Shaun Vaughan explains how to alter your call-routing system to increase customer satisfaction.
If a customer needs your service (especially regarding a complaint), the last thing they need are barriers to your representative. Luckily, you can make a significant impact on customer service with your existing call-routing software by following these simple steps:
1. Get callers to the right person as quickly as possible
Using skills-based routing will ensure callers are connected to the right people, the first time, improving issue resolution results.
First Call Resolution (FCR) by phone can dramatically impact your customer’s perception of you and improve your ‘bottom line.’
2. All customers are not equal
Whether you categorise your customers by Gold, Silver and Bronze or Premium and Standard, some customers have higher value or importance to your business than others.
In some environments you might need to receive urgent or critical calls. These calls should receive a higher handling priority and be able to bypass other calls.
Modern call-routing technologies have the ability to prioritise calls, and implementing this will provide higher-value customers with a better calling experience.
3. Reduce the customer’s need to wait
Just as your time is valuable, so is the time of your callers. Queue-buster technology gives customers the option of receiving a call-back without their place being lost in the queue.
By offering your callers this option you also benefit from not losing the business as an abandoned call. Also, there are efficiencies to be gained as every call centre has daily fluctuations. This feature helps to even your agent’s workload.
4. Personalise your service where acceptable
In the past, some customers did not like their names being used when their call was answered, i.e. “Hello, Mr Jones, how can I help you today?” This stemmed from fear of what other information you might be holding about them.
This is certainly not the case today. Customers expect that you will know that a call is from them. Capture the caller’s CLI, greet them personally and ask them about their day. Building rapport helps to build long-lasting customer relationships.
5. Improve your caller’s waiting experience
For some organisations, an extended queuing time is unavoidable. If this is the case for you, don’t bore your callers. This will only lead to higher call abandon rates.
I have recently heard the saying “make the wait great”. In other words, if your callers have to wait, use the queue time wisely, because music on hold can be a way of enhancing the caller experience.
You can also give out helpful information by playing music with voice-over informational announcements, or interrupting the music to give information.
With thanks to Shaun Vaughan, Delivery Manager at Cirrus
Author: Megan Jones
Published On: 5th Mar 2014 - Last modified: 18th Sep 2019
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