1. Use Interactive Voice Response (IVR)
Many of our clients’ customers call to resolve a variety of issues, and we often need to direct callers to call back during the next business day, without taking a message. If this scenario sounds familiar to you, consider utilizing an IVR! This allows you to direct customers to different groups of agents for issues with different service requirements, or to direct customers with a specific issue to call back when you will be available to assist them. This also helps you avoid frustrated customers who have reached a live person, only to be told that they are not able to assist them.
2. Play Custom Auto Greetings
While we strive to always answer our clients’ calls as quickly as possible, during periods of high or unexpected volume, there may be delays in answering the line. In order to take advantage of this, clients can use customized auto-greetings, or advertisements to communicate important messages to their customers while they are waiting.
3. Ensure You Are Getting The Information You Need (and only the information you need!)
To make the most of your call centre experience you will want to make sure that the time agents spend on your calls is adding value to your business… after all, you are paying for the time! Your call centre script should stick to collecting relevant details and information from your callers, and long greetings or closing phrases should be avoided if possible, in favour of something more succinct. Call centres will typically charge a fee for making changes to a programmed script, but shorter calls will translate into a positive ROI over time.
4. Eliminate Avoidable Calls
Do you often see familiar topics come up in the messages taken by your call centre? The answer is probably yes! For unavoidable issues, you can cut down on calls by adding the information to your website, playing the information on an auto-greeting for callers to hear prior their call being transferred to a live agent or utilizing an IVR to direct callers to a recording with the information. For avoidable calls, data and root cause analysis can allow you to pinpoint the causes of common issues experienced by your callers. By actioning solutions to these issues, you can increase your customer satisfaction, and decrease the number of calls going to your call centre.
5. Focus on First Call Resolution
A focus on first call resolution allows you to reduce the number of repeat callers to your phone lines, and saves you money. First call resolution can be achieved in two ways:
Provide the right information. Try to ensure that your call centre has all of the information they need to address callers’ questions and concerns. By making this information available, call centre agents will be able to address issues the first time a customer calls, making them less likely to call a second or third time. This also allows your call centre to feel more like an extension of your company to your callers, and less like a consolation prize when an agent answers the phone. You don’t need to boil the ocean and think of every single scenario, but having major topics covered is essential to efficient call-taking.
By working as a team with your call centre. Even if your call centre agents have all of the required information to answer your callers’ questions, you will still receive repeat callers if your on-call staff are not responding to or following the procedures that you have set up with your call centre. By ensuring that your on-call staff is informed of the procedures that the call centre agent is following, you will increase the likelihood that everyone working to service your customers is marching in the same direction, and that your customers are provided with a seamless experience, the first time they call.
If you would like to learn more about how you can utilize any of these tips to enrich your experience with Telelink, contact today at customerservice@telelink.ca