Here are Tips to Create Effective Contact Center Scripts

When prospects, customers, or potential customers call your customer service, you want to make sure you're ready. Maintaining a conversation with them can be quite a challenge, but not when you use effective call scripts.

Call scripts present the foundation on which the conversation is built. Without a strong foundation, the interaction can't be successful. Effective call scripts need to show the caller that you're professional, have all the answers, and will solve their problem quickly.

If you want to improve your results, it is time to make some adjustments to the call script. The following tips aim to help you write an efficient script that can improve your customer service and build up your business.

Use a Conversational Language and Tone

One of the most common stumbling blocks for call scripts is stiff and artificial language. Call scripts that sound like marketing materials are aggressive and unwanted. The best way to approach writing a call script is by writing as you speak. What can help you is if you tape an improvised conversation with a prospect.

Another idea is to let an experienced agent with amazing communication skills receive and manage a call without a script. Observe that conversation and take notes on how it flows naturally.

Use the phrases, words, and questions that people use in everyday interaction. Find the balance between being approachable and respectful. That's the kind of conversation that will get people to stick around.

Be Direct

When you receive a call, you want to make sure that you start being helpful immediately. Otherwise, the caller will feel like you're wasting their time.

You need to:

• identify their problem/request/issue
• address it to show you've got it right
• go straight to the solution

Get to the point right from the beginning. Don't waste their time talking about anything other than the reason why they called.

Your caller’s thoughts will wander off if you use long sentences and paragraphs that beat around the bush. Organize the script in memorable, direct, and short chunks. That's how you'll show them they're in the right place.

Know Their Expectations

Sometimes you'll receive a call in which the customer expects you to do something that you simply can't achieve. Unrealistic expectations can often lead to unhappy or angry callers. This is why your call script needs to have a section that addresses this question. What do you do if a customer asks for something impossible?

Make sure to work on a script that will acknowledge their problems, but clearly explain to them why you can't solve the problem they're calling about. If you can, advise them on how or where to solve the problem. If you can't, make sure to apologize, but remain straightforward. Don't make any promises unless you can actually keep them.

Focus on the Benefits

The customer doesn't want to feel like your source of income; they want to feel understood. If you want them to grade your services as top notch, make the conversation about them.

Write the script in the customer-centric form. Focus on identifying the problems they face and present them with the appropriate solution. What you want to avoid is talking too much about your company, products, or services that the prospect didn't even call about.

Constantly Update the Script

Revise the previous conversations and single out the things that come up most often. Preparedness of phone agents is key for effectively receiving the calls. This is why updating the script through real-life examples, questions, and situations is so important.

As time passes and you gain more experience as a customer service agent, you'll learn more about the potential deal-breakers with your callers. Regular revision of calls can give you insight into what kind of responses you need to include in the script to provide the ultimate customer experience to every single customer that calls.

Test It Out

Before you make a final say on the new script, do a test run. Dedicate one whole day to receiving calls using your new script. Take notes and write down the success rate of each call that you receive. Then, compare your performance with the previous version of the script you've been using.

If your new script isn't making the impact you expected, edit the script some more by focusing on the main breaking points. The segments where the callers start losing interest or get annoyed are the segments that need the most attention.

Write Your Way to Success

With a well-written script on their hands, almost every customer service agent can successfully help the customer reach the goal they've called about or solve their problem. Apply the above-mentioned tips if you want to maximize the potential of your calls and ensure that you are approaching this challenge in the right way.