New Year, New Contact Centre Resolution
How to improve customer service in the contact centre with New Year’s resolutions.
As the New Year approaches, it’s never too early to begin thinking about some contact centre resolutions. The most common New Year resolutions to date involve weight loss and general self-improvement. While we’ll leave the weight loss to your personal life, self-improvement is always relevant, especially in an increasingly competitive market where customer service can make or break a company’s success. Here are four handy ideas for contact centre resolutions in the New Year:
1. Strive for First-Contact Resolution
First-Contact Resolution, or FCR, refers to the rate at which customers’ issues are resolved at first contact. This means the customer does not have to contact the company again for help and no follow-up on the company’s part is necessary. FCR is one of the most important metrics in determining the efficiency of a contact centre. High FCR commonly leads to high customer satisfaction rates as well as saves money by negating the need for multiple contacts with a single customer. Striving for first-contact resolution is an excellent way to ensure that your contact centre is as effective as possible. To achieve FCR, try these simple techniques:
- Analyze repeated contacts for patterns. By tracking and analyzing patterns in contacts across all channels – not only the phones – you may be able to determine the root cause of the need for repeated inquiries. Once a root cause is determined, contact centre managers can brief agents on how to handle the particular inquiry more efficiently, or a support team can work to improve self-service in the particular area. According to research by Oracle, over half of phone contacts have a self-service interaction before or after their phone call. By improving self-service, contact centres can cut down on repeated calls.
- Integrate technology infrastructure. This means leveraging customer information and allowing agents to access background data for each customer’s contact history. Rather than starting afresh each time the customer emails or gets on the phone with a new agent, integrate the information so that agents are aware of what the customer has already been through and what the inquiry involves. This way, agents are able to empathize with the customer and are better prepared to address the issue.
2. Request Customer Feedback
There is no one better to learn from than customers. While traditionally, only exceptionally pleased or exceptionally dissatisfied customers are likely to go out of their way to provide unsolicited feedback, by requesting a moment for feedback each time agents finish with a client, the contact centre can access a broader scope of positive and negative feedback that may provide insight on ways to tighten and improve customer service.
3. Offer Rewards
Converting a contact into a customer is difficult, and converting a customer into a long-term member of your client base is even trickier. Don’t underestimate the value of showing your customers that you value their business. Make your existing customers feel special by offering small benefits, like rebates, discounts or gifts. Be sure to inform your customers each time the company launches a new offer or product to let them know their business is a priority.
4. Cut Down on Hold Time
As calls queue up, no customer wants to wait on hold. In fact, putting clients on hold for even a couple of minutes can drive them to vent their frustrations online and gear your agents up for a frustrated phone call. Instead, cut down on hold time by giving a call-back option. This lets clients know that you appreciate and respect their time and provides a greater sense of relationship with the company. Additionally, you can direct customers towards self-service options if the inquiry is common or simple enough to be resolved without agent handling time. Automated self-service or even live chat with an agent if often greatly preferred over a direct phone call, saves time for the customer, and frees up agents for more involved inquiries.
By improving rates of FCR, pursuing feedback, offering customer benefits and reducing hold time, you can significantly improve customer satisfaction rates as well as agent handling time. Use the New Year as a motivation to revamp the contact centre’s approach to customer service. For more information on how to improve customer service in the New Year, download our free white paper.
