, know that you must learn how to create and use call center scripts the right way for success in this industry. The above article should have already explained to you what you need to know the most. You must also read our coverage of the best call-tracking software, and the best call center dialers to get started in your call center business quickly.
