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Rating
Published
Tuesday February 21st 10am
Three Years Is Too Long To Wait
Customer Service
Data
Customer
Metrics
Statisticians have estimated that in a lifetime of 70 years, the average person spends at least three years waiting. Waiting is an inevitable and even necessary aspect of human life. We wait in line at the grocery store, for red lights to turn green, and for movie trailers to finally stop so we can see the movie we paid to see.
And we wait on hold.
Make a commitment to do your part today to reduce the amount of time your customers wait on hold.
12 Proven Ways to Reduce Customer Hold Times
- Expand your agents' authority to make decisions.
Customers detest waiting on hold while an agent tracks down a higher authority to make a simple decision.
- Create a robust on-line knowledge base agents can access quickly and easily.
The best way to get the resource used is to involve your agents in the design.
- Update the information in the knowledge base.
Agents won't use it if they can't trust the information to be accurate.
- Include the agent's efficient use of the on-line knowledge base as a basic requirement of their job.
- Coach agents on call control techniques to enable them to manage their customer interactions efficiently.
- Have zero tolerance for agents who put customers on hold so they can chitchat with their neighbors. (It happens!)
- Avoid relying on new agents to "learn on the job."
It's not fair to customers to sit on hold while an under-trained newbie turns to a co-worker or supervisor to get the right answer.
- Listen to your customers.
If your customer satisfaction surveys reveal a trend in complaints about having to hold too long when working with an agent, dig into the root causes.
- Have a sense of urgency yourself.
When you take an escalated call make sure you handle the interaction as quickly as possible.
- Train your agents to always give the customer the option to hold or to receive a call back.
Giving your customers a choice makes them feel more in control.
- Make sure that the ability to manage hold time during the call is included in agents' call quality criteria.
- Get internal departments to be more responsive.
Too often when an agent puts a customer on hold so they can ask another department a quick question, no one is available to help.
Reducing the amount of time your customers stay on hold will not only result in shorter handle times, but will make your customers more satisfied and your agents a lot happier.
Author:
Barbara Burke Principal, Barbara Burke & Associates, Inc. - Barbara has spent the last 25 years as a customer service consultant, trainer and motivational speaker. Recognized as an international expert and thought leader on employee engagement as a key driver of customer satisfaction and corporate profitability, she is passionate about helping customer service organizations to leverage their most important asset – their people. Barbara is the author of the popular modern-day fable about a customer service rep in a call center, The Napkin, The Melon & The Monkey.
Come see Barbara at the Contact Center Conference and Expo in Orlando from April 23-26. Barbara will lead sessions 701: Ban AHT & Reduce Your Metric Footprint, part of the Strategic Planning track, and session 203: Creating a Winning Service Culture Using a Multi-Track Approach: A Case Study , part of the Agent Hiring, Development, & Retention track.
2012© Barbara Burke. All rights reserved.
www.BarbaraBurke.com.