TIPS & RESOURCES

Businesses use answering services to improve the customer experience. So, what is an answering service and how does it work? Read on to find out.

What is an Inbound Call Center?

Your business has been growing a lot lately, which is great. But with high-scale business growth comes an influx of customers and their concerns. Luckily, inbound call center services can help manage customer inquiries and improve your customer satisfaction.

So, what is typical inbound call center protocol? And, how can it help your business? Employees at inbound call centers receive and field incoming calls from your customers or patients and provide information about your business, whether it’s helping them navigate your website or informing them about available appointment times.

Unlike other call centers, inbound call centers only receive inbound calls, texts, emails, and live chats. They will not cold-call or reach out to your customers for promotional reasons. In this comprehensive guide, we’ll explain how inbound call centers work and how your business will benefit from using one.

How Does an Inbound Call Center Work?

Although call centers have a reputation for being large-scale, they’re able to handle the details of your business to improve your business operations and your customers’ satisfaction. During daily operations, the process of taking customer calls often is as follows:

A customer dials the call center number
They are connected to either an IVR system or a customer service representative
The system or agent will take their information
The call is then directed to the appropriate department
A customer service representative will answer the call and addresses the customer’s needs or concerns

This process makes it easy for call centers to handle a large volume of customer requests and deal with them promptly. With an inbound call center, your business will never miss a customer call again.

Popular Inbound Call Center Services

Call centers are flexible and can often adapt to provide the services your business needs to thrive, of which include exceptional customer service. So, what is inbound customer service providing to your company? Inbound call centers can serve as your company’s:

Product and technical support – Many businesses offer products or services that need additional explanation, often generating customer questions. An inbound center will help you field those customer inquiries and solve customer problems by connecting customers to qualified call center agents. The call center agents can then address common customer problems, often using a script.
Order processors – Although online shopping is popular, some customers still prefer the old-fashioned method of placing orders over the phone. With an inbound call center, you won’t miss out on that extra revenue, and you’ll set yourself apart from other businesses that are online only.
Appointment schedulers – Inbound call centers will keep your business’s calendar full. Trained virtual receptionists can schedule appointments for you and send your customers reminders, letting you better focus on the details of running your business.
General customer resources – If you need customer support to help your client navigate your website, resolve general service issues, or address general questions, an inbound call center can also take that off your plate.

The best call center services also give you the option of having texting services, as well. This makes it even easier for your business to connect with customers and provides you with added flexibility. It will also improve customer satisfaction and conversation rates, helping you turn your online traffic into revenue.

The Benefits of an Inbound Call Center

Now that your question, “what is an inbound call center?” has been answered, you’re probably curious about how they can specifically benefit your business. A good contact center offers your business:

Premiere receptionist service – Call services give your company 24/7 receptionist service across all channels—phone, text, chat, and web. Customers care most about speaking to an agent that knows what they’re talking about and can resolve the issue in one interaction, so using a call center can greatly improve the customer experience.
A better way to connect with customers – Phones are still the most common way that customers reach out when they need support. In fact, 66% of consumers surveyed in a recent study said that when they have questions, they reach for the phone for answers. As such, a good inbound call center will set your company apart from the competition, since they are able to answer inbound calls at all hours of the day.
Shorter wait times – Don’t keep your customers on hold! Resolving issues quickly, so your customers don’t have to wait in long queues is vital when providing good service and ensuring customer satisfaction. High-end call center technology also helps to keep those customer calls flowing properly.
The ability to monitor your metrics – Great call services will provide you with meticulous reports on your call traffic, offering both real-time data and reports. This gives you the information you need to make knowledgeable decisions about the direction of your company.

Are you interested to learn more about other forms of customer support service and how they can help grow your business? Read our guides on what is an answering service, what is live chat support, and the difference between an answering service vs call center.

People Power Your Business With Nexa

An inbound call center is an effective way to crowdsource customer satisfaction and improve customer retention. To that end, implement an inbound call center into your business plan, like Nexa.

At Nexa, we want to help your business achieve its goals. We offer comprehensive plans that are affordable, omnichannel, and tailored to your business like our legal, medical, HVAC answering service, and many others. Our services are also designed to seamlessly integrate into your company, and they connect to your chosen CRM software without any hassle.

Get started with Nexa today. We offer a 21-day money-back guarantee and a host of benefits.