3rd Party Remote Call Monitoring Feature
May 27, 2015
Careful Monitoring Can Head Off Bigger Problems
By TMCnet Staff
Most of us have experienced it – spending time on the phone to cancel a service we no longer need. In some cases, we reach an agent able to quickly and smoothly complete the cancelation. In other situations, we have to jump through a number of different hoops and talk to a variety of people before we think we’ve canceled the service. We’re not really sure, just happy to finally get off the phone.
It’s not the ideal situation to apply workforce management, but it’s still needed. No manager wants to think about the proper way to handle the unhappy customer who wants to take their business elsewhere. In too many situations, the agent pushes too hard to try and prevent the churn. In the process, they push the customer away to the point they won’t ever come back.
Take the Comcast (News - Alert) story that’s been circulating for the past year. A customer wanted to cancel his service and instead of getting what he needed out of the interaction with the company, he instead endured a 20-minute conversation with a call center agent who repeatedly badgered him about his choice. What seemed like a desperate attempt to prevent churn turned into a PR nightmare. You see – the call center agent isn’t the only party with the ability to record the call. The customer had the same technology and captured every abusive word.
From there, the conversation went viral as the customer took advantage of the opportunity to share the recording on social media. Comcast did eventually offer the customer (former customer, that is) a public apology and promised to investigate the situation, but the reality is the situation should have never occurred. Workforce management should address the possibilities and prevent abusive interactions altogether.
To ensure the proper approach to customer interactions, call center management must implement proper training and quality monitoring. Agents should try to keep a customer, but there are scripts to follow and lines that should never be crossed. If all calls are recorded and monitored for performance, the agent going off on the customer is much less likely, especially if those calls are scored for performance and shared with the agent.
It can also be effective to use speech analytics to identify specific elements in conversation that indicate the potential to save an account and the customer who has no intention of changing his or her mind. Agents trained to identify cues on both sides are better equipped to save accounts now and preserve the potential for the return customer later.
The point is, you can’t save all customers. But, with the right approach to workforce management, you’re better equipped to handle all types of interactions with the best possible outcomes.
Edited by Rory J. Thompson