Improve Customer Service With The 5 Best Call Centre Partners For Your Business
Phone-based customer service still has a place in the business world, especially amongst a very specific audience segment. The older generation of consumers will always prefer to pick up the phone and speak to a human being, and neglecting this fact will mean that you’re neglecting this part of your audience. That’s a considerably problem if your target market involves people who are 40+ years of age.
Naturally, as a small business owner, you don’t have the money or resources to establish an on-site customer service team that can screen and take calls. Your only option is to partner with call centres, but which ones are the best? You’ll see a list of possible providers below, but let’s start with a quick breakdown of what to look for in a good call centre provider.
What To Look For When Picking A Call Centre Partner
The “best” call centre will be one that works well with your business and enhances your customer service offerings. With that in mind there are several things to consider when you pore through the options:
- The call centre’s level of experience - including experience in your industry
- Any special features the call centre provides
- Their track history and overall rating
- Average response times
- Any additional technology you can use to your advantage
- The ease with which you can scale their services
- Their location and language - ideally, you want a call centre with native English speakers as close to home as possible
- Security and compliance
Take all of these things into account when comparing the providers below, and you’ll quickly determine which call centre suits your business and can help it thrive.
#1 Senior Response - Best For Older Audiences
Senior Response deserves an immediate shout-out for offering one of the most unique features of any call centre on this list: it’s specifically geared towards older audiences. The entire call centre is designed to be a good touchpoint for adults aged 50+ and people in the older age bracket, ensuring that they get the best customer service available.
It’s such a beneficial feature because the majority of customers who use phoneline support are in that older audience segment. It effectively means that the operatives at this call centre are more patient and empathetic, and they’re also trained to avoid using jargon that may confuse the less technically able. Like most call centres, this one is FCA-regulated and can cover all sorts of sectors, including financial services and healthcare.
#2 Opus - Best Cross-Platform Call Centre
Opus describes itself as a contact centre rather than a call centre, and that’s because it can handle customer requests across different platforms. While calls remain a big part of this - and you can simply employ them to handle phone calls - this company also has the capacity to field live chat messages, emails, text messages, and even social media DMs.
Think of it as more of an all-purpose customer service solution, which means it’s maybe aimed more at the bigger businesses that are looking to scale. If you’re just starting out, then this might be above your pay grade and is an option to set aside for the future.
#3 Impact Call Centre - Best For AI Technology
Impact Call Centre has been around for a while and is considered one of the best UK-based call centre providers in the country. It has all the safety and security credentials you need from a call centre partner - including being a member of the Call Centre Management Association and The Institute of Customer Service.
This call centre will provide the usual services you need from an outsourced partner like this, including handling general customer service enquiries from callers, as well as offering inbound sales call capabilities. However, the company has also adopted AI technology as of late, giving businesses the chance to blend this with real human agents. You can start with AI screen calling before passing customers to real people if they still need help.
#4 Lemon Contact Centre - Best For Scalability
Lemon Contact Centre is another customer service provider that leads with call answering services but can also scale into other domains. Small businesses like it because it offers a true 24/7 service that’s based in the United Kingdom. That’s good, as you have a customer service provider that works within the same time zone as your target audience.
The scalability thing is really this company’s high point; you’ll easily be able to pay for outsourced call handling, but then you can gradually add more services as and when required. Maybe you find that the call centre keeps your older audience members happy, but you need better digital messaging to maintain satisfaction amongst younger consumers. Lemon Contact Centre can be your partner for both!
#5 Confero - Best For Flexibility
Confero is yet another call centre that ticks the box for being located in the UK. It also has over 20 years of experience and has worked with a range of companies - including NatWest, Sennheiser, and UK Trade & Investment. You get a really good service with these guys, and they have multiple call centres in the country, meaning they can handle a large number of calls with ease.
You’ll probably like their flexibility the best because each call centre package is tailored to your business. You have full control over what type of service this call centre gives you, and it’s all dependent on what you want out of the service. So, if you need a team that can field general enquiries or help with customer problems, they’ll set that up for you. Or, if your call team is more about connecting with sales prospects, they can handle that.
Some businesses think that call centres are a dying breed, but that is so far from the truth. A big section of your audience still likes picking up the phone and talking to a customer advisor. You need to keep providing this service, or you’ll alienate loads of customers and potential customers. If we had to pick one company from this list to single out, then Senior Response puts up a great case. It does everything you want a call centre to do, with the added benefit of being tailored towards the audience that uses phone customer service more than any other: over 50s.