5 Common Contact Center Mistakes That Turn Customers Away

A memorable experience is crucial to driving customer loyalty. In this post, we are going to discover how to avoid the 5 most common mistakes that call centers make to obtain customer satisfaction.

Call center software technology is rapidly evolving to be more customer-centric. Customer experience (CX) can positively or negatively influence a business and with callers’ expectations rising, contact centers can no longer afford to make the same mistakes.

What Are the Five Reasons Why Users May Be Dissatisfied and What Can the Call Center Do To Improve Customer Service?

1) Put a Caller On Hold For a Long Time

There is nothing worse for a caller than hearing the words, “One moment please. I’m putting you on hold while I consult with a supervisor.” This is a warning sign that the call is going to take longer than expected. So much so that clients should only be put on hold as a last resort. Long wait times jeopardize customer satisfaction levels and ultimately business results.

Every call center agent must strive to resolve customer issues as quickly and efficiently as possible. Can I resolve the caller’s issue while keeping them on the line? If the answer is yes, it is a good idea to talk to them while they are looking for the information.

If a call center manager has realized that waiting times are excessive, he has to find a way to reduce them. It may just be necessary to be able to access customer history to expedite query resolution, as well as improve agent training to reduce inefficiencies. A knowledge base system that allows agents to provide information quickly and accurately does wonders for improving customer service.

Or maybe it’s time to update your contact center software so agents have access to caller information automatically and from a single application.

2) Long Queues For Calls

What’s worse than being on hold? Having the customer’s call queue for a long period of time. According to an American Express survey, two of the most annoying phrases for customers are: “Sorry, but we are experiencing unusually high call volume. You can continue to wait or try again after a few minutes” and “Your call is important to us. Keep waiting”. These phrases can give the false perception that it is just another company that does not care if users wait an excessive amount of time to speak with an agent, or worse yet, does not care if they lose customers due to abandonment the call caused by the long queues.

To prevent this from happening, the contact center may need to hire more agents or modify its hours to have more employees available during peak calls. It could also mean having agents on call working remotely during periods of high call volume.

3) Transfer the Call from One Agent to Another

Another thing that annoys callers is when they can’t seem to get through to an agent to resolve their issue and are transferred from one department to another.

There are a few ways to prevent this from happening:

1. a) Have Trained Agents

If agents are continually transferring calls, they may not know how to resolve queries. Training agents to handle a wide variety of questions or to be able to offer support and sales significantly reduce the probability of transferring the call.

1. b) Train Specialized Agents

If it is not necessary for every agent to know the answer to every question a caller may have, the call center should consider having specialized agents handle specific issues or queries. That way, when a complex case comes up, the other agents will know exactly who to transfer the call to.

1. c) Use Video Calls

If agents have done their best to resolve an issue or query, but still need a little guidance, a video call with a more experienced employee, tech support, or supervisor might be the solution.

1. d) Invest in Smarter Software

Some call center software solutions have routing software that directs each caller to the agent who can handle their query in the most appropriate way. They can route the call by department, skill, language, knowledge, or anything else that is unique to that agent. When the caller manages to speak to the agent most qualified to meet their needs, transfers will be a thing of the past.

4) Direct Callers To Go To Company Website

This is an annoying but still common habit in some call centers. The result is an interrupted customer journey. This is one of the biggest mistakes a company can make. The caller is doing so for a reason. They’ve probably already tried to find the solution on the website, have a very specific query, or just prefer to use the phone. The solution to this is simple. The agent may mention that the website is an option, but never push the caller in that direction.

5) Ask For Redundant Information

Another of the most common mistakes is making the user repeat information that has already been provided over and over again. An efficient Contact Center will store this information and display it to the agent automatically.

With Enreach’s Omnichannel Contact Center, agents have all customer data at their fingertips. This way they can focus on solving the query instead of trying to gather the information they need. It will also help them avoid mistakes, increase response time, and make the process easier for everyone involved.

Every second the agent wastes trying to access customer data comes at a cost, both in terms of call center operational performance and customer satisfaction. A personalized agent desktop has a positive impact on CX.

In conclusion, creating and maintaining a more efficient and helpful call center structure will help a company’s reputation, revenue, and retention rates. And at the end of the day, both agents and customers will be much happier.

With Enreach’s Omnichannel Contact Center and its multiple functionalities, customers will be able to contact your company from their favorite channels, resolve their queries through Artificial Intelligence (AI) and connect with the most appropriate agent thanks to Smart Routing.

In addition, agents will be able to manage all the conversations from a single web application, control the level of service in real time and analyze the results to make the right decisions. All thanks to the configuration in the control panel.