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Strategies to decrease customer wait time in contact centers
By: Chris Recio, Director of Contact Center and Advanced Applications
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The length of time that a caller is on hold is directly correlated with their perceived level of service quality. In other words, the longer a customer is on hold, the more frustrated they get and less likely you are to achieve a satisfactory resolution to their issue. Callers don’t stay on the phone forever and once they have hung up, a significant number of them will never call back. That means it is crucial for contact centers that want to provide the kind of service that wins new contracts to reduce customer wait time as much as possible.
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What causes long wait times in the first place?
Often, there isn’t just one reason that your contact center wait times are long. Sometimes, it can be due to suboptimal levels of staffing. When there aren’t enough agents to field calls, customers have to wait. At other times, it can be because it takes a long time for calls to get resolved. Even if you have enough staff, if every call takes 10 to 15 minutes to resolve, the next customers in line are going to be waiting for a long period of time. The software that your contact center uses could also be at fault. If your software isn’t providing your agents with everything they need to handle calls in a quick and efficient manner, maybe it is time to think about upgrading to a more customer-centric software solution.
How to reduce customer wait times
Rather than dwell on the reasons why your contact center is experiencing high wait times, we’re going to look at strategies you can use to reduce it. Below we have outlined four methods that can help you to reduce your customer’s wait time and improve the quality of your service without having to hire more staff.
Offer online chat and other services
Offering phone support and nothing else is old school. In today’s world, customers expect a multi-channel approach to customer care. Implementing a software solution like PureCloud that allows for omnichannel integration can mean that some customers don’t need to call at all. And the fewer customers you have calling, the lower wait times will be.
Optimize call routing
Call routing may be a bane for some customers, but it can significantly reduce hold times if implemented correctly. By creating and optimizing your client’s call routing system, you can ensure that customers are directed to the people who can help them best. For some, this will mean that they don’t speak to an operator at all. Many concerns and queries can now be handled automatically. For others, this will mean they are routed to one or a team of agents who are best trained to help them. Having agents handle calls relating to their strengths can see wait times drop significantly.
Increase agency knowledge
One of the key reasons call wait times are long is because it takes agents too long to deal with each call. You can only hire so many agents and if they all take over 10 minutes on each call than customer wait times are naturally going to increase. Often, this is because agents don’t have the knowledge or information they need to resolve the call. Luckily, this can be easily fixed in one of two ways. Firstly, contact centers can develop online knowledge bases that agents can use to quickly find the information and advice they need. Or, secondly, contact centers can invest more in agent training and development, and making ongoing training a regular part of their workload.
Empower agents
As we have discussed above, one reason why queue times can escalate is because call handling times are too long. This isn’t just because agents don’t know what to do, however. It can also be because they are not authorized to take action and have to wait for supervision. Empowering your agents to take decisions into their own hands can significantly decrease the time it takes to resolve calls, whilst increasing caller satisfaction and raising the confidence of your staff. You can even take this one step further and encourage agents to be aware of their customer queues, the wait time and their handling time, and make adjustments to the way that they handle calls accordingly. This can see agents try to resolve calls more effectively in order to reduce handling times and call wait times as a result.
In some cases, reducing wait time may be as simple as implementing the strategies listed above. Sometimes, a complete overhaul of your contact center software is required. Upgrading to a faster, more efficient and more innovative platform like ShoreTel Connect is complex if handled alone. Luckily, we’re here to help you navigate the challenges and successfully upgrade to a more comprehensive software solution. Get started today by assessing your readiness for Connect below.
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