What do you need for a Call Center?

 1. Decide Your Goals

It’s important to outline your goals in a business plan before you start setting up your call center.

Why? Because your goals are going to dictate: The number of employees you hire, the kind of operations you’ll handle, the processes you’ll implement, and the costs you’ll incur. For example, if your goal is to reach a specific revenue target, you’ll have to hire a certain number of people and bill your clients at a particular rate. 

2. Establish a Budget

Running a call center isn’t cheap. You’ll have to spend on: Call center equipment, salaries, business registration fees, websites and marketing.

If you’re not careful with your money, you can easily overspend on things your business doesn’t need. However, it’s also important to note that your budget will vary based on the setup and focus of your company.

Decide on a budget that’s realistic for your setup. Align it with your goals to give yourself enough breathing room to grow at a consistent rate.

3. Find a Suitable Location

The location of your call center plays a big part in your success. While you can set up a local business, offshoring it may be more cost-effective. But where do you offshore your call center? Countries like the Philippines are great locations to consider when setting up a call center. They offer you: Minimal setup costs, favorable corporate laws, fewer wages.

However, offshoring to foreign countries can be risky if you don’t know what you’re doing. Team up with a local lawyer to understand the costs involved and the permissions you need with each country.

4. Decide How Many People You Need

To run a successful call center, you need the right number of employees: Hire too many and you’re looking at unnecessary costs. Hire too few and you’re going to be understaffed and miss your targets. So how do you arrive at the right number? By analyzing your call center setup.

5. Use the Right Tools

Business Phone System

A typical call center handles a large number of calls every day. Unfortunately, a basic phone system can’t handle such a large volume of calls. To manage this call volume, you’ll need to invest in a dedicated business phone system. Like a Virtual VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol). Virtual VoIP is currently the most popular business phone system. It requires no hardware setup as every call occurs through an app on your desktop. You only need a pair of headsets to operate, and the server can be accessed remotely. This is the perfect option for a virtual call center.

CRM (Customer Relationship Management) System

Call center agents need an easy way to store and access customer records. This makes it easier for them to interact and engage callers.

Think about it. If you have all their details available on call, you’ll be able to address their concerns better, right? Except, how do you store and access this information?Through a CRM.

A CRM stores all your customer data and presents it to your agents whenever they need it. With a CRM, you can manage thousands of contacts with the click of a button!If you’re using a VoIP system, look for a CRM that integrates with it to make it easier on your agents. As it’s integrated, whenever a customer calls, you’ll instantly have all their details pop up.

Hardware

If you're going for an on-site call center, you will also need: Computers, mouses, keyboards, and headsets for your operations. You can find all of these at good prices, but we would reccomend not going with the cheapest headsets, find some good quality headsets that have a good microphone and at least some kind of noise canceling.