What to Do if a Caller Asks You to Call Them Back on a Different Number

Whitney, one of our readers, asked:

“How do you handle if a caller asks to hang up and call them back on a different number?
For us, it’s usually switching from a landline to a mobile. It’s not for follow-up purposes, it’s during the initial call. Do you allow that or do you require them to call back on the appropriate number?”

So we asked the question of our readers. Here are all the answers that you need to know….

Recommend That the Customer Is Called Back

I always recommend that the customer is called back. It’s about the customer service at the end of the day and the CSAT gained from the service delivered. I would recommend that you capture this as a reason for outbound and that it sits within reporting to ensure you look at what scenarios this may be in. Helps look at opportunities to send links for online/digital troubleshooting/self-serve.

Dependent on the contact centre rules, I have heard many scenarios of customers being told it’s an inbound centre only and the customer must call back (usually a rule put in place if there are queues due to call demand).

Thanks to Steven

Schedule the Call

Depending on the system you are using, you should be able to schedule the call and allow the system to call back at the designated time using the preferred number of the customer.

Thanks to Marc

Call the Customer Back Immediately on the Number of Their Choice

We encourage our agents to call the customer back immediately on the number of their choice. The experience is what we strive for and having them call back into the queue is detrimental to that. While we are predominantly an inbound centre, we are flexible in that first call resolution.

Thanks to James

Call Back Without Call Loss

It’s a call back without call loss. That’s how I manage these cases. But the most important thing I see is that the customer agreed to the callback so it doesn’t detract from a good experience as much.

Thanks to Guillermo G

A Simple Request

Just do it… it’s a simple request. If there’s no cause for concern, and your company allows you to call out, then accommodate… Customer/People first 🙂

Thanks to Jeremy

Customer’s Behaviour

Good question, because if we accept all of our customers’ requests, even if they are perhaps not reasonable, it affects all of our customers’ behaviour.

In our contact centre we limit the advisor when have queue (+10 in queue) and ask the customer why: do they have any problem calling.

Thanks to Mohammad

Call the Customer Back

I would suggest calling the customer back, and possibly deep diving the reasons for the callback? If it’s a free phone number, it’s about driving customer awareness that they won’t be charged or updating your IVR system to advise consumers to contact via mobile etc.

Thanks to Seamus

One in a Million

That’s one in a million. Sorry, but we are in household surveys, and we do not get such requests all the time. But in sales, someone would only say this when their phone is dying. We generally ask for a different number then and we make sure while we make the call to the other number that the customer is still there on the called line or else it is a misfortune!!

Thanks to Pratit

It Depends Who Rang

A bit of both. If they were the ones who made an inbound call to the contact centre, we request they call us back on their different number at a time convenient to them and provide our operating hours. If we place an outbound call and they request we call them back on a different number, we follow that request and call them back on the number they provide.

Thanks to Angela

Other articles on callbacks

• Managing Callbacks in the Call Centre
• Everything You Need to Know About Callback Technology