The top 3 ways to irritate your callers
(And some ideas on how NOT to do so)
If you run a contact centre of any shape or size — or you’ve ever called one, for that matter — a recent survey by Which? confirms what you undoubtedly already know:
- apologizing that all your operators are busy is annoying
- redirecting callers to your website is really annoying
- telling callers how much you value their call is the single most annoying thing that you can do.
The survey also alludes to a few things brands can do to make interacting with your brand better.
Personalize the experience
According to survey respondents, Aviva have gone down this route with an option for callers to choose their own hold music.
Taking the personalization route further, using knowledge of the customer’s recent interactions on other contact channels could provide for a higher quality experience.
For example, if the caller has recently logged into their online account, use this knowledge and their self-service success or failure to better route their interaction rather than simply directing them back to a channel they’ve already tried.
Provide more relevant information
The fact that all agents are busy or that your customer’s call is important to your brand is of little (and I would generally argue no) relevance.
Which? survey respondents called out Screwfix as making some progress in this regard by letting customers know their position in queue.
Whilst queue position on its own is rarely a useful metric (discussed further below), it is more relevant to callers than the simple fact that nobody is free right now to talk with them.
Make agents available in a more timely fashion
This isn’t about making more agents available — that can be prohibitively expensive.
But survey respondents point out that Amazon provide the option of a callback from an agent available on their website — i.e. at the very time and place that an online shopper decides they need to speak to somebody.
Other brands make live agents available in a timely fashion using web chat, or a voice callback from their mobile devices, interactive TVs, or in-store kiosks. Anywhere that makes live help available in the place and at the time the customer needs it.
Decrease physical exertion
Physical exertion plays a big part in impacting a customer’s ability to get to their desired outcome. This can be the need to physically move from one place to another, but can also include excessive taps, swipes, or key presses that your brand requires your customers to go through.
Amazon’s web callback feature above reduces physical effort by removing the need for a customer to pick up the phone. Instead, they can request live help from within the channel and on the device that they are already using.
Remove mental agility
Anything that requires a mathematical calculation, recalling something, or remembering something increases the effort required by your customers.
For example, announcing a customer’s position in queue on its own introduces mental quality. The customer must assess how quickly they are moving through the queue in order to make the information useful in understanding how long they will be on hold.
Calculating and announcing a caller’s expected time in queue instead of their queue position removes this mental agility, reducing overall effort, and increasing the chances that your customer will be successful with your brand (as opposed to another brand!).
Reduce perceived delays
We enjoy a world where news travels around the globe in seconds. Where all information known to the human race is available via affordable devices we can carry in our pockets.
And where practically all consumer goods can be ordered for delivery to our door the next morning — or even the same day, in some cases.
Any elapsed time that stands between your customer making a decision to do something and your brand making it possible for them to get that thing done increases customer effort (not to mention frustration).
The Which? survey specifically highlighted the option of a callback as an antidote called out by consumers to the issue of contact centre queue times. Its reassuring that this particular option is becoming sufficiently widespread to be requested.
And some of the world’s most preeminent brands, such as T-Mobile, British Gas, Emirates Airlines, and even government entities, such as the Australian Tax Office, California Department of Motor Vehicles, and New York Department of Labor, have embraced callback technology to provide this option.
Stage high quality, low effort customer interactions
Leading brands are recognising that high quality, low effort experiences are what create economic value — the best products at great prices are no longer enough on their own.
By plotting various aspects of your brand’s customer experience in a quality / effort two-by-two, opportunities to improve customer experience present themselves.
For example, by changing the “your call is important to us” message to a message with the caller’s queue position we increase interaction quality by making it more relevant.
By using an expected wait time announcement instead of queue position we increase quality further by making the information even more relevant. We also remove the need for the caller to assess what their queue position means in terms of their experience, so effort is reduced.
And finally, we can further decrease customer effort by offering to save the caller’s place in line and calling them back when its their turn, reducing the customer’s perceived delay in getting through and moving the overall experience towards to most desirable, top right quadrant in our two-by-two:
Using the same grid, we can look at how a more desirable cross-channel conversation might go.
Rather than simply suggesting the caller “visits our website at example.com”, we can check whether the caller has recently visited our online portal, and how successful they were in getting done what they wanted to get done.
If they appear to have had login issues, we can replace or re-order the voice menu presented such that the password reset option is obvious.
In doing so we would:
- reduce customer effort by creating a shorter delay in getting the outcome they want; and
- increase interaction quality by making it more personal and more relevant to this individual caller.
Going a step further, we could proactively react to unsuccessful account login attempts with an SMS to the customer’s mobile phone, the message including a direct link to the password reset page OR the option to request a callback directly from a representative ready and able to help.
Again, these actions help move this specific interaction up the quality axis on our two-by-two, and also to the right as effort is reduced:
A simple framework for improvement
This method of analysing interaction quality and customer effort provides a simple framework for brands to adapt the customer experience they offer, setting them aside from competitors.
It also creates a common language that brands can use internally to help structure and define their customer experience initiatives.
Read more about reducing customer effort or measuring interaction quality in my other posts — or get in touch with your own thoughts and ideas!
…
Stuart Lambert helps brands stage high quality, low effort customer experiences based upon relevant, personalized and timely interactions.
