Scheduled Callback Technology Offers a Broad Array of Cost-Saving Benefits to Contact Centers

The ability to schedule agents in the contact center to avoid overstaffing and understaffing has obvious implications for the customer relationship. Understaffing means long hold times, rushed and burned out agents, mistakes and a lack of resolution to customer queries. Customers are forced off the phone quickly because agents are trying to keep up with an arbitrary average handle time limit. This, in turn, often leads to customers having to call back again. When they do, they’re frustrated and less loyal, and in the long run, these callbacks can cost a company quite a lot.

Costs and ineffective service aside, long hold times can be extremely damaging to a company. Customers today expect faster resolution than their parents’ or grandparents’ generation did. They’re used to instant gratification, and they believe that any company taking their money should be prioritizing them when they reach out for assistance. (They’re right.) The truth is, however, that not all contact centers will be able to answer customer calls within the sixty or so seconds customers allot to them to remain satisfied customers. This is where scheduled callback technology can be wildly compelling, both for the customer relationship and for the company’s bottom line.

In a recent blog post for Ameyo, Silky Sinha writes that implementing callback technology is one way companies can virtually eliminate call queues, hold times and angry customers. The technology has implications for the customer relationship, customer expectations, contact center scheduling and the company’s bottom line. Call abandonment can virtually disappear, first-call resolution rates can rise, and customers can feel their experience has been personalized, since the company is now obligated to adjust to the customer’s schedule rather than the other way around. It also helps agents become better prepared to handle a customer call.

“Upon receiving a callback request from a customer, the agent would be able to access all the caller’s information on his/her screen,” wrote Sinha. “They just have to simply click one button to get connected to the customer. This process saves a significant amount of time and effort of the agents leading to increased productivity as they no longer have to search their CRM to get the customer’s information and other relevant data.”

For companies that operate toll-free numbers, the savings that can be realized from not having customers on hold for long minutes can be significant, and companies can eliminate the inherent expenses that come with overstaffing to try and ensure that queues don’t get lengthy. From a multichannel standpoint, callback technology is also useful because it can enable companies to urge customers from more crowded channels such as telephone to channels with availability, such as Web chat. (This needs to be the customer’s choice, however.) The good news is that it’s a relatively simple technology to implement. From a cost savings and customer relationship saving standpoint, callback technology is one area where companies can get the most bang for their technology buck.