The role of customer service has changed substantially over the last twenty years. Modern businesses are using call center reporting to organize their customer service departments and provide better service as well as revenue generation.

Customer Service Evolution

Companies have always needed a way to resolve customer problems whether they are returned purchases, complaints about performance or simple information queries. In the past, these departments were treated almost as afterthoughts and given far less attention than other teams in the company.

Along the way organizations started to realize every customer contact was an opportunity for making a sale. Not only could a customer's problem be solved, but additional services or products could be sold during the contact. With the telephone being the preferred point of contact for most customers, call centers became major priorities. The role of the customer service representative has been redefined to include customer retention and new sales. With the rise of new information technology, call center reporting applications allowed these departments to operate with more efficiency.

The Importance Of Reporting

One reason managers used to overlook customer service performance was that it was difficult to quantify the work being done. Other departments could be managed by looking at production volume, sales conversions or other statistics but measuring customer satisfaction is a tricky proposition.

Modern call center reporting allows managers to easily quantify the performance of a department's telephone communications. Monitoring important metrics like hold time, abandoned calls and average contact length allows an organization to analyze the customer service process and fine-tune operations to create a department that is efficient, cost effective, and provides strong customer satisfaction. As customer service representatives adopt sales and marketing tasks, these metrics can also be tracked so the overall performance of the team can be accurately evaluated.

It's All About Personal Service

Many companies hoped online solutions would eliminate the need for dedicated call centers. Computers happily work 24-hour shifts and never need time off. However while customers might be willing to use web applications for research or purchases, complain resolution demands the speed and service that can only come from a human being. Web chats are a valuable tool but most customers still prefer to resolve their problems over the telephone.

Balancing a customer's need for attention with an organization's need for a cost effective customer service solution is a difficult task for managers, but one made easier with the help of reporting applications. Call center reporting helps illustrate how the workflow is moving and ensure customers are being processed quickly, staff isn't overburdened and the organization is operating at an acceptable cost.

Customer service is the heart of modern business. Happy customers mean more business in the future while a disgruntled client can badly damage the company's reputation. An efficient call center is a critical part of a successful company.