11 Effective Ways to Unlock Call Center Cost Savings

Call centers are at the forefront of business operations, from closing clients to resolving queries. Call center agents work tirelessly to bridge the gap between businesses and their ideal audiences. A streamlined operation requires a multifold approach, hiring top talent, providing resources, training, and cost management. Call center call reduction strategies that are effective are increasingly becoming a necessity for businesses that seek to optimize resources without compromising the quality of their service.

Cost management is the most challenging part of call center operations. The average cost of running a sustainable call center operation is between $6-$50 per hour, depending on labor cost and location. Many call centers struggle due to the rising cost of hiring employees, technology, automation, and infrastructure.

Call centers can cut costs by hiring remote teams, streamlining call strategies, using VoIP technology, and automations. In addition, Employee management software can help them track leaves and performance to provide real-time updates that help managers in making data-driven strategies.

This blog will help you find 11 effective ways to cut call center costs and maximise savings.

How is Call Center Cost Calculated?

Call center cost depends on various categories that are necessary for effective operations. The highest percentage, 60–70%, is agents’ salaries and benefits, including wages, bonuses, and medical insurance.

Then, technology and infrastructure expenses involve computers, headsets, call management software, telephone systems, internet services, cloud services, and AI solutions. Training and development expenses are substantial for recruitment, induction, and ongoing agent training.

Management and administration costs include supervisor salaries and quality assurance teams. Other expenses, such as utilities, rentals, and office upkeep, as well as charges paid to outsourced partners or independent agents.

Read more: What Is Call Center Management

Effective Way to Maximize Call Center Cost Saving

Call centers can use the following effective ways to cut costs and maximize their performance and customers satisfaction.

1. Use a VoIP System

Transitioning to a VoIP system significantly lowers call center expenses, as regular phone lines can be expensive with heavy call volumes. VoIP uses the internet for calls, reducing costs by 40–50% with features such as call recording, video calls, and mobile access without extra fees.

Its versatility enables agents to work from home and easily change the number of lines. VoIP eliminates expensive hardware maintenance costs, which is a perfect setup for small and large call centers.

2. Providing Regular Training

Constant agent training can reduce operating costs. Trained agents quickly and effectively resolve issues, with studies showing up to 20% savings in customer service costs. Better knowledge reduces escalations and call repeats.

Trained agents increase retention, reducing turnover expenses. Spending money on workshops and webinars maintains the team trained, maximizing call center efficiency, and conserving resources.

3. Hire a Remote Team

Employing a remote workforce for your call center saves considerable money by avoiding office space and utilities, saving around $11,000 per year per remote worker. This method also provides access to a larger pool, usually at lower salary costs.

Additionally, remote work creates better employee satisfaction through flexibility, resulting in lower turnover and recruitment expenses. They can employ effective communication tools and cloud software to optimize cost savings without compromising service quality.

4. Improve Self-Service Facility

Customers are increasingly opting for self-service solutions to resolve problems. Improved options such as FAQs, knowledge bases, and AI chatbots can dramatically reduce call volumes, with 81% trying to solve issues before reaching live agents.

Companies can deflect incoming calls and free agents to deal with complicated issues, keeping staffing requirements to a minimum and reducing costs by providing good self-service. This also increases customer satisfaction and enhances the overall experience.

5. Use AI and Automation

AI and automation transform call center savings by using chatbots, virtual assistants, and automated workflows to perform mundane activities such as answering questions without manual help.

This can reduce operational expenditure, so live agents can focus on complex cases, thus raising productivity and customer satisfaction. AI runs 24/7, enhancing efficiency at lower labor and infrastructure costs.

6. Reduce Average Call Handling Time

Saving money in a call center requires shortening the average call duration. Longer calls result in fewer customers served and higher expenses. Improved scripts, training, and CRM systems can cut Average Handling Time (AHT) by 10-15%.

Small decreases in handling time can create substantial savings. Prioritizing first-call resolution and transparency in communication reduces AHT.

7. Streamline Call Routing Strategies

Efficient routing takes calls to the correct agents, increasing first-call resolution and up to 25% savings on handling costs. IVR, skill-based, or AI routing improves efficiency and customer satisfaction with smooth operations and substantial savings.

8. Use a Script-based Solution for Better Objection Handling

Scripts assist in handling customer objections, enhancing call efficiency, and raising first-call resolution rates. Good scripts reduce operating expenses, minimize repeat calls, and ought to be updated periodically, depending on customer feedback, for maximum performance.

9. Utilize Cloud-based Technology to Cut Costs

Cloud migration of call center operations can be very cost-cutting, saving as much as 35% of costs. In contrast to the old systems that demand a lot of capital investment, cloud solutions enable paying only for what you consume with simple scalability.

They improve remote team support, disaster recovery, and data protection. Other advantages include real-time reporting, analytics, and integration with business applications, increasing efficiency without heavy IT costs or system upgrades.

10. Automated Repetitive Task

Each minute that agents waste on manual processes is money wasted. Automating mundane work, like ticket generation and feedback capture, improves productivity by 20–25%. This means more calls can be handled and fewer hiring requirements.

Automation eliminates human mistakes, increasing accuracy and customer experience. Software such as CRM auto-logging and chatbots saves hours, resulting in substantial cost reductions and higher staff satisfaction.

11. Use Employee Management Software

Handling schedules, performance tracking, and shift planning manually is inefficient and expensive. Workforce management software can cut overtime expenses by 15–20% by forecasting call volumes and aligning staffing.

Read more: Call Center Screen Monitoring

Leverage real-time data to automatically adjust schedules based on current demands, ensuring sufficient staffing and equitable shift allocation, and improving employee satisfaction.

Bonus: Employees in call centers require optimal computers and laptops to work smoothly and handle customer interactions without any technical disturbance. Therefore, regular system audits are important and common to detect vulnerabilities and inefficiencies in company-wide devices. These audits, if done manually, can consume a lot of time and money for the enterprise. Use a free workforce system audit tool to check the health of the software and hardware of computers across the organization. Regular audits will help managers to allocate IT budgets effectively.

Call Center Cost Reduction Made Easy with wAnywhere

wAnywhere is a one-stop platform that offers employee monitoring software and AI compliance tracking tools to help call centers cut cost, optimize productivity, and boost ROI—all with a simple installation process.

Whether your team is working in remote, hybrid, or on-site setup, wAnywhere can help in the followings:

Prevents non-compliance penalties through automated policy enforcement

Avoid heavy legal fines, legal issues, and reputational damage by implementing wAnywhere’s AI-powered real-time detection features such as PII masking, facial recognition, and multiple person detection to ensure that your agents follow compliance rules at every moment during work.

Cuts down manual audit and supervision costs with real-time AI monitoring

Save budget spent on manual audits and ensuring clean desk policy by automating the entire auditing process. Instead of hiring dedicated staff for compliance checks and managerial work, monitor and flag compliance and non-compliance activities with wAnywhere. This helps businesses to take proactive corrective measures, reduce operational and revenue loss.

Accelerates incident investigations with AI-generated audit trails and visual logs

When there is any issue, pre-recorded audit data like screen captures and access logs make it easy to trace the source. This significantly reduces time and money spent on internal investigations.

Identifies unproductive behaviors and idle time, helping optimize agent performance

Know how your agents spend time during work, from login to logout. Monitor their activities, idle time, breaks, attendance, performance, and output in real-time, enabling managers to lead their teams with data-driven strategies and cost-efficient operations.

Enables better workforce allocation through real-time productivity insights

With in-depth workforce analytics, identify overstaffing and under-utilization of resources. Know how many staff you need for smarter work allocation and avoid overspending.

Conclusion

As a leader, you can enable call center cost reductions by applying the effective methods we have discussed above, without having a negative impact on your operations and output. Using methods such as automation, agent training, using remote teams, and adapting to scripts for better resolution. Implementing these strategies can help them boost efficiency and customer satisfaction without breaking their banks.

Read more: Strategies To Improve Call Canter Productivity