How to Improve Call Center Customer Service so Customers Actually Notice

Wondering how to improve call center customer service? You’re not alone.

Once, customer service wasn’t something most companies paid a lot of attention to – it was an “add-on” after a sale – a reactive department that forced customers to wait on hold, explain their problems multiple times, and hope for an eventual solution.

Times have changed. Today, customer experiences either make or break your chances of success in any industry. If your customer response times are too long, your answers are too generic, or your teams aren’t empathetic enough, you’re doomed.

The stats back this up. According to Salesforce, 88% of customers say that the experience they get from a company is just as important as the quality of their products or services.

Improving the call center customer experience is the most important thing you can to do differentiate yourself from the competition, and keep customers happy.

So, how do you do it?

What is Great Customer Service in a Call Center?

How will you ever know how to improve call center customer service if you don’t know what excellent service looks like?

These days, great customer service isn’t just about answering the phone as quickly as possible, or resolving tickets fast. It’s about embracing efficient, versatile, and personalized customer service strategies that make customers feel valued.

Depending on your target audience and their preferences, great service could include everything from omnichannel communication options, AI-powered self-service tools, and proactive strategies to resolve issues before they get out of hand.

On a broad scale, excellent customer service needs to be:

• Fast, efficient, and even proactive
• Intelligent and personalized
• Empathetic and human
• Versatile and convenient
• Consistent across channels

If you can deliver on all of those pillars, then you should see your retention rates increase, your churn rates drop, and your customer satisfaction scores skyrocket.

Make your call center the one customers rave about

Handle every conversation with confidence and care. Improve speed and satisfaction, and keep your agents (and customers!) happy.

Get a demo

How to Improve Customer Experience in Call Centers

Improving the call center customer experience takes multiple steps. You need to invest in your people, upgrade your technology, refine your approach to call etiquette, and implement a strategy for continuous improvement.

Since your people are the heart of your call center, let’s start there.

Here’s how you can empower your front line to deliver better customer service.

Start with Solid Training

An effective training strategy is the foundation of fantastic customer service. If your employees don’t know how to actively listen to buyers, show empathy, or even use your tech, then they’re never going to impress your customers.

The key to success is to go beyond once-a-year training rituals. Your customers’ needs will evolve – as will the technology you use. You might embrace call center AI solutions, or branch into new communication channels like SMS.

Invest in ongoing, evolving training that reflects real product updates, changing customer expectations, and modern communication techniques.

Experiment with a range of training strategies, from role-playing to live-shadowing and scenario-based learning. Go even further, with real-time coaching.

You can use call whispering tools to allow supervisors to share call center customer service tips with new hires in real-time, or even invest in AI assistants that provide ongoing training. The more you invest in your team’s education, the better your CX strategy will be.

Set Clear Goals to Guide Behavior

Want to improve call center customer experience? Define what success looks like – and share it with your teams. Use clear, measurable KPIs like:

• First Call Resolution (FCR)
• Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT)
• Average Handle Time (AHT)
• Agent Sentiment Score

Make sure these goals are aligned with your company’s values and customer priorities. For example, if you’re promoting empathy and personalization, don’t overemphasize call speed. Agents will race the clock instead of helping.

Make sure the tools you use in your call center, whether they’re for phone-based or SMS customer service, track those metrics in real-time.

When your employees excel, reward them; when they fall behind performance benchmarks, give them actionable feedback and guidance they can use. Analyze previous calls and message-based conversations, and show your team members where they can improve.

Give Your Team an Intelligent Knowledge Base

Training is good, but even the best agent might forget how to fix an issue or complete a task occasionally. For instance, if you’re trying to improve customer service in the financial industry, your employee might need a quick reminder on how to set up a new investment package or when to offer a special deal.

A well-organized knowledge base will ensure they can find the information they need fast. To make the process even faster, implement AI. Intelligent agents can search through information on your knowledge base and connected apps in an instant, surfacing the data your employees need in seconds.

Tools like this ensure your employees don’t have to put customers on hold repeatedly while they’re searching for information they should already have.

You can even use your knowledge base to enhance other AI-powered tools, like FAQ agents that can answer customer queries automatically 24/7.

Embrace Self-Service Options

Speaking of automating customer service, self-service is a powerful solution for any company that wants to improve customer satisfaction rates.

While there will always be times when a customer needs to speak to a human agent, sometimes, all they want is a quick response to a query. An intelligent IVR can help a customer complete a task in seconds, without waiting on hold for an agent.

You can even embed the best AI tools for customer service into other channels. For instance, you could use a conversational bot to handle repetitive questions lightning-fast over SMS, MMS, RCS, and online chat.

Some companies offering solutions for AI in customer service even allow you to go a step further than answering FAQs. For instance, Clerk Chat’s AI agents can follow up with a customer after a conversation to ensure their issue is fully resolved, gather feedback for a CSAT survey, or book a follow-up call.

Solutions like this do more than give you a way to support customers around the clock – they take extra pressure off your support teams, so they can focus on the conversations that matter most.

Go Beyond Calling with Omnichannel Options

The phone is still one of the most popular ways for customers to get in touch with companies, but they don’t always want a phone call. The majority of today’s customers prefer to receive text-based messages from companies, and 90% want to be able to reply to those messages (via SMS, RCS, or MMS) to ask questions.

Adding call center text messaging options into your strategy can be an excellent way to reach customers where they are, and give them the freedom to contact you through a channel they consider to be fast and convenient.

Business texting solutions can also take some of the pressure off your agents, because they’re a more asynchronous form of communication. Customers aren’t waiting on hold while agents search for an answer – they’re doing other things until a response pings through.

If you want to learn how to improve call center customer service, remember that customers aren’t just looking for phone calls – they want omnichannel support.

With the right integrations, you can even align all of your communication channels in one platform, making sure that texts, calls, and other forms of interaction are routed to the right agent through the same platform, reducing complexity and confusion.

Embrace Integrations (Beyond Additional Channels)

We’ve already mentioned the benefits of integrating your call center strategy with other communication options, like conversational SMS and live chat. But other integrations can make a world of difference to your customers’ experience too.

For instance, a comprehensive contact center platform that integrates with your CRM (customer relationship management) software is revolutionary.

When your CRM talks to your call center, agents don’t have to ask “Can I get your account number again?” - they already know who the customer is, what they last bought, and what their sentiment score was on their last support call.

Some platforms like Clerk Chat even have AI agents collaborate with and sync to the CRM and call center platform integration, making it easy for agents to automatically pull up contact histories, generate personalized responses, and more.

Customer Service Tips for Call Centers: Agent Etiquette

All the advanced tools and automation in the world won’t save a bad interaction. Practical training can help, but you need to make sure you’re familiar with the customer service best practices call center agents should be following.

Here are some of the best ways agents can keep customers happy.

Active Listening: Hear What’s Said and What Isn’t

Active listening isn’t just about staying quiet until it’s your turn to talk. It’s about:

• Letting the customer speak without interruption
• Repeating back their concern to confirm you’ve got it right
• Asking thoughtful follow-up questions that show you’re invested

Train agents on how to help customers feel heard. For instance:

“So you’re having trouble with the payment portal, and it sounds like you’ve already tried updating your card details - do I have that right?”

Remember, agents can show active listening even if they’re communicating via text – clarifying what a customer means during a conversational messaging discussion can save both parties from a lot of confusion.

Always Show Empathy and Patience

Not every customer is going to be calm. The ones who call customer service are often frustrated – they’ve usually tried to fix their issue a bunch of other ways, and by this point, they’re exhausted. Agents shouldn’t take this personally.

Encourage your agents to take a breath and wait for a moment before responding if a customer is unhappy. Ask them to show empathy, and let customers know that they understand their frustration and want to help.

Keeping the conversation positive and professional with patience and empathy can de-escalate a situation quickly. Sometimes, it can even be the key to turning an irate customer into your next big brand advocate.

Personalize the Conversation

One of the top call center tips for customer satisfaction? Personalize everything. Customers don’t want to feel like just another item on an agent’s to-do list.

Whether your agents are speaking to a customer directly over the phone or using 2-way messaging, they should be tailoring every conversation. That doesn’t just mean calling customers by their name (though that can help).

Nudge employees to take advantage of your CRM integration, or AI in customer service to pull up valuable details about the customer’s order history, preferred communication style, past issues and resolutions, or anything else they can find.

“Hi Maria, I saw you had a delivery delay last week, just want to make sure everything’s okay now.”

Mind Your Tone, and Your Language

Customers don’t want to hear internal jargon, acronyms, or vague promises. They want to understand exactly what’s going on, what you’re going to do about it, and when they’ll see a fix. Break the process down into plain English and explain each step.

“I’m going to verify your account, check for updates on the refund, and then confirm the next steps. It should only take a few minutes.”

It’s also smart to offer a quick recap at the end:

“So just to summarize - your refund was processed today, and you’ll see the credit in your account within three business days.”

Remember to watch your tone here, too. Words matter, but so does how you say them. Try asking your agents to smile when they speak and use positive language such as “I’ll definitely see what we can do.”

Respect Your Customer’s Time

If you’re struggling with how to improve call center customer service, take a moment to think from your consumer’s perspective. They probably don’t want to be calling you or messaging your SMS service team. They’re busy too.

Showing them that you understand and respect them can make a big difference. Try to make sure that you’re not leaving customers on hold for long periods. If you have a long waiting time, let them know with an automated message, and ask them whether they’d prefer to get in touch on another channel, or request a call-back.

When a customer gets through, and employees need to take a moment to go and check something, tell them to let the customer know how long they’re going to be. This transparency elevates customer service.

Bring Humanity to Scripts

Scripts can be helpful, particularly when you’re teaching new agents call center tips and tricks. They’re particularly useful when you use artificial intelligence. AI tools can help you personalize text messaging strategies and call scripts in real-time.

But scripts shouldn’t be set in stone. They should act as guidelines, while still giving your agents the freedom and flexibility to add their nuance.

If every conversation with a human agent feels like your customer is messaging an automated text service, they’re going to notice, and their satisfaction rates will drop.

Encourage your agents to adapt in the moment. Teach them how to mirror the customer’s communication style (while maintaining a positive tone).

Champion the benefits of asking open-ended questions, so your agents can really get to the bottom of each problem and adapt their resolution strategy accordingly.

Keep the conversation two-way, and add personality where it counts, for instance:

“That sounds so frustrating. Let’s get this sorted so you can enjoy your day.”

Make your call center the one customers rave about

Handle every conversation with confidence and care. Improve speed and satisfaction, and keep your agents (and customers!) happy.

Get a demo

How to Improve Call Center Customer Service: Extra Tips

Once you’ve got the right technology in place, you’ve trained your team, and everyone is following the best etiquette advice, there are a few extra steps you can take to push things to the next level:

• Analyze
• Get Proactive
• Enhance with AI

Continuous Improvement with Analytics

Even the best call center experience can be better tomorrow. If you’re not constantly moving forward, you’re potentially falling behind. So, how do you keep improving? Data.

There are a few forms of data you can use to your advantage.

The first type is the quantitative data you gather from your conversational customer engagement and contact center tools. The platforms you use to communicate with customers should provide insights into things like your average handling times, SMS opt-in & opt-out rates, customer satisfaction scores, and more.

Some call center solutions will track call quality, giving you insights into dropped calls or voice clarity issues that might be harming the customer experience.

Some tools allow you to create automated scorecards for your team members so that they can monitor their performance over time.

The second form of data you’ll need to monitor is qualitative feedback. That means the genuine comments and reviews your customers share.

Companies often forget to request feedback from customers, even if it’s just a matter of sending a quick message asking them to rate their interaction from one to five.

Intelligent tools, like AI SMS agents from Clerk Chat, can help automate this process. For instance, Clerk Chat’s AI CSAT Agent can automatically trigger a follow-up message to customers asking them about their interaction.

It can then pass this information onto the Sentiment Agent, which can read between the lines to determine just how unhappy or happy each customer is.

Getting Proactive with Customer Service

The great thing about actually analyzing your customer service strategy regularly is that you don’t just discover ways to improve call center customer experience. The more data you gather, the more proactive you can be about addressing issues before they happen.

For instance, if you discover, based on analyzing your previous calls and texts, that customers usually reach out to your team immediately after buying a product for set-up tips, you could create an automated onboarding guide with conversational AI in customer service.

If you know that customers often check in on an order if they haven’t had an update in three days, then you can set up an automated schedule, connecting your SMS platform with your logistics software to provide every customer with a two-day update.

In fact, through integrations with your existing software, you can be more proactive about virtually every customer experience. If your communication tools integrate with your CRM software, you can automatically notify customers who have purchased a particular product when it comes back in stock or goes on sale.

If your SMS platform integrates with your IT helpdesk, you can send proactive notifications to customers when you’re suffering from an outage or potential service issue.

All of this helps to make customers feel like you’re putting their needs and experiences first. Plus, it can significantly reduce the number of calls you have to handle each day.

Go Next Level with AI

Finally, if you’re wondering how to improve call center customer service without spending a fortune on hiring new staff members, AI could be the answer. Again, artificial intelligence won’t replace your employees entirely – but it can make them a lot more effective and efficient – it can even help you increase revenue.

Imagine you’re looking for a way to upgrade your small business customer service strategy. An AI agent could help you identify the best customers to target with new offers and solutions. For instance, when a customer orders a new computer, the agent could flag your team, letting them know they might need a mouse, keyboard, or setup guide.

It’s not just about selling more – it’s about proactively trying to give the customer the best experience possible, and the most value from your customers.

AI can also help you to follow up with customers more consistently, so you’re not just ending the conversation when they put down the phone. After you’ve solved an issue, your AI agent can send a quick message double-checking that the customer has everything they need.

That kind of strategy for “going the extra mile” really makes your business stand out from the competition, and can have a significant impact on future loyalty and retention rates.

Plus, AI can automate a lot of the tasks that would otherwise consume your team’s time and attention. Your agent can automatically send information to your SMS archiving solution for compliance purposes, update CRM profiles, or transcribe conversations.

The less time your employees spend on monotonous work, the more time they have to focus on improving customer satisfaction and building long-lasting relationships.

Upgrade Your Call Center Customer Experience

Customer service isn’t just a department in a business anymore. Delivering excellent customer experiences consistently is the key to success. In today’s competitive world, if you’re not constantly asking how to improve call center customer service, you’re already falling behind.

The critical thing to remember? It takes more than just a couple of minor upgrades to make a real difference. Yes, you need to train your teams and show them how to use etiquette in their conversations. However, you also need to invest in the right technology, gather the right data, and take a proactive approach to improving your strategy.

The good news – you don’t have to have a huge tech stack or an endless budget to keep your customers happy – all you need is the right strategy and a little support.

Clerk Chat offers everything businesses need to upgrade the customer service experience once and for all – from omnichannel communication options to customizable AI agents, in-depth analytics, and integrations with all your existing tech.

Ready to discover what an unforgettable customer experience can do for your business? Contact Clerk Chat today.