Odds are your call center has a well-developed training program and agents who demonstrate high standards. Even so, there always is room to improve performance. Because your agents are human, they sometimes make mistakes. This can impact your company’s reputation and bottom line. As a result, you should pay close attention to the most common mistakes made in call centers to reduce their frequency among your agents. Make 2022 your call center’s best year yet!
Discover how some of the most common call center mistakes can be avoided to increase customer satisfaction.
Keeping Customers on Hold
Customers get frustrated when they are placed on hold for too long. Many hang up after 90 seconds or less and do not call back. The issue is an even bigger problem when first call resolution is one of your call center’s key metrics for success.
Your agents need to be trained to keep hold times to a minimum. Even if they have to research an issue or talk with you, the agents should keep your customers informed about what is going on and when they should expect a response by. This helps set reasonable expectations for your customers, which can increase their patience while waiting for an answer.
Passing the Caller to Another Agent
Callers do not like to be passed from one agent to another. They have to repeat their problem each time and often get put on hold. This increases the amount of time needed to resolve the issue.
To reduce or eliminate this problem, your agents must be trained to handle as many situations as possible. You also need a system in place that automatically directs calls to an agent who is best equipped to handle them.
Showing Low Emotional Intelligence
Customers who do not feel that your agents are hearing and understanding them typically become frustrated. They may hang up without their problem resolved and decide to do business with another company.
To alleviate this issue, your agents must be able to effectively build rapport with, educate, and provide emotional support for your customers. They also need to anticipate customer requests, offer personalized information, and deliver results as quickly as possible.
Not Responding to All Communication Channels
Customers do not like waiting long for their communications through phone, email, social media, or live chat to be answered. If it takes too long to hear from your agents, your customers may look for a company that better handles its customer service issues.
You can resolve this problem by properly training your agents to respond to customer communications as quickly as possible in the manner they were received. This efficiently provides your customers with responses without having to repeat their concerns through different channels. You also need a quality assurance framework that keeps customer information in one database, tracks agent performance, and identifies agent mistakes across channels. This makes it easier to resolve customer issues, reward agents, and provide constructive feedback and additional training to improve performance.
Missing an Element of a Proper Interaction
Customers deserve to hear a proper open, professional tone, rapport building, and careful listening during their call. The interactions also require professional language, effective questions, and a proper closing to their call. If an agent does not provide all of these elements during a call, the quality of the customer experience goes down.
The implementation of a quality assurance system can reduce this problem. You can celebrate your top-performing agents, identify any behaviors that need to be discussed, and provide additional training and coaching to improve performance.
Making Chat Mistakes
Customers expect personalized support when reaching out through live chat. This includes building rapport with the agent, feeling they are being listened to and understood, and knowing that resolution of their issue is important. If the customer does not feel respected and valued, they may take their business elsewhere.
One way to increase customer satisfaction is by implementing chat automation to immediately begin the customer service process. You might send preset replies that respond to initial introductions, ask questions, and collect information. Or, you could use a pre-chat survey to collect customer information and identify an issue before the agent interaction begins. This provides agents more time to prepare for the live chat.
Another way to improve customer satisfaction with live chat is by training your agents to use an appropriate tone throughout the interaction to show they genuinely want to solve the problem. The agents also should demonstrate active listening and empathy to reduce customer frustration.
Make sure your live chat hours are clearly displayed if they are not 24/7. Setting clear expectations lets your customers know they may need to wait to hear back from an agent. Be sure to disable live chat outside of operational hours to avoid confusion. Or, offer a calendar option to set up a time for a live chat with an agent.
Not Obtaining Call Monitoring Consent
Your call center needs to comply with all laws and regulations to protect your customers and company against risk. This includes securing consent to monitor customer calls.
You should have a system in place that automatically tells your customers their call is being monitored and recorded. If not, your agents need to let your customers know they are being monitored before a conversation begins. Be sure to provide a script for both incoming and outgoing calls that make customer consent the top priority.
Incorrectly Collecting Payment Information
Your agents need to follow specific standards for collecting and storing payment information. Otherwise, your call center may face fines or other penalties for failure to comply.
You can reduce this risk by posting the rules and training your agents to properly collect and store customer payment information. Include the potential consequences if the standards are not followed. Also, provide a script for your agents to follow for incoming or outgoing calls to increase compliance.
Looking to Hire Call Center Employees?
Need to add some top-notch employees to help your call center achieve its 2022 goals? Salem Solutions has the vetted candidates you need to fill your positions. Request an employee today.
