Call Center Management Featured Article
Preparing for the December Onslaught in the Contact Center
The month of December is key for many businesses, particularly companies that cater to consumers. Many organizations make the lion’s share of their sales this month, so it’s critical for them to get customer support right at this time. If they don’t, they risk losing business to competitors or ensuring that first-time customers become last-time customers.
Customers often need more help during the holidays. They may be shipping items to third parties, or they might be picking out products outside their own realm of knowledge, since they are gift buying. They may have concerns about returns and exchanges, or be unsure of sizes. For whatever reason, it has been estimated by eConsultancy research that 83 percent of shoppers will need help to complete a purchase.
Beef Up the Self-Service
In a recent blog post for chat solutions provider Userlike, Pawel Grabowski writes that the fact that shoppers need help doesn’t necessarily mean that they need live help. In fact, the same eConsultancy survey found that more than half of customers would prefer to find their own answers. This means that b-to-c companies should be striving to improve their self-service technologies. This may mean revamping the Web site’s FAQ section, ensuring that the interactive voice response (IVR) is helpful and usable, and – since a lot of e-commerce today is transacted via the mobile channel – ensure that customers on digital devices have options, such as an easy-to-use mobile app. No matter how robust your self-service is, of course, you can’t skip a strong live help presence, but it can help take some of the pressure off agents who may otherwise spend too much of their time fielding routine questions.
Ensure Agents Are Empowered with Data
Before you set agents lose on your customers, ensure they have everything they need to service customers. For starters, this should mean agents are properly trained to use all the applications at their disposal. It should also mean that agents have a quick path to the right answers instead of having to juggle eight, nine or more applications awkwardly. Desktop integration solutions that allow for better workflow on the desktop can eliminate the need for duplicate data entry and can keep confusion to a minimum.
Consider Changing Agent Skill Sets Around
Do you have agents in the contact center who are experts on your shipping process? Those who understand the products intimately including trouble-shooting? Agents who are pros at offering up patience and understanding to confused customers? Those who don’t mind acting as “personal shoppers” for callers who don’t know what they want? During the holidays, customers may have different needs than during the rest of the year. Consider temporarily shifting your skilling to accommodate this time of year.
Monitor Time to Resolution
Customers value speed and ease over any other consideration. Keep an eye on first-contact resolution and hold times, and ensure the metrics are staying robust. If they’re not, consider adding extra shifts and paying workers overtime (they may welcome it during the holidays). Also consider cross-training workers from other departments to handle some contact center work, or using home-based agents.
When early January comes around, you will have done one of two things: impressed potential new customers or offered them a horror story that will be sure to keep them away as future customers.
Edited by Stefania Viscusi