10 Ways to Reduce Repeat Calls in a Call Center

Customers almost always have other important business to tend to and would rather not spend their working hours bickering away or waiting on a customer service helpline. Customers thus expect correct and timely information. Repeat calls indicate the well-being of the Omnichannel Customer Service resolution system and more repeat calls indicate a negative trend on customer satisfaction, retention and even future acquisition. In the end a higher customer satisfaction and lower churn rate will be the outcome by reducing repeat calls in a call center. Here are listed some effective methods of achieving that goal.

Content:

It is of real importance to understand the precise reason why the customer is calling and then connecting the request with the right service agent. This is a critical step in how to reduce repeat calls in Call Center Software. If all the concerns raised by a customer are not satisfied and adequately resolved, customers will ultimately become frustrated and it will increase the rates of repeat calls that are received by the support center. Correct routing and resolution are also key in improving customer satisfaction and retention. Call centers should implement proper skill-based routing to achieve this.

Active feedback processes can be initiated in the company to receive it from customers and store in the system. Other data can be collected using markers that show the route of the support resolution query and this can be later analyzed to find the precise reasons for each customer call. With such an analysis, adjustments can be made to the training process that will equip agents to conduct resolution requests better and faster. This can also be used for the betterment of the FAQ section of a product and even the initial customer briefing. Speech analytics solutions help Cloud Contact Center Solution to figure out the usual complaints and the customer service team can explore ways to proactively mitigate them.

In general, it has been observed that employees usually look forward to being a part of Contact Center Solutions and enter the job role expecting to fulfil the expectation of providing world class customer service. Entry level training required mandatorily during the hiring process should include dedicated time to make employees aware of the reasons for repeat calls, what their nature usually is as pointed by the data and finally, associated costs for not being able to provide timely and accurate solution thus risking the system to bear more repeat calls from dissatisfied customers. This is a major method in how to reduce repeat calls in a call center.

Often times it has been seen that customers call with multiple issues. Unfortunately, cost reduction and other such policies regarding time and likewise are observed to try and rush customers off the phone leaving a feeling of incomplete complaint resolution. By training employees in doing so and then letting them out of rigid boundaries on a call can help them reduce repeat calls in Cloud Call Center Software by uncovering hidden issues that were secondary to or had not been noticed by the customer. While AHT is important from operation standpoint, but better FCR certainly reduce the repeat calls.

Customers have been noticed to call back if they do not get the answer they want. As for example, a customer may call multiple times to restore or extend the warranty on a product until it is granted or someone senior enough equipped to handle such query and interact with the customer. Last-agent routing sends customers back to the agent who last handled their call and this helps in ideal customer behavior.

A knowledge center refers to a somewhat centrally accessible library in the server which agents can search in for information and contribution of resolution processes. Apart from providing required training to employees, they are required to have access to a store of information that could help them resolve customer problems and are equipped to share this information with co-workers. This provides a way to self-train agents and the easier the access to information is, the agents will be able to make the process more engaging and actually solve all of customer's problems rather than rushing them off the call. Typically organisations deploy knowledge banks which becomes an organsiations knowledge asset.

Almost all calls made to customer support centers are handled by human operators. Thus, for any kind of visible improvement on the rate of incoming call handling and quality of support, it is important to equip the human handlers with necessary skills and knowledge to perform at the high level that is demanded of them in such a crucial position. This is an important part of and perhaps the first step in how to reduce repeat calls in a call center. As discussed earlier, it will also be of immense benefit to create and maintain a central hub of information that can be readily accessed by customer service agents to provide the best support.

In today's fast-changing netscape, customers can be trusted with information and methods to solve the issues they might have complaints about through various opt-in mechanisms. Ensuring that they are also provided with the ability to track a request and check the updates on what they deem necessary whenever they want is something that will ease the pressure off the organisation and customers will soon get accustomed to it. This will also effectively stop them from ringing the support desk as often. Voice Bot or Smart IVRs are usually deployed to achieve high level of self-service.

Monitoring post-call surveys go a long way in how to reduce repeat calls in a call center. Post-call surveys are conducted on certain specific, important indicators of performance - not just of the agent or customer service outfit but of the organization as a whole. Though, it mostly focuses on the former. These surveys can be analyzed to find out areas to improve company performance and, if required, call the customer back on their preferred channel to complete query resolution.

Customers often enter support calls with loads of mostly unrealistic expectations from the support team. These are the same customers who will get extremely frustrated if they do not receive the kind of support they have been expecting - even if it was not explicitly promised by the company. To that end, the agents should be made fully aware of what their scope of functioning is, how far they can extend support and what the customer can realistically expect out of a service call. Customers should be explained precisely what will happen after they hang up and thus this will reduce the instances of repeat calls.

Thus, these are a few of the observably most effective methods on how to reduce repeat calls in a call center and will go a long way in helping any company improve customer experience and reduce operating costs.