You live in a world where customers are not afraid to take their business somewhere else if they receive sub-par service. For this reason, it is just as important for a call centre manager to be aware of what mistakes their agents can make as well as what they can do right. By being aware of mistakes that will lead to an unsuccessful sales call, you can craft training sessions to prevent your call centre agents from making them.
One of the biggest mistakes your call centre agent can make is putting your caller on hold after they have started to converse with them. A Google consumer study shows 32 per cent of callers do not think they should be put on hold at all.
It is important to keep in mind this is in regards to putting your caller on hold after they have started talking to an agent. Most callers anticipate being put on hold for a period of time when they initially call. It is once they start talking to an agent that they do not wish to be placed on hold again.
Instead of placing a caller on hold, it is always better to route a caller to another agent. Call routing is a great option for an agent who has no idea how to resolve a caller’s problem. The key is to make sure the caller does not get placed on hold during the transfer to a new agent.
If you are a call centre manager, you need to be aware of your hold times. The longer your caller is left on hold, the more likely he or she is going to hang up. Reducing the call times as much as possible must be a priority.
American Express conducted a survey which determined one of the most annoying phrases to hear when calling a company is that the company is experiencing a high volume of calls. It is not uncommon for a caller to hang up as opposed to waiting on a phone if the call queue is long.
The only solution to a lengthy call queue is to hire additional call agents. The last thing you want to happen is for people to start hanging up because they are unhappy with being kept on hold.
Call routing is necessary in any call centre. The key is making sure it is used the right way. It does not take long for a caller to become annoyed because they have been transferred to more agents than they can count. It is important to have a handful of agents working every shift who are equipped to handle all problems. This will limit the number of situations where your agent has to transfer a caller to another agent who can actually help the caller with his or her problem.
The easiest solution to this problem is to cross train your call agents. Why does your call agent have to work in one department? Cross training your agents to handle calls in several different departments will make it easier for your calls to get resolved without playing pass the customer.
You also should not underestimate the power of a conference call. There will reach a time where a call agent has tried everything and still cannot help the customer or get the customer what he or she needs. In this situation, you should have managers and supervisors who can get on the line with the caller and the agent to fix the problem.
Your call agent is the most important part of whether or not you have a successful call with potential customers. For this reason, you should put a large amount of effort into screening them properly.
In addition to screening them, you should continue to monitor the call agent’s work. Just by knowing you are listening to their phone calls and watching their call times, your call agent will perform better to please you. Call agents that know they are not being observed tend to be the ones providing sub-par service.
Chances are pretty good your caller knows you have a website. There is also a good chance they found your number on the website. For one reason or another, your caller was not comfortable doing business through the Internet. If you happen to be an Internet service provider’s call centre, it is possible they don’t have Internet to access your website in the first place. Your customer called because he or she wants a solution to happen over the phone.
As you can see, there are a lot of mistakes both a call centre manager and their agents can make. Being aware of these mistakes is the key to avoiding them.