A man wants to build a house so he buys a hammer, nails and lumber, stores them in his garage and then wonders why the house still isn't built six months later. Or maybe he starts randomly nailing pieces of wood together, cobbling together a crude hut that leaks in the rain and collapses in the first stiff wind of the season. This scenario sounds ridiculous, and yet it is exactly how many businesses approach call center software purchases. Make a plan, and your new contact center will be a sturdy and magnificent edifice, rather than a tumbledown shack.

Start At The End

The first step in building a house is drawing up a blueprint that depicts the finished product. Building a contact center works the same way. If you don't know what you want from your call center software, how can you expect it to help you?

What do you want from your revitalized contact center? One company might want shorter hold times and higher caller satisfaction. Another could emphasize increased revenues by using customer service calls as sales opportunities. Other goals could include saving money, reducing call burden on overworked agents, or transitioning to a more flexible remote agent system.

Put your goals in concrete terms. Rather than saying "shorter hold queues," try "average hold times of under two minutes and maximum hold times of ten minutes, to be achieved within six months."

Chart A Path

Construction agencies plan out home construction, making sure each phase happens in a certain order. You don't want the plumbing crew coming in after the floor tile has been laid down since they will just have to tear up the floor to put in the drainage system.

Document the transition to the new call center software. Many processes will stay the same, but others will change. Will these changes occur all at once, or be phased in over time? For example, if messages to agents are currently sent through third-party messaging systems or paper memos, when will you transition to using the call center software for agent alerts?

Set up benchmarks so you can track progress to the goals set previously. This is why it's important to put goals in concrete terms. Determine who will measure progress and how it will be reported.

Find The Right Technology

Now that you know what your goals are and how you will get there, you can start looking at call center software to assist you on the journey. Although IT personnel will need to be involved, the decision shouldn't be completely in their hands anymore; it should be completely in the call center's hands. Balancing the technological capabilities of the company's IT resources with the needs of the contact center will ensure you find a solution that benefits everyone.

Call center software will benefit the agents, department and company for a long time. Plan it correctly up front, and you will reap the benefits for years.