Call Scripting Is Outdated

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Paul White looks at why call scripting is being replaced with more flexible call guides.

Traditionally, call centres have relied on detailed, pre-defined scripts that agents would read from to answer a customer enquiry. However, there is much discussion today whether this approach is outdated and call centres should move towards more flexible call guides – or structured knowledge bases – for the agent to easily find the right information and present it in a more natural way.

Conversations with customers don’t always go the way the agent expects them to, with dialogue often changing direction quickly or customers raising questions the agent hasn’t dealt with before. This is when they need instant access to information to help them with the enquiry in some form of knowledge base, scripting or call guide to assist them in their response.

Agents often have to read lots of text to find the right information

This debate escalates from recent criticism of rigid call scripting within the industry when agents are often having to read through lots of text to find the right information. Or, even worse, they end up reading irrelevant information as they are following the script word for word, sounding more like a robot than a human.

It is said that the majority of customers call a call centre if they have a more complex enquiry and therefore expect and normally need an agent who can provide a solution through knowledge and personalisation.

This approach therefore has a negative impact on the customer, as quite often it is noticeable when an agent is reading something rather than building rapport and providing genuine advice. From an agent perspective, this is a time-consuming and often ineffective way to deal with customers, resulting in disgruntled agents who often fail to meet their targets and call centres suffering from low retention.

Scripts can be useful for less complex enquiries

While scripts can be useful for less complex enquiries that can easily be answered without having to search for additional information, they often do not work for more complex queries as they need more of a consultative response. As a result, many call centres are moving away from this more rigid approach to scripting for agents (apart from where necessary for legal and contractual details), and moving towards a more flexible guided call flow.

This is achieved through providing agents with an outline of what needs to be covered in the conversation, depending on topic, to ensure the agent is asking all the right questions and completing the required processes to complete a customer interaction to specified customer service levels.

This more flexible approach to call guiding allows the agent to add an element of personalisation and their own expertise, which is important in most contact centres where customer enquiries all differ to some extent.

To support the agent in this more flexible approach to customer service, a knowledge base can be a dynamic resource for the contact centre agent to use when further information is needed to answer the query.

With the knowledge base directly accessible from the agent desktop, a free text search can allow them to instantly look for topics, related articles, compliance scripts and FAQ-style responses to help respond to the customer. Relevant literature can be attached to topics for the contact centre agent to browse or send to the customer for further information.

There is a need for simplicity, no matter what approach you take

Paul White

Although there is much debate in the industry about the best method of call scripting for agents, it all very much depends on the type of products/services the business provides, as well as the agents’ experience and knowledge and the type of enquiry they are dealing with.

One of the key elements, no matter what scripting approach a business takes, is that the script, guide or knowledge base is easily accessible through the agent desktop. This will avoid the agents having to search through multiple systems (or even worse, paper!) in order to respond to the customer efficiently and effectively.

With thanks to Paul White at mplsystems

Author: Megan Jones

Published On: 11th Mar 2015 - Last modified: 18th Dec 2018
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2 Comments
  • Does anyone have examples they would be willing to share? Our call center has to absorb WAY too much information early on – in fact, we just recently split their training to help resolve information overload for new employees. I am also wanting to incorporate call workflows, with example language, as a training resource. I was thinking about having two versions of each: 1 for brand new employees that need scripting examples and 1 for tenured employees that just need a reminder.
    Thoughts?

    Stephanie 13 Mar at 20:24
  • I completely agree with most of the article above. However we forget that people learn in different ways and while the call guide is the right approach we need to ensure the right messages jump off the page and can be easily digested. Guides in my opinion are only one third part of the journey. It’s also about the right people with the right tools.

    Kevin Sidhu 5 Aug at 23:37