Theresults of a recent study of Contact Center Satisfaction Index provided by the CFI Group might surprise you, but we’re betting they probably won’t.
Quick -- guess what the study’s authors found to be the biggest frustration for customers? Yep, you got it -- the so-called “customer service process.” Improvements here, the study concludes, “will have a significant impact on customer loyalty, satisfaction.”
Here are some ways the study’s authors recommend improvements can be made to your customer service process:
Convenience of service hours. Customers were most frustrated by the lack of flexibility in contact center hours of operation. For a contact center it is a fine balance between maintaining center costs and maintaining the flexibility to employ after hour agents. A ready solution for this is to employ geographically dispersed agents to cover different time zones. Unfortunately with a lot of on premise systems it gets difficult to employ across geographical time zones. Employing remote agents from different time zones with a virtual call center is a huge step towards improving the customer service process.
Follow through on promised actions. Having an integrated CRM with follow-up options such as creating tasks and saving logs for further action is an absolute necessity for call centers. CRM integration along with call recording go a long way to ensure that no information is lost and supervisors have all the tools to ensure that prompt follow up action is taken.
Watch the amount of time needed to reach a rep. Average Speed to Answer is a key metric on which customers base their experience with your contact center. No one likes being on hold. No one. The faster customers’ calls are answered, the happier they are. Improve ASA with better queue management and simplifying your IVR.
David Sims is a contributing editor for TMCnet. To read more of David’s articles, please visit his columnist page. He also blogs for TMCnet here.Edited by Chris DiMarco