It’s the Catch 22 of the call center; how do you reduce call volumes without compromising customer service or the operation’s budget? For a long time this tension appeared to be unsolvable. Then there was the bright idea of moving the call center offshore, where the costs were much less. But as we all know too well, this idea hasn’t converted well into practice, as Western customers can’t understand accented agents, and policy changes from HQ don’t transfer well across the globe. The Internet of course helped, but then only to a point, as customers had no hope in being able to actually resolve any issues by just using the company web page.
This evolution of the call center has led us to where we are now; that despite our digitally transforming world, where there are multiple ways to engage online, inbound customer care calls are still the most dominant channel customers use.
For contact centers the cost of servicing these calls with a live operator is high. There are enormous expenses associated with wages and employee benefits, the use of a physical premises, training and HR. For calling customers seeking to resolve service issues, the situation is no better. Contacting a call center means enduring a slow and often frustrating telephone IVR process before being able to speak with an agent. This frequently negative customer experience comes at a detriment to their sense of loyalty, and ultimately abandoning to the competition.
The Numbers Tell the Story
Companies invest millions in developing and expanding the capability of their digital channels, yet studies show that digital adoption continues to be slow, especially among older age cohorts. The problem is most people feel that they will be more successful getting their issue resolved by talking to an agent over the phone, despite the potential convenience afforded by going on-line.
It is worthwhile to note that more than 70% of customer service calls take place after customers went on the company’s website to look up the number. Effectively indicating a preference for digital, and that the task at hand it to minimise the attrition to calling.
Decouple High Value and Low Value Calls
CallVU’s Digital Engagement Platform helps to stem the digital attrition by keeping customers online. Our results on average show a 15% reduction in call volume, average handling time reduced by 25%, an improvement to Net Promoter Score by 50% and an increase in Digital usage by 30%. Watch the video to see how the platform works to reduce call volumes by supporting customers to address their inquiries in self-service.
As you can see in the video, these high rates of digital adoption are achieved by having calls automatically screened in terms of complexity. Simple, repetitive, low value calls are resolved in self-service by customers, while high value, complex calls are digitally assisted in a collaboration portal with a human agent.
Related: Top Call Center Communication Breakthroughs
Engage Customers at their Channel of Choice
By meeting customers at their channel of choice, the digital self-service solution continues to engage customers throughout their service journey. The company can engage the customer and address their service inquiries, irrespective of whether the customer is on the company web page, a chat-bot, the organizational app or social media. In this omnichannel solution an organization is far better equipped to provide their customer with an equally satisfying customer experience across all engagement channels.
This advanced level of digital engagement helps organizations to maximize the value of their pre-existing digital assets, expedites the issue resolution process and dramatically improves the customer experience.
Reductions in call volume also has benefits to be realized by your most important asset, your employees. By reducing the number of calls agents need to answer, they have more time to focus their efforts on complex calls that require more knowledge and investigation. Additionally, as the average waiting time is reduced, agents they no longer have to deal with irate customers to the same degree. This qualitative improvement to the work environment significantly enhances job satisfaction and their employment retention.
