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Every customer communication with your organisation produces data. Over the course of an hour, day, week, month or year, that can amount to thousands of pieces of potentially useful information. But it’s only useful if you can capture and analyse it. That’s the role of contact centre analytics.

Understanding contact centre analytics

What is contact centre analytics? Think of all the pieces of data thrown up by customer communications. At one end, that can mean simple metrics like the number of interactions your contact centre has with customers on a given day. At the other, it can be complex statistics on call waiting times or how long agents actually spend speaking on the phone.

Analytics can look at all this, mining it for patterns and insight. It can show how productive your agents are, how smooth your customer journey is, or how your outbound campaign is performing.

It’s easy to see how that can help support your contact centre. Analytics can give you a good idea of performance by comparing real time statistics with historical equivalents or industry averages. It can show where bottlenecks occur in inbound customer journeys. It can predict whether your outbound campaign will meet its calling targets.

When you have that information, you can start to properly measure and improve what you do.

Data Analytics: Essential for call centre success

Improved customer experience

The first thing that data analytics can do is improve the experience of customers. It does so by measuring how long customers have to wait in queues, how long they are kept on hold, or how many attempts they make before connecting to an agent. When you have that information, you know which areas require improvement. You can segment data and tailor journeys for every customer group.

Identify customer needs in real time

With analytics, you can create dashboards that show you exactly what’s happening in your contact centre at any given moment, and then act accordingly. For example, if customers are queuing for too long, you might temporarily divert agents from an outbound campaign to relieve inbound bottlenecks. If they’re spending too long on hold during agent interactions, that might suggest gaps in agent knowledge that require additional training.

Resolve customer queries quickly

In the longer term, analytics can help resolve customer queries quickly by using intelligent workforce management to ensure you have optimum staffing levels on every shift. They can also help identify weaknesses in your processes that lead to customer frustration and call abandonment. Analytics can help you design customer journeys that get customers to where they need to be more quickly.

Enhanced operational efficiency

How does analytics make contact centres more efficient? In the short term, it lets you allocate resources more optimally. In the longer term, it helps you identify gaps and bottlenecks and take remedial action.

Real-time monitoring

Create dashboards that show important metrics in real time. That might be how long it takes to answer incoming calls, or how long agents are spending on each interaction. It could be a multitude of other things, depending on what you do and what your priorities are.

If needs be, you can then share dashboards to a big screen, creating wallboards for the entire contact centre to see. Let your teams see in real time how they are performing against daily targets, or encourage some healthy competition with a sales leader board.  

Improved resource allocation

Analytics can also be used to ensure you always have the optimal number of agents per shift, creating the right balance between customer service and cost. Statistical analysis can draw on mountains of historical data to help you meet goals.

Better decision making

All of these features of analytics come together to help you make better decisions.

Improved data-driven decision making

Scores of data points can be amalgamated to produce detailed management reports. These can be standard or bespoke, and give a bird’s eye view of the performance of agents, campaigns, customer journeys and your contact centre as a whole. When you have this data you can use it to make more strategic decisions, based on real evidence. That might be to invest in training, increase (or reduce) staffing, implement secure payments to save agent time, or a hundred other possible innovations.

Improved understanding of customer behaviour and preferences

Data can even help you get inside the minds of customers, in a way. Speech analytics trawls huge amounts of data to find both real-time and historical patterns concerning conversations, sentiment and productivity. It can give you a feel for what customers are thinking, by analysing the words they use, the time they spend on the phone and so on. It can help you identify problems before they result in customers moving elsewhere.

3 things to consider before you implement analytics

Not all analytics are the same. Here are three things to consider so you get the right system for your needs.

Assess current contact centre operations

Assess what you do now, so you know what you need to measure and how to measure it. Is it mainly inbound, outbound or a mix? Is it mainly customer service, payments or sales campaigns? Think about what you do, where you see perceived weaknesses and how analytics might be able to help.

Identify the right tools and solutions for analytics

Then think about the analytics tools that could help you be better. There are many standard metrics like average handling times and call waiting times. But do you need to go deeper, with speech analytics or intelligent workforce management? Do you need customised reporting, or will standard templates be good enough? Make sure you explore the right tools for the job.

Ensure data security and privacy

When you’re dealing with customer information, even as part of huge data sets, you have to be lock-tight secure and fully compliant with all data privacy regulations. Make sure your chosen system has the certifications to back up any claims.

Best practices for contact centre analytics

How do you get the most from contact centre analytics? Here are four best-practice tips.

• • Regular monitoring and review of data

If you’re gathering all that valuable data, make sure you use it. Put processes in place to ensure regular monitoring and reviews and organise frequent sessions that explore what the data is saying.

• • Provide training and support for agents

If analytics identifies weaknesses in agent knowledge or approach, close those gaps with proper training or one-to-one sessions with team leaders. Give agents what they need to get better, and see your call centre metrics improve over time.

• • Continuous improvement and optimisation of analytics

The more you use analytics, the more useful it becomes. Add data points over time or create bespoke reports that better meet your business needs.

• • Implement a data-driven culture

When you have experience in analytics, use it throughout your organisation. Data-driven insight can help with agent productivity and career progression, campaign design, refining customer journeys, and making strategic investment decisions. They say data is the new oil. Use it to power your business from top to bottom.

Maximise Your Customer Insights

Data is powerful. So much so that it’s almost impossible to think of a major business that isn’t trying to harness the power of data to improve outcomes.

Modern contact centres have to consider data and the analytics tools that can gather and interpret that information, because your competitors will. Data gives you invaluable insight into customer sentiment, agent productivity, campaign performance and much more.

The best analytics platforms will provide all the insight you need to improve the contact centre experience for agents and customers, and present it in a way that is easy to understand and action. Analytics is an essential tool for every contact centre that wants to get better and bigger.

Ready to invest in contact centre software with a full analytics suite?

Book a demo today.

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Cloud-based software, also known as software-as-a-service (SaaS), is an application or service that is hosted and delivered over the Internet by third-party providers. Unlike traditional on-premise software, cloud-based software removes the need for businesses to install and maintain applications on their own servers or computers.

Cloud-based software has become hugely popular in recent years, and for good reason. SaaS (Software as a Service) takes away a number of in-house IT headaches, leaving many technology-related challenges in the specialist hands of a third-party vendor. That frees up businesses to get on with their core activities.

That’s true for companies in many sectors, but particularly so for contact centres. Here, cloud-based software can make a significant difference to efficiency, productivity and ultimately the bottom line.

In the rest of this blog, we’ll explain what the benefits are, and how contact centres can take full advantage.

What is a cloud contact centre?

Very simply, a cloud call centre or contact centre makes all the tools and services necessary to run a contact centre available on the internet. Essentially, it’s contact centre software housed in the cloud. The ability to make and take calls, along with other communications channels and a wealth of complementary features, is delivered as a software service that is run by a third-party vendor. Contact centres access the service through an internet connection.

This is a significant shift from traditional analogue telephone technology, which relied on physical hardware and infrastructure maintained on-premises. With analog systems, businesses had to invest in costly equipment, such as private branch exchanges (PBXs), phone lines, and complex wiring setups. These systems were inflexible, difficult to scale, and required dedicated IT resources to manage and maintain.

In contrast, cloud contact centres eliminate the need for expensive on-premises hardware and infrastructure. Through cloud computing, contact centres can access a fully-featured contact centre solution without the high upfront costs and maintenance overhead associated with legacy systems.

Cloud contact centre vs on-premise contact centre

Before cloud-based software, everyone housed their own contact centre solutions in-house within data centres. They owned and managed the hardware and the software. Some businesses still operate in this way, though the trend is heavily towards cloud. Here are some of the differences:

The features of cloud contact centres

One of the advantages of cloud contact centres is the wide range of advanced features they offer, which help contact centres improve operations, boost customer experiences and gain valuable data insights. These features can help to strengthen both inbound and outbound activity.

Let’s take a look at some of them:

1. Workforce Management

Cloud contact centres provide workforce management tools that optimise agent productivity and scheduling processes. Features like skill-based call routing make sure customer interactions are routed to the most qualified agents. In turn, this improves first-call resolution rates and customer satisfaction. Real-time monitoring and analytics also give supervisors better visibility into agent performance. It helps supervisors intervene earlier and provide targeted coaching to their call agents.

2. Customer Engagement

Allowing customers to communicate on their preferred channels is fast becoming an expectation in today’s omnichannel world. Cloud contact centre platforms can facilitate customer engagement away from traditional phone calls. Customer support is offered through self-service options like chatbots and interactive voice response (IVR) systems.

Customers can communicate through multiple channels (voice, email, social media, etc.) and easily transition between them without losing context. This is enabled by intelligent agent routing, which connects customers to agents they have previously spoken with.  

3. Reporting and Analytics

Gaining actionable customer data and insights drives continuous improvement in contact centre operations. Cloud solutions have comprehensive reporting and analytics capabilities, and can track agent performance metrics, customer satisfaction scores, and other key performance indicators (KPIs). Features like call recording and quality monitoring help identify areas for improvement and inform training programs, ultimately leading to enhanced customer experiences.

4. Speech Analytics

Speech analytics is a powerful tool that gives contact centre managers better insight into call agent performance. With speech analytics software, contact centres can monitor call recordings for quality assurance, ensure compliance with regulations and optimise agent performance through targeted training. This drives improvements across service quality, operational efficiency and customer experience. Cloud-based software’s scalable computing power and storage can handle large volumes of voice data and integration with other data sources.

Seven reasons why cloud contact centre solutions are the better choice

Aside from the wide range of features cloud-based contact centres offer, there are many other reasons why the trend is heavily leaning towards cloud.

1. Scalability: Cloud solutions make it simple to scale up or down. You don’t own the solution, so you just add or remove seats from your licence. It can be done in a couple of mouse clicks, it’s that easy.

2. Flexibility: On premise solutions can expand to include remote or travelling workers, but it’s tricky. By contrast, a cloud solution is available anywhere, anytime, wherever you have an internet connection. It’s made for hybrid work and a new world of flexible working.

3. Enhanced customer experience: Cloud contact centre platforms bring together a multi-channel experience, combining inbound and outbound calls, text, chat, email and more into a complete customer communications solution. At the same time, powerful analytics let you continually refine customer journeys. It all adds up to a more satisfactory customer experience.

4. Increased collaboration: With the right implementation, cloud contact centre software can easily integrate with other systems and processes, sharing data and improving information flows across your organisation. It opens up silos, increases collaboration and leads to better, data-driven decision making.

5. Seamless integrations: Cloud-based solutions make it easier to integrate with other systems due to their API-driven architecture and pre-built integrations, allowing you to link up all of your platforms for a seamless experience.

6. Better data management: Cloud software automatically collects and saves data. Good systems then put powerful analytics tools to work on it, sifting it for valuable insight in the form of customer trends or agent behaviour.

7. Cost savings: On top of it all, cloud can save you money. You lease the service rather than owning it, replacing a variable CapEx cost with a predictable OpEx one. You can also say goodbye to maintenance contracts and emergency engineer call out fees. At the same time, you free up in-house IT for more creative tasks. New features are often provided as part of the contract.

Preparing for a successful implementation

What do you need to consider before switching from an on-premise to a cloud-based contact centre solution? And how do you make sure you’re choosing the best contact centre software solutions for your call centre?

Choosing the right provider

Not all contact centre solution providers are the same. There are significant differences in the quality of their products – particularly dialler algorithms and data analytics – and the variety of features they offer.

Check certifications (especially in regard to security and data privacy), ask who else they work with and request to see the solution in action. Talk to a variety of people – do they understand the needs of contact centres?

Migrating to a cloud contact centre

You need to put a migration strategy in place, to make sure day-to-day operations are not affected by the transition to a new system. Liaise with your vendor and get firm commitments on essential questions: when the switch will happen, how long it will take and what support they offer. Prepare staff well in advance.

Training and support

Talking of staff, make sure agents are fully up to speed with the new system before you let them loose in the wild. Your vendor should offer comprehensive training and support as part of the service. If not, consider another vendor.

Integrating with other technology

One of the main advantages of cloud-based solutions is that they can easily integrate with your other systems and technologies and turn your contact centre into an information powerhouse.

For example, when your contact centre, payments and CRM solutions work together, agents go into calls equipped with a complete summary of customer activity at their fingertips. So always ask: will your new solution work with your established systems? Ask the vendor.

Some, like MaxContact, will create new APIs (the tech that lets digital systems speak to each other) if an existing one is not available. In fact, we add new integrations all the time.

Implementing cloud solutions: the benefits in action

We’ve helped many businesses successfully switch from on-premise to cloud-based contact centre software.

Take ICX, for example, a prominent player in the automotive industry. ICX struggled with frequent glitches, limited functionality, and inadequate support using their on-premises contact centre system. It was impacting their growth and ability to meet clients’ multi-channel needs.

ICX partnered with MaxContact, and we helped to migrate them to our flexible cloud-based contact centre, which offered omnichannel capabilities, easy integration and reliable support.

By migrating to MaxContact’s cloud contact centre solution, ICX has overcome the limitations of their legacy system and gained the agility, scalability, and omnichannel capabilities needed to deliver superior customer experiences and drive sustainable growth.

Thanks to the system’s advanced features and improved reliability, contact rates with decision-makers increased by over 30%, from 7-8 per hour to 11-12 per hour.  

Unlock the potential of a cloud contact centre solution

It really is the era of cloud, and that’s as true in the contact centre as it is in any other area of business. Cloud offers huge advantages in terms of scalability, flexibility, customer experience, collaboration and even cost. It brings new efficiencies and better ways of working. It should be the future of your contact centre.

Ready to harness the power of a cloud contact centre solution for your contact centre? Book a demo today.

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Labour is the single biggest cost for most contact centres, and with agent turnover hovering at around 30%, recruitment and training also eat into already tight margins.

So yes, cutting costs is a logical goal. But it’s not as simple as slashing spend. Every change you make has to be balanced against customer impact.

Why? Because customer expectations have never been greater.

Our Voice of the Consumer 2025 report found that:

• 42% of customers have switched providers after a poor service experience.
• 55% abandon calls because of excessive wait times.

That leaves contact centre leaders with a tough question: how do you reduce costs without damaging the customer experience?  The good news is these two things aren’t always in conflict.

In fact, the very strategies that cut wasted cost, like smarter workforce planning, integrated omnichannel software, and automation, are the same ones that improve customer experience.

1. Turn to omnichannel contact centre software

Running separate systems for phone, email, SMS, and webchat is inefficient and expensive. Multiple vendors mean extra licences, admin headaches, and longer training times. Worse, agents are forced to jump between disconnected systems, which slows them down and leaves customers repeating themselves.

An integrated omnichannel platform removes these barriers. One system, one supplier, one invoice. Agents get the full picture of the customer journey in one place, and customers get a smoother, faster resolution.

This matters because customers don’t stick to one channel. According to our Voice of the Consumer 2025 report, 67% prefer the phone for urgent issues, while 45% prefer email for routine updates. What they really want is the freedom to switch between channels without friction.

Omnichannel makes that possible, and it’s a win-win: lower overheads for you, less frustration for them.

2. Focus on agent training

Well-trained agents are one of the most effective cost-saving assets you can have. They resolve issues faster, make fewer mistakes, and keep customers satisfied. That translates into higher first-call resolution rates and shorter average handling times.

The cost of not training is clear. Our research shows 35% of customers have abandoned a call because the agent didn’t understand their situation. And that’s a failure of training, not technology.

Good training goes beyond scripts. It should focus on listening, empathy, compliance, and giving agents the confidence to handle difficult conversations. A confident agent doesn’t drag out a call unnecessarily, and they build trust, which leads to higher retention and lower repeat contacts.

And don’t underestimate the link between training and retention. Ongoing coaching and feedback improve job satisfaction, reducing the turnover that drives recruitment and training costs sky-high.

The end result is fewer expensive recruitment drives and a more capable, stable workforce that can build trust with customers.

3. Better workforce management

Even if you retain your agents, the next challenge to overcome if you’re looking to reduce costs is utilisation. Overstaff your contact centre, and you’re paying for idle time. Understaff your contact centre, and customers are left waiting, and abandonment rates rise.

That’s where platform features such as Workforce Management (WFM) will help you strike the right balance. WFM allows managers to forecast busy periods, optimise schedules, and monitor performance in real time. That way, you keep service levels high without wasting resources.

AI-driven workforce management tools take this further by learning from historical data. For example, they can predict Monday morning surges or seasonal peaks, so you always have the right number of agents in place.

The result is lower labour costs, smoother service, and happier customers.

4. Reduce call waiting times

Nobody likes to be kept waiting. So it’s no surprise that long waiting times are one of the biggest deal-breakers for customers. 55% abandon calls due to excessive waits, and a further 34% hang up after being transferred multiple times.

However, it’s worth rising to the challenge, as reducing average handling time (AHT) lowers costs by making your call centre more efficient, enabling more interactions to be resolved with the same-sized team of agents.

But the goal here shouldn’t be pressurising agents to rush their connected calls. A rushed interaction will result in missed details, poor compliance, and frustrated customers.

Instead, the goal is to remove wasted time, not valuable conversation. Intelligent call routing, integrated CRM, and access to full customer histories shorten handling times, while still ensuring issues are resolved thoroughly the first time.

It’s also worth noting that not every query needs to be a call. With omnichannel options like webchat, self-service, or automated payment lines, customers can often get what they need instantly, freeing up agents to focus on complex issues where human interaction matters more.

5. Route calls accurately

Call routing is another silent cost driver. Poor routing means customers are bounced between agents, leading to delays, repeat transfers, and frustration. In fact, 34% of customers abandon calls after being transferred multiple times.

Skill-based routing fixes this by matching customers with the right agent the first time. Simple issues can be handled by newer staff or self-service, while complex cases go straight to your experienced team.

The impact is twofold: customers get a faster resolution, and you reduce wasted handling time. Regularly testing and refining your call flows ensures your routing stays aligned with both customer needs and agent skills.

6. Make automation work

AI and automation shouldn’t be used to replace agents. But it can be used to free them up from repetitive, low-value tasks so they can focus on complex conversations where human empathy matters most.

Removing repetitive and low-value work that drives costs up and satisfaction down, is a win-win for customers and agents alike.

AI-powered tools make it possible in a more practical way than traditional automation ever could.

AI Agents can handle routine interactions end-to-end. This includes queries such as:

• Customer authentication requests
• Simple account queries
• Making payments
• Getting status updates.

When fewer calls reach human agents in the first place, less time is spent on tasks that don’t need human judgement or empathy.

AI Chatbots support the same goal but across digital channels. They give customers the instant answers they need to common questions, and a simple way to complete everyday tasks without waiting in a call queue. From a cost perspective, this reduces inbound call volume. And from a customer perspective, it removes friction and frustration.

However, if an interaction does need to move to a human agent, it escalates quickly. The context that’s already been captured is passed through to a live agent. This means that human agents can focus on resolving the issue without having to repeat checks or re-gather information.

This means lower call handling time and better agent utilisation without compromising service quality. AI solutions support an always-on customer support model, allowing contact centres to extend availability without increasing headcount.

With recruitment and training costs already high, not automating these predictable interactions is a direct and avoidable cost.

7. Re-evaluate your technology

Technology is one of the biggest hidden cost centres in a contact operation. Outdated systems, overlapping vendors, and complex licensing drain budgets without delivering value.

That’s why regular reviews of your tech stack are essential. Are you paying for tools that duplicate each other? Are agents wasting time switching systems? Do your licences scale with demand?

Modern platforms should consolidate multiple channels, integrate core features like secure payments and WFM, and scale with your operation.

MaxContact’s omnichannel platform is built to do exactly that: consolidate, streamline, and grow with you, so you can reduce overheads while improving service.

Contact centres can’t afford to ignore rising costs, but neither can they afford to let service slip. The good news is, cost reduction and customer experience don’t have to be at odds.

By optimising your workforce, investing in training, using automation wisely, and rethinking your tech stack, you can cut wasted spend and deliver smoother, more satisfying customer journeys.

That’s how you build a contact centre that’s efficient, resilient, and ready for the future.

Learn how MaxContact’s AI-powered contact centre platform helps reduce costs without compromising CX.

Book a Demo.

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How does your contact centre support potentially vulnerable customers?  

As agents speak with countless people daily, while trying to meet targets and other responsibilities, sometimes it can be tough to give each customer the time and sensitivity they deserve.  

However, there has been an increasing number of vulnerable adults, in part due to the cost-of-living crisis and the pandemic. MaxContact commissioned research on 1,000 customers who identified as vulnerable across the country to find out more about their needs and how contact centre staff could better support them.  

In this webinar session, MaxContact’s Sean McIver speaks with Sandra Thompson, Goleman Emotional Intelligence coach in the UK and Founder of Ei Evolution, and Helen Lord, CEO and Founder of the Vulnerability Registration Service (VRS), to explore how contact centres can support vulnerable customers.  

Keep reading for the top takeaways from our discussion or tune in to the full video.

Identifying vulnerable customers

How do we define a vulnerable person?  

Unfortunately, there is no one single answer to this. Vulnerability comes in all different shapes and sizes. It could relate to financial vulnerability, recent job loss, age or disability-related issues, mental illness, or bereavement. Any of these things can affect how people make decisions and how much support they need.

When handling sensitive topics in calls, it’s so important that first line staff have some training in how to best respond to and support customers going through tough times.  

As Helen explains, there’s greater recognition of the different aspects of vulnerability these days – especially following the pandemic and the cost-of-living crisis we currently face. People are generally more open about things like financial hardship and mental health, which is a positive step.  

However, there’s still a long way to go in Helen’s opinion. There is currently a lot of talk and not enough action.

How businesses have responded to an increase in vulnerable customers

Sandra says that when leaders and staff have a better understanding of compassion and empathy, they can help to keep customers calm and resolve their problems more effectively. Part of that includes being proactive in giving out information so that customers feel like they have more control over their own situation.  

Many organisations are realising this and are doing what they can to train their staff in this way. However, there are still plenty of organisations that don’t do this. As a result, contact centre staff often suffer from burnout, and customers are left feeling like the agents don’t understand them.  

This leads to greater tension between the organisation and the customer, which means that issues take longer to resolve.  

There are two stages of handling customer vulnerability. The first is to identify it, and the second is to think about how we can accommodate it in customer interactions.  

As Helen says, dealing with vulnerability comes down to good customer service first and foremost.  

Beyond that, organisations need to rethink how they map customer journeys because not all customers will experience things the same way.  

For example, those experiencing mental health issues or people who are victims of economic abuse will have an entirely different experience. That’s why it’s important to consider all the different types of customer journeys.  

While you may not be able to map out each individual one, understanding that everyone experiences things differently and taking things on a case-by-case basis will help agents support each customer individually.  

The key to this is emotional intelligence. When agents have greater emotional intelligence, it makes them more empathetic and understanding of each customer’s journey. It also helps to keep agents themselves calm when dealing with emotionally difficult calls with customers.

Three things organisations can do to provide a better service

1 . Create content to support customers

Sandra says that if you have a good understanding of your customers and their needs, you should create content such as videos that help to build that emotional connection.  

Videos with useful advice can help customers feel empowered to tackle their own challenges. This can also reduce the number of customer calls.  

2 . Ensure you have the right statistics  

This means, for example, having a way to see if a customer has called multiple times and keeps getting cut off. If people are discussing emotional issues on a call and they get cut off, it can increase mental stress.  

Having that data keeps agents informed and ready to help customers right away.  

3 . Try something counterintuitive

While many call centres have targets on call handling times, Sandra has a method that might seem a little counterintuitive.  

Instead of trying to speed up the call, simply say “take your time.” When customers are stressed and are scrambling to remember a password, for example, saying “take your time” helps to keep them calm.  

Once they’re calm, they’re more likely to remember a password, and you can resolve the issues much faster. While it might seem like this phrase would increase call time, you might find it does the opposite.  

Protect contact centre staff

Dealing with difficult situations and emotions can take its toll on your agents as well. That’s why it’s so important to think about their wellbeing and mental health as well.

Helen suggests doing what you can to avoid a blame culture. By focusing so much on call times and targets, you just add more stress to the situation. Agents might feel rushed when dealing with sensitive issues, and this can affect customer service.  

Another way you can protect contact centre staff is to ensure they have adequate training to deal with difficult calls. If agents don’t feel prepared, this can increase stress, and that affects the customer’s experience as well. Good training is a win-win for all.  

Sandra shares some more ideas about how you can improve the training side of things.

1 . Don’t forget to check in on your remote staff

It’s important in today’s world to make sure you’re checking in on your remote staff. You can try out tools such as TeamMood, which staff can use to share feedback and let you know if they’re feeling low or stressed.  

Remember, people won’t usually come to tell you this themselves, but a tool can prompt them.

2 . Check-in on team meetings

Before diving into your meeting agenda, have a quick check-in with everyone. Ask how they are and if they give vague answers, dig in further and ask more specific questions.  

Sandra suggests, “what’s the top thing you feel amazing about?” Specific questions can help you understand your staff more easily and spot when something is wrong.  

3 . Invite people to develop their understanding of emotional intelligence

Emotional intelligence is essential when handling difficult calls and emotional situations. Sandra suggests encouraging your agents to learn more about what it is and how you can improve it via online articles and videos.  

Improve outgoing communication

Incoming communication from customer calls is one thing to think about, but we can also improve any outbound communications as well.

Sandra has three ideas you can try out:

1 . Prepare your customer for calls they’re due to receive

A quick email to let them know to expect a call over the next few days or a check-in can help to prepare customers. That way, they’re not suddenly dealing with a call and trying to figure out their account details. This can just increase stress, so a simple heads-up can go a long way.

2 . Make sure you’re tuned in to responses

Hearing and listening are two different things. When you make those outbound calls, are you really hearing the response the customer is giving? What words are they using? What behaviours are they showing when they receive calls?  

3 . Empower agents

What degree of risk is there for agents who go above and beyond to help individual customers? Are agents empowered to resolve customer issues without passing them on to another member of staff?  

By empowering agents to really help customers, they can feel good about their work and your customers will also get the care they need quickly.  

By increasing openness and understanding – while improving staff training, contact centres can better support their customers.  

To learn more about customer vulnerability and what call centres can do to improve their approach to it, tune in to the full webinar.  

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We’re delighted to announce that we have been awarded the IT Vendor of the Year Award by the BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT and Computing.

The awards ceremony took place in Central London in November 2022, with the industry out in force to support the awards and celebrate success after another challenging year. The UK IT Industry Awards represent the best and brightest of the IT sector – of all sizes.

Richard Coward, Sales Director at MaxContact said the win “really recognises all the hard work our company’s put in for the last 12 months, how much we’ve grown and the dedication of the team.”

“It’s nice to be celebrated against talented, large organisations. We’re a small organisation compared to others in this category, and it’s really important for smaller organisations to be recognised.”

A special thank you to all of our hard-working employees for your contributions – awards like this highlight the synergy, care and perseverance across internal teams. This award is truly a cumulation of lots of individual efforts – so thank you!

Find out more about MaxContact, here.

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As a business process outsourcing (BPO) leader, you know that more and more businesses are turning to outsourcing as part of their growth strategy.

In fact, the global business process outsourcing market, valued at $232.32 billion in 2020, is expected to grow by 8.5% until at least 2028.

BPOs provide client companies with valuable services at reasonable cost, because they use specialisation to create economies of scale. Nowhere is that more true than in the contact centre space.

Unlike client businesses, BPOs can focus entirely on providing great contact centre services, because that is their core business. But to do so, they have to employ systems and processes that allow them to scale, flex and support clients effectively without increasing costs too much.

Here are some of the challenges your BPO contact centre may be facing and how to solve them.

You want to offer your clients the best possible service, but your contact centre software doesn’t flex as you need it to.

As a BPO contact centre, you need to flex with your clients’ needs. Maybe you’re onboarding new clients quickly. Maybe some of your clients have seasonal peaks and troughs in their trade.

A BPO contact centre has to be able to flex up and down easily to meet these changing requirements, or risk providing a substandard service or piling on costs.

With a solution like MaxContact, you can add or remove licences instantly. What’s more, as a secure cloud-based service you can hire the best talent wherever they are in the UK or around the world. By contrast, on-premise solutions tie you to a location. At a time when talent is hard to find, that can be a considerable drawback for an outsourced contact centre.

You want to win new business but your contact centre provider doesn’t support you on tenders or react quickly enough to new instructions.

Winning new clients depends on being fast and nimble. You want to be ahead of the competition. You also want to provide a comprehensive review of the benefits of your service and solution.

Not every contact centre solution provider supports clients on tenders, but MaxContact does. We’ll advise on RFPs and help you hit tight deadlines. We react quickly so you can seize every opportunity. If you need a new campaign setting up in a week, we’re happy to oblige.

Your team is growing and you’re struggling to train staff quickly enough.

BPOs often have to hire large numbers of staff quickly to fulfil contracts. Those staff then need to be trained to a high standard. That’s a continual challenge for outsourced contact centres.

MaxContact is designed for ease of use. It’s an intuitive system that allows agents to seamlessly move through the steps needed to fulfil customer requests logically and simply. It also provides team leaders with the option to provide regular and detailed feedback for continuous improvement purposes. MaxContact also provides free training that quickly gets your teams up to speed.

5 tips for finding the best contact centre solution for your outsourced contact centre

If you’re looking for a contact centre solution for your BPO, always take the following into account:

• Security and compliance

All contact centres have to be secure and compliant. BPO contact centres, often dealing with several clients or campaigns at once, even more so. At the very least, you need tools to ensure that you’re GDPR and Ofcom compliant, the latest security certifications and – if you take payments – a secure payments manager. Make sure cloud based systems are housed in secure, compliant data centres.

• Ease of implementation

You can’t be left without a contact centre solution while you implement a new system. Make sure your chosen software is easy to install, maintain and upgrade, and that your provider will support you at every step. Cloud-based solutions mean the hardware and infrastructure is housed elsewhere, so they’re the quickest and easiest to install and update.

• Ease of use

The easier the software is to operate, the more likely it is that your teams will make full use of all its tools and features and the quicker they’re productive. It also makes it straightforward for agents to swap between clients and campaigns. Ask for a free trial – MaxContact offers one – and ask your team how they get on.

• Scalable and flexible

A BPO’s needs can change quickly, and then change again soon afterwards. Your solution must be able to scale up and down easily, to meet the demands of your clients. BPOs with inflexible solutions risk losing clients if they can’t scale quickly enough.

• Service and communication

A BPO contact centre depends heavily on a nimble software solution and the service that supports it. Ask potential providers how easy it is to raise support tickets, and how long do they typically take to be resolved. Get to know your providers before you make a decision. Are they contact centre experts or just resellers? Do they answer queries quickly and comprehensively?

Expert solution for outsourced contact centres

As a BPO, you rely on your contact centre solution to help you provide a professional and cost-effective service to multiple clients. At MaxContact, we get it. We’re contact centre experts with wide experience of helping BPOs meet challenges and seize opportunities. We offer a powerful, customer engagement platform that adapts to your clients’ needs, and a partnership model of service that makes our team an extension of your own.

For more information about how MaxContact could help your BPO, click here or get in touch.