The Kenyan contact center market is one of the fastest growing in Africa and offers great potential for businesses looking to expand their operations. Kenya’s population has been growing at a rapid rate, with over 51 million people currently residing there.
As commerce in Kenya is evolving with each passing day, Kenyans require more out of the businesses they interact with . This automatically means that African timing can not be the slogan of your business. Kenyans want timely responses and customer support around the clock. This means that your business should consider using a contact center.
What is a contact center?
A contact center is a centralized location in which customer interactions are managed. Contact centers serve the primary goal of making customer service, technical support and sales assistance efficient and effective.
Difference between a Contact Centre and a Call Centre
Contrary to popular belief ,as much as contact centers and call centers share similar qualities they have one major distinguishing factor. A call center uses one channel which is phone while a contact center uses a multitude of channels such as phone calls , emails, web collaborations, web chats and social media interactions. The key underlying Technology behind a contact center is automatic call distribution, interactive voice responses, outbound dialers and computer-telephony integrations.
Benefits of having a call center for your Kenyan Business
As call centers are becoming popular in Kenya it is good to know why most businesses are choosing to consider a call center;
Having a singular view of the customer despite multiple channels
As stated previously a call center can be accessed through a multitude of channels. This can seek to be an avenue for a business owner to understand their customer better because they can collect data from a variety of channels and input that data into one record. In the long run you get serve your customer better and beat your Kenyan competition.
Customer engagement
When a business has multiple avenues to communicate and interact with their customers proactively they end up building engagement with that customer and inevitable build trust between the business and the customer.
Brand Image
Your brand is what other people say when you are not in the room. In Kenya brand image is everything and can take a business to heights it could only dream of. Contact centers can propel this growth. If your business is interacting proactively with each customer at their various touch points and understand the various changes and questions a customer might be having, it can go a long way in helping you build a customer friendly organization.
Fast and efficient customer support
Two heads are definitely better than one. This means that you can respond to a customer through the cannel they are using in the moment and they don't have to wait till they can access your business through the phone. They will be forever grateful that they did not have to lite to the hold music for twenty minutes.
Better campaigns
it goes without saying that the more you understand your customer the better you can market to them. There is nothing a Kenyan loves more than being understood and a call center will definitely put a business on top of their game.
How to set up your contact center
The steps:
Identify your market.
Research and understand the Kenyan contact center business industry.
Recruit the right staff for your contact center.
Choose the right location for your contact center.
Determine your KPIs (Key performance indicators).
Let us understand these steps better.
1. Identify your market
Before starting your business, it is important to identify your target market. You need to understand what type of customers you want to attract, the size of their budget and other factors such as location or gender. You should also identify your competitors and see how they are performing in the industry. For example, if you are going into the banking sector as a contact center agent then you need to look at how different banks have been doing over time as well as analyze their strengths and weaknesses.
You will then need to identify the needs of these potential clients so that when they call in with a problem or question they are quickly resolved even before they hang up! The goal here is to keep them happy so that they continue using us rather than going elsewhere which could result in losing money fast! The last thing anyone wants after all is having lost more money than was ever made during this particular transaction period!
2. Research and understand the Kenyan contact center business industry
The first step in setting up a contact center is to research and understand the Kenyan contact center business industry. This includes:
Understanding the market, the competition, and the customers;
Understanding industry trends;
Understanding legal requirements;
Understanding regulations;
Understanding business environment;
Labor laws;
3. Recruit the right staff for your contact center
Hiring the right employees is critical to the success of a contact center. When hiring, make sure that you consider the following factors:
The applicant’s qualifications and experience. It is important that you hire candidates who have relevant experience in contact centers and telephone sales.
Their personality traits, such as their ability to interact with clients and how well they can communicate on the phone.
Their motivation levels and ambitions for their careers within your company or industry sector. You may also have to consider whether they are willing to relocate if necessary (for example, if there was a need for them to work from another branch).
4. Choose the right location for your contact center
You should be able to find a suitable location in a matter of days, but it's important to make sure you choose the right one. You will want your contact center to be within reasonable distance from the city center, and from the airport if that is where your customers are based. It's also preferable for them to be within reasonable distance from main highways and train stations so that employees can get there easily.
5. Determine your KPIs (key performance indicators)
Setting up KPIs is not complicated; it’s just a matter of identifying some measurable goals that help track how effectively your agents serve clients and businesses alike. Your KPIs could include:
How many customer complaints did we receive?
What was our average customer service response time?
How many sales leads did we get per day?
Conclusion
The Kenyan contact center market is one of the fastest growing in Africa and offers great potential for businesses looking to expand their operations. Kenya’s population has been growing at a rapid rate, with over 51 million people currently residing there. In addition to this, the country has become known as an emerging market in terms of economic growth and development. Hence making the need for contact centers essential to the longevity of your business.
Last updated
June 12, 2024
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