If you’re wondering how outsourcing agents deliver sterling customer support, one fundamental reason is the quality of their probing questions. Understanding probing questions in customer service practices helps explain why these interactions often feel more thorough and empathetic.
Probing questions help outsourcing agents glean insight from your customers' concerns and unearth the emotions, facts, and causes behind what they share. For many leaders new to support operations, understanding what is probing in customer service can be a helpful starting point in improving team effectiveness.
When an outsourcing staff member asks the right probing questions, they can better understand the situation and provide helpful and proper solutions. This highlights the importance of probing questions in customer service, especially when dealing with complex or emotionally driven concerns.
Here are seven probing questions that your outsourcing BPO partner relays to improve your customer service.
1. “When did this incident start?”
Confirming when the incident started is crucial in determining the origin of the problem. This question lets outsourcing specialists figure out how long your customer has endured the effects of the incident and what the next steps should be.
2. “Just to be sure I have the details right, may I ask what you were doing when this situation began?”
BPO support specialists want to help customers resolve the issue by listing all possible causes. One of these reasons may be the customer’s doing, whether accidentally or intentionally. Nevertheless, BPO agents need to know how to arrive at the right solution.
To sound objective and not accusative, outsourcing agents expertly and carefully frame the question in this way. When this happens, your customers can be more open about what exactly happened.
3. “Has this ever occurred before?”
Discovering whether the concern was repeated allows BPO support staff to determine if the incident was systemic or one-off. Outsourcing staff can glean further insight into how to best settle the problem by asking the customer how they handled this problem before.
4. “Can you please describe how it sounds (or looks)?”
Outsourcing specialists ask this probing question because they aim to understand the situation concretely. When they can visualize the incident, they can better trace its root causes, provide remedial instructions, compare it with previous encounters, and more.
5. “Have you tried fixing the situation before calling us?”
Asking this question helps BPO representatives consider any further action to be taken in an attempt to correct the issue. Whether the action failed to address the issue or not, knowing any other corrective steps taken aids outsourcing agents in assessing and resolving the situation adequately.
6. “What difficulties did you face while you tried to…?”
If the calling consumer answered “yes” to the previous question, BPO agents could look deeper into the struggles faced in the remediation attempt. As your customers elaborate on what they’ve tried to do, the outsourcing support staff can work with them to solve the problem together.
7. “You said earlier that… can you please tell me a little bit more about it?”
Customers often provide lengthy messages or responses to your initial questions. Through active listening and this question, BPO representatives can steer the dialogue back to the main issue.
What’s Next?
At Select VoiceCom, we make sure our professional outsourcing specialists excel in providing outstanding customer support for your business. With these probing questions and more, you can confidently entrust your customers’ concerns to our capable hands. Contact us today for more details, and we’ll give you a free quote.