Employees in the modern call center are required to know a wide variety of software systems to do their job effectively. In the digital age, nearly all staff will need to know their way around modern database programs to truly perform their duties efficiently and effectively. Here’s a look at the top types of programs used in call centers and how they’re used.
Excel
A long mainstay of digital organization, Excel documents continue to be a vital part of many businesses day to day operations. Using this spreadsheet software, employees can coordinate their own scheduling, noting their callback needs or scheduled appointments in an easy-to-use and organized fashion. Data can also be uniformly and consistently filed within the spreadsheet, making the data sortable in any number of ways. This can be done alphabetically for specific company names or numerically for sorting phone numbers by area code or company sales amounts to target phone calls to certain regions at a specific time or only calling clients that have a specific revenue point or higher. Being proficient with Excel, including how to perform calculations and perform data filtering is a must-have skill for the modern call center agent.
CRM
Another generalized software utility is a CRM, or customer relation management, program. There are many different programs on the market today, but all offer some universal features, such as organizing tasks and call records, notation of customer contacts and discussions, reporting on customer sales statistics and tracking internal work being done for a client. Each program is different, though familiarity with at least one of these utilities helps ensure a successful experience at a new employer. Business News Daily released its rankings of the best CRM software utilities for the year in March, which is a great place to look at programs that are popular and find even more information on each of the top CRM systems on the market today.
Contact Center
Contact center programs are integration utilities that merge inbound and outbound calls, emails, chat and other contact methods into a seamless software solution. These programs offer features like automatic call distribution that routes calls to specific agents or the next available employee and interactive voice response that guides callers through a series of questions to allow them to complete self-service actions or collect information from them before connecting them with an agent. Most of these programs can also be integrated with CRM software and other programs, notes MHI Global, a worldwide provider of sales performance and management solutions.
Many other utilities are commonly used in today’s call centers, including dedicated scheduling software that integrates with the above systems, sales utilities that help organize each agent’s contacts and lock in their sales opportunity, or expense calculators that help sales agents keep track of their expenses or quickly generate quotes for prospective clients. Proficiency with programs often comes through training and use on the job, though different educational programs exist for those who are looking for additional educational opportunities. Programs like The Call Center School can aid those looking for additional training and skills to build their knowledge and help them land a great career with leading companies.
At CSS, we work with a diverse range of job seekers with experience in a range of software programs and utilities, allowing us to help find the perfect job openings that match candidates’ skills with employers’ needs. Our staffing specialists are experienced with skills testing for call center professionals to help strengthen their value to your company. Contact us today to find out more!