25 Ways to Reduce Customer Effort

Our readers share their advice on reducing Customer Effort in the contact centre.

1.    Get everyone focused on getting things right first time

Ask your staff what their ideas are and get everyone focused on getting things right first time.

With thanks to Michael

2.    Ask employees to identify procedures that get in the way of good service

Ask employees to identify policies and procedures that get in the way of providing good service.

Then do your best to update, modify or eliminate as many as you can.

With thanks to Susie

3.    Explain the Customer Effort Score to your teams

Sell the Customer Effort Score to your teams and explain the importance of its role within the contact centre.

You should also implement incentives in order to motivate your teams to deploy best practice.

With thanks to Alexandra

4.    Test all processes on your granny

Test all processes and technology on your granny… if she likes it, you’re onto a winner!

With thanks to Michael

5.    Train multi-skilled agents to stop your customers being passed around

Use multi-skilled agents, so customers get everything done with one person, rather than getting transferred around.

With thanks to Sanjaya

6.    Introduce personal queues for your agents

We have just introduced personal queues to agents (the customer adds in the 4-digit number that the agent has given them from a previous call).

Calls then go directly to that agent. It’s seamless and seems to be working really well.

With thanks to Umar

7.    Make customer service a part of all job descriptions

Make customer service a part of all written or verbal job descriptions, no matter what the function or level.

In hiring interviews, orientation and on-the-job training, emphasise that everyone is in the customer-service business. You should also make sure that all employees understand how they directly or indirectly touch the customer.

With thanks to Susie

8.    Involve your customers

Include your customers in development and user testing, and don’t just assume what makes it easy.

With thanks to Sarah

9.    If you foresee a problem, proactively offer a solution

If you foresee a problem, you should proactively offer a solution.

That way a future customer contact is prevented and the customer effort is reduced.

With thanks to Karen

10.    Take immediate action on all survey feedback

Take direct and immediate action on all survey feedback to make sure you are always improving areas of your service.

With thanks to Fiona

11.    Tell your callers at the start of every call that there will be a survey

Tell your callers at the start of every call that there will be an end-of-call survey that will ask whether or not their issue has been resolved.

This signposts the focus on first contact resolution (FCR) and emphasises how important it is to your organisation.

With thanks to Alex

12.     Have customer behaviour at the heart of your multi-channel strategy

Have customer behaviour, not technology, at the heart of your multi-channel strategy.

With thanks to Duncan

13.    Use customer feedback to create a first-class customer experience

Use customer feedback to continue to strive towards first-class customer experience.

With thanks to Karen

14.    Improve your IVR by integrating voice analytics

Improve your IVR for the consumer by integrating things such as voice analytics.

With thanks to Jacob

15.    Increase your number of inbound channels

Increase the amount of inbound avenues which your customers can use to reach you.

With thanks to Sarah

16.    Immediately alert your entire customer base to any identified faults

Make it standard protocol to alert your entire customer base to any identified faults (flagged up by other customers) regarding the tools, products or services used.

With thanks to Alexandra

17.     Provide agents with an “Empowerment Toolkit”

Provide agents with an “Empowerment Toolkit” that allows them to go outside of standard process in order to appease any problematic customers.

With thanks to Rachel

18.     Plan in advance for peaks in contact levels

We have a calendar of contact peaks, and meet with business stakeholders in advance to plan for this.

This includes anticipating FAQs across channels, so that we can address them through our website, social media and marketing.

With thanks to Sarah

19.     Make sure phone responses are giving the same answer as your email

Marry your customer responses to make sure phone responses are giving the same answer as your email responses.

With thanks to another one of Call Centre Helper’s readers

20.     Understand the failure points within your organisation

Use the Customer Effort Score to understand the failure points within your organisation.

With thanks to Paul

21.     Provide translations of all the FAQs on the support page

Customers want to find the information they need in the language they speak – so translations of all the FAQs on the support page could help reduce the Customer Effort Score.

With thanks to Alexandra

22.     Measure ‘easy’ scores by channel, overall and by advisor

Measure ‘easy’ scores by channel, overall and by advisor too.

You should also gather verbatim reports, and see it as insight you can take direct action on.

With thanks to Fiona

23.     Do the right thing every time

Do the right thing, at the right time, every time!

With thanks to Rebecca

24.     Listen and act on what your customers and agents are telling you

Listen and act on what your customers and agents are telling you about your system and services.

With thanks to Teresa

25.     Get a third party to mystery shop your service

Get a third party to mystery shop your service and experience to get a true view of what it’s like to be your customer.

Then mystery shop your competition for a benchmark.

With thanks to Jason

How do you reduce customer effort in your contact centre?