According to a recent study an average customer will spend around 1.2 years of his life on hold; waiting to speak to a customer service representative. 34% of the customers hang up before being connected and those who are able to reach an agent after a long wait are frustrated, disengaged and less accommodating.
Various studies suggest that 95% of customers with a bad customer service experience will share it with their peer groups. This not only ends up tarnishing the brand image but also subsequently impacts the company’s revenue. Clearly, reducing the hold time is critical to an enriched customer experience and brand image of a company.
So how, does one address this problem? The common approach would be hiring more customer service staff however, it’s not a cost-effective method since during low volume period the additional call agents available will sit idle. An alternative and more effective method is to invest in a call center software that provides speed, flexibility, and scale that matches the needs of a modern Call Centre.
A contact center software is a platform providing various applications you wish for – custom call flows, universal queuing, skills-based routing, callback feature, multimedia contact handling, predictive dialer, integrated IVR/Visual IVR, built-in CTI, real-time reporting etc. Such software will greatly reduce hold time, regardless of origin of the call – web, mobile or inbound call.
39% of the decision makers find the need for increased flexibility and agility as the most important benefit for leveraging Contact Centers Software, as per reports of Forrester Research.
Callback is a key feature in a contact center solution which greatly reduces the hold time. Instead of staying on hold, a customer has an option to submit their contact information and receive a call from an agent as soon as one is available.
Studies show that this option is attracting various customers; 28% of customers chose for a callback to spending 1 minute on hold and 63% of customers chose for a callback instead of waiting on hold. Moreover, this gives an opportunity to the agent to analyze information available about customers on various channels and he is more prepared to address customer grievances and deliver enhanced customer service experience.
Another option that some of the contact center software are coming up with is Visual IVR. Visual IVR is a platform that seamlessly routes inbound callers to a web-based support– personalizing the journey for customers about to enter the waiting queue. This type of solution will present a menu to the calling customer and customer can navigate through your IVR system by a simple click or touch.
Visual IVR session is more accurate in gathering information it increases the probability of customer selecting the correct menu options. The call is then routed to the right agent or to another channel if chosen by the customer thus truly delivering Omni-channel user experience. This greatly reduces the count of ‘zero-outs’ due to customers feeling frustrated with the IVR.
In the end, the foundation of rich customer experience is the impression that you value their time. If you are up to the challenge, the results will speak for themselves.
Teckinfo has achieved its position in the industry after years of nurturing and meeting the expectations of the call center industry. Its product InterDialog UCCS is a highly scalable, feature rich & flexible call center solution which is being used across industry verticals. InterDialog UCCS is a robust call center software ensuring high availability as stated by several big industry players in the contact center world.
Want to know more about the features of our robust contact center suite, click here https://www.teckinfo.com/cloud-contact-center-software.php