Contact centre operations across the UK are continually scrutinised on metrics, such as the number of inbound calls received, average handling time (AHT), and customer satisfaction scores (CSAT), to name but a few. As a customer contact centre operation, what if you could explore ways of answering customer queries before they even reached an agent? Here’s 5 ways in which you could attempt to do exactly that…
1. Professional in-queue Messaging
Callers that are waiting in a queue to be answered are a captive audience. Whilst they wait, rather than providing them with your default telephone system’s Greensleeves, or Vivaldi’s Four Seasons, why not answer some of your most frequently asked questions. It could result in an increased positive call abandonment by answering caller questions before they even reach an agent. It’s important to note here that careful, clear, and precise scripting will have a much-improved impact over an internal or in-house scripting and recording production.
2. Chat bots and live chat AI
Some forward-thinking operations are currently assessing or deploying the use of chat bots and AI as part of a customer contact strategy. As a first-line response, we think that chat bots are an excellent way to field inbound customer queries, but this technology needs to be diligently and expertly undertaken. In one of our previous blog articles we tabled 3 ideas to improve the future of AI and chat bot customer experiences. There’s little doubt that as global customer demand increases, these technologies will pick up traction, helping organisations to reduce avoidable contact to an agent where possible.
3. Online FAQ Video
Rather than the sort of marketing or promotional video that brand and communications teams put together, these types of videos should fall squarely within a contact centre operations remit. Video is a great way to encourage users to channel-shift away from the contact centre and promote self-service. You can also empower your agents with these types of videos, allowing them to send emails or texts to customers to help explain instructions. To learn more about how video could improve your contact centre operation, see how London Borough of Enfield Council utilised it here.
4. Improve written customer communication
Simple and effective written communication can have a hugely positive impact on call volumes to contact centre operations. If you get spikes in contact that could be attributed to your letters or bills, perhaps it’s time to review the composition of these collaterals. Could it be that your customers just don’t understand what you’re trying to tell them? Go straight to the source and reap the results of effective customer communication.
5. Personalised CLID
It might seem really futuristic, but it’s nothing new for telephone systems or cloud platforms to have caller line identification (CLID). By recognising a caller’s telephone number, the system can in turn refer to a customer relationship management (CRM) system, or database. It’s an excellent way to produce targeted messages to specific callers, or caller audiences. Simply create lists and broadcast professionally recorded, highly targeted messages to the caller. These personalised messages are likely to have more relevance and could result in a call resolution before they reach your agents.