When your call center is being dogged by customer complaints or your metrics are falling flat, there are several ways to get your customers smiling again. In many cases, common call center complaints are much easier to resolve than you might think.
Ease of access
The initial pain point for many customers is their ability to reach someone or obtain the information they need to resolve their issue or answer their question.
Whether you use a live or an automated process, investigate how long it takes your system to pick up from the initial call. Then see how long callers might be placed on hold, or how many options they must select from an automated system before they can work with a representative.
Having a live representative answer your customers right from the beginning creates the most impact at the beginning of the call. If your staff is so inundated with incoming calls that they typically put someone on hold immediately, this diminishes the positive effect of having a live representative.
Your callers are typically contacting your organization on their break, between meetings, or while traveling, and an organization that respects their time is an organization that customers tend to stand by overtime. You don’t necessarily need to hire more staff to handle increases in call volume, however.
Working with a SaaS call center can give your customer service representatives the breathing room they need to deliver the top-quality experience you and your customers expect. These types of systems allow you to tailor the services you receive to your unique process and business needs, whether it’s better to call software or call answering and routing assistance.
Complaint resolution or troubleshooting
Once a customer reaches a representative, your team’s ability to understand and resolve their problem is paramount. Customers don’t want to be transferred several times or waste time explaining their issue to multiple people. They want to deal with knowledgeable, helpful representatives who can quickly and efficiently get them through the process and back to their daily lives.
The first question to ask is: does the company process and policies empower the customer support team to resolve issues in a timely fashion? Have you designed your call center so that the first available agent is as knowledgeable as possible, able to access information and systems that let them help your customers without obtaining assistance from other employees?
This question might seem to open up Pandora’s box of issues, especially if your company culture is heavily compartmentalized. But if you don’t trust your customer service team with access to the data and systems necessary to provide top-notch customer satisfaction, then your hiring, training, and management process should be the next aspect of your business to receive scrutiny.
Faulty products or service
We live in an age of factory recalls and class action lawsuits. In the unfortunate event that one of your company’s products or services has some form of defect or deficiency, understand that your customer service team will be on the front lines in dealing with the aftermath.
They need to be well-versed in the problem, have a clear flowchart process for the path forward in every possible situation, and be empowered to restore your customers’ faith in your company. How your company handles adversity is crucial. If your team lacks information or the ability to effectively resolve these kinds of problems, it can damage your reputation even more than the defective product.
Engagement
A lack of information or empowerment can cause even the best customer service representatives to become disillusioned, burnt out, and apathetic. The most important key to keeping your customers happy is keeping your customer service team happy.
This is done by ensuring your process is effective, efficient, and well-understood, metrics, and expectations are clearly communicated. And your management team must have a thorough understanding of what it’s like to walk a mile in a customer representative’s shoes.
