It can be difficult to know when your business needs an IT call centre. IT departments usually adapt to the realities of the corporate structures. That can make it difficult to identify the need for a call centre. Calls are handled by reception, sales people or account managers and sent to IT as needed.

So, call volume is key to making a decision to set-up a call centre. The extreme example is, if all your office, sales and account people are receiving IT support calls, you need an IT support centre.

But where is the line between the clear need in the example above, versus adding unnecessary overhead? To find out, it can help to understand all the advantages an IT call centre can offer. Advantages that can be enjoyed for both external and internal IT support calls.

Higher Customer Satisfaction & Brand Reputation

Imagine the difference for your customers, external and internal, of having a courteous, trained IT call-centre professional answer their calls, versus someone who isn’t IT savvy or who has too many IT support issues on their hands. A bad customer service experience can reflect poorly on your brand, regardless of your product quality. One more point about brand reputation, simply having an IT call centre reflects positively on your brand.

More Efficient Use of IT Support Time

You pay a lot to find, hire, train and maintain skilled IT support people. But if they are on the frontline of IT support calls, they may spend an inordinate amount of time listening to angry customer complaints. IT call centres, staffed by people who can answer basic customer questions, and qualify the calls that are sent to IT. That way, your costly IT staff spend more time working specifically on IT issues.

Increase Sales, Lower costs

When you add up the benefits of increased customer satisfaction, improved brand reputation and more efficient use of IT time, you can see some of the bottom-line benefits of an IT call centre.

• Higher sales due to return customers and word-of-mouth brand advocacy
• Lower costs due to more efficient use of skilled staff time, faster processing of support calls and less administration required

If you found this post helpful, check out our recent article What to Do Before Calling Technical Support.