«Your call is very important to us» or real ways to reduce the queue in the Contact Center
Theme: Call Centers
Industry: Universal Solutions
Author: How often did you hear the message in the header, but could not wait for the «end of the queue» or the signal was cut off so that IVR again told you about the importance of the call for the company?
The question, of course, is rhetorical, so far we even call the «naked Asterisk» contact centers, but we are talking about best practices and specialized solutions…
With the proper organization of work and competent planning of resources, a professional solution for a Contact Center allows you to effectively control the size of the queues and the average response time within specified limits.
True, much will depend on the correct visualization.
But even a competent analysis can not always take into account factors that cause a sharp surge in customer activity, which entails going beyond the limit values. These typical factors include:
- emergencies
- not predicted increased demand (force majeure, weather conditions, etc.)
- process changes (resulting in longer service)
- personnel problems (absenteeism, illness, etc.)
But even in this case, a specialized contact center solution can help in more efficient queue processing. As a rule, in such cases it is used:
Load redistribution
To inform the client that he will have to wait 15 minutes in line is possible, but not always justified. It is more logical if the contact center system will automatically carry out the planned actions when going beyond certain boundary values:
- connect to the service an additional group of operators (for example, operators of the second support line)
- forward calls to an outsourced Call Center
Callback offer
This is not about automatic Callback, but about the conscious choice of the client when calling. Those. he is invited to wait in the queue of n-minutes or select a callback within a given time. But this approach makes sense if:
- short-term load
- there are resources that can make an outgoing call at a given time interval
Offer a call back with maintaining the position in the queue
This approach is gaining more and more popularity recently, as it demonstrates the greatest efficiency with a prolonged burst of load, when it is difficult to correctly predict the time of a chime. In this case, you give the client an alternative: wait in line, listening to music on hold, or receive a call back in accordance with the queue by ordering Callback. But at the same time, it is necessary that the contact center system takes into account the order of receipt of the call in the queue and provides equal service in Blended mode.
It is impossible to guarantee that such «simple» tools can strengthen customer loyalty, but even simple timely assurances of the Сontact Сenter operator can significantly reduce the likelihood of a transition to a competitor.
