1. A very high percentage of outbound calls land up at an answering
machine. Leaving standard messages on the answering machine is routine
and takes a lot of user's time.
This task can be allocated to a computer -- an automated message
delivery will drastically reduce the call time. In certain cases where
the customer decides to pick up the call, the computer can seamlessly
give the control to the Customer Service Agent (CSA).
2. Most calls are transferred to another CSA one reason or another.
These calls are typically routed through a regular 1-800 number. Each
transfer takes between 45 seconds and 2 minutes and this frustrates the
customer. Some CSAs use this time for documentation by gaming the called
system manipulating their placement in the queue. This helps CSAs to
gain official work time. Customers also loose valuable time as the CSAs
need to tell the called CSA about the manner in the customer was
verified, the account number (or identity information) of the customer,
and the reason for the transfer. The called CSA then starts with the
routine "hello" that again frustrates the customer.
Find out customer queries that are regularly transferred and ensure that
one CSA can answer all queries. This will enhance the customer
experience and save expensive call costs. If the call must be
transferred then ensure that:
a. The call bypasses IVR menu tree. This will ensure that the CSA
doesn’t have to key in choices.
b. The customer verification information is passed transparently to the
transferred CSA.
c. The transferred calls take precedence over the customers that are
waiting now. This reduces CSAs idle time and reduces double queue waits
for callers.
3. Organizations try to ensure that CSAs document everything that
happened during the call. CSAs, on the other end don't want to be
punished for not documenting. This ensures that whatever actions CSAs
take using the system, they also document that. This documentation takes
extra time, the CSA needs to remember what actions were taken (some are
forgotten if the call was long).
Document only what was talked with the customer. Don't document the
actions that were taken using the computer (the computer already knows
about it!). The computer can automatically document this information for
the next CSA to see. By doing all this considerable amount of effort and
time will be saved.
4. Most customer service software is still Unix-based (remember Green
Screens?). To navigate to a particular piece of information, the CSA
must recall one of about eight hundred codes and key it in correctly.
All this must be learned over three months.
Drastically reduce learning time by providing software application that
does not require CSAs to remember unrelated codes. Provide software that
does not need too much of navigation - for customer service applications
25 to 30 screen applications are enough. And, provide software that does
not need much navigation as 80% work could be handled by the Main screen.
