Did you know that waiting on hold and not being able to get through to an agent are the single most common complaints made about contact centres - according to a recent survey of contact centre customers by Choice magazine?
Did you know also that, for most contact centres, one out of every three inbound calls came from a customer calling back because their issue had not been properly resolved?
Improving first call resolution rates by just one percent could save the average contact centre $276,000 per year in operating costs, and increase customer satisfaction ratings. So here are some tips to help you reduce call waiting times and first call resolution rates.
Firstly, offer a callback. During peak periods, why not give customers the option to request a callback when call volumes have decreased? You can instantly cut call volumes while delighting your customers by going the extra mile!
Secondly, make sure you offer customers a range of channels through which they can contact you. By providing email, web chat, SMS, self-help and other channels, you decrease the number of people who call in.
Third, understand your call arrival patterns – use reports, statistics and other data to build a detailed, low-level picture of when call volumes spike, and when they decrease. Workforce optimisation software is the best-practice method for dealing with forecasting and scheduling.
To get more customer issues resolved on the first call, make sure your agents are truly engaging with customer issues. Coaching and training can help to make sure that your staff understand and deal with customer enquiries properly.
If you want to improve something, first you need to measure it. Make sure you are measuring first call resolution rates from the customer’s point of view using post-call surveys and other tools, as well as using internal measures such as reports and data analysis.
Finally, empower your agents to really deal with customers’ issues on the call. Make sure they have access to a knowledgebase, customer relationship management applications and other tools – preferably integrated into the contact centre application to minimise multitasking.
First call resolution rates and waiting times are two of the most important determinants of customer satisfaction, but there is more to ensuring a good overall customer experience. Next week we’ll offer some tips to help you achieve this.
At Premier Technologies we’ve implemented solutions to these and other common contact centre challenges to ensure that you can achieve contact centre best practice, improve customer experience and build customer satisfaction. Call us to find out more.