Call Center Management Featured Article
Keeping Customers Without Keeping Them Waiting
When people reach out to contact centers, they typically have something specific they’re trying to accomplish. And they typically want to make the call, work with an agent to find a solution or do a transaction, and then move on with their lives. So, when those callers can’t reach human beings within what they consider a reasonable time, they may become frustrated, hang up, and even worse – go to the competition.
That’s why – in this day and age of the impatient consumers – businesses need to figure out new and better ways to make their customers’ lives easier. Callback solutions and virtual queuing can allow them to do that.
The typical call center model involves people dialing in, receiving a welcome message, and then being presented with an interactive voice response menu. The IVR than channels the callers into a call queue so they can wait for the most appropriate or the next available agent.
How long they wait can be decided by a wide variety of factors. That includes how much call traffic the center is receiving at that particular point in time. Of course, it also depends upon the staffing levels and call handle times.
So call center operators typically have to make the tough decision of whether to pay more agents and provide customers with faster access to humans, or whether to save on staffing and require callers to ensure longer hold times.
Of course, this is an age-old challenge for call centers. And forecasting can help to more accurately guesstimate how to do call center staffing. But forecasting only goes so far.
Callback solutions and virtual queuing is an added step call centers can take to allow callers to keep their place in line without having to hold the line. That way, they can input their request for help, hang up, and have someone return their call when an agent is available.
And that can help improve customer satisfaction, lessen customer frustration, make more efficient use of call center resources, and reduce average abandonment rates.
Edited by Mandi Nowitz