If you ask a dozen call center managers about their thorniest problems, you’re likely to find lists that focus on budget, technology, and business issues. Today though, let’s spend a few minutes discussing a problem that arises because customers have such lofty expectations of companies today. It’s a problem caused by the ever-advancing digital transformation initiatives companies across the globe have undertaken during the past few decades.
Introduction
Before the Internet and the World Wide Web, sending mail involved paper and envelopes, taking a photo required film, and shopping meant going to a store or buying through a mail-order catalog. Now though, email, megapixel cameras, and eCommerce have moved those activities in to the digital realm. These simple examples of digital transformation have profoundly affected our real-world activities, our behavior, and our culture.
From a business perspective, digital transformation is the integration of digital technologies into a business to change how it runs and how it delivers value to customers. This transformation has revolutionized the way companies interact with customers. With many companies offering touchpoints through phone, chat, email, self-service, and social media, customers expect far more than they did 10 years ago. Customers increasingly assume companies will be there to provide help and solve problems every day around the clock.
When a call center doesn’t give customers the coverage schedule, the communication channels, or the quality of service they expect, the customer experience (CX) suffers. Over time, customers begin to look elsewhere for the products and services they need. So, how can call center managers avoid customer attrition?
Some Solutions to Consider
Customers don’t care how many communication channels are available or the fact that turnover and absenteeism are ongoing problems for many call centers. They call to get help solving a problem, and the conversation with the agent is what reinforces or diminishes a positive customer experience.
In 2010, the Harvard Business Review pointed out, after surveying 75,000 people who interacted with a call center, that there’s no need to try to “delight” callers. They report that reducing the work customers must do to solve a problem is what drives high customer satisfaction scores. In other words, the call center should make problem-solving easy.
While a company may offer self-service help through FAQs, databases, Twitter, chat, and other channels, it’s ultimately the agents who can best make problem-solving easy.
Below are six steps you can take to give your agents the guidance they need in talking to customers. It begins with the advice Confucius offered 2,500 years ago, and it’s relevant today.
He was asked whether there’s a single word that can serve as a rule for proper living. He replied: “Reciprocity. What you do not want done to yourself, do not do to others.” People want to be treated respectfully and the tips that follow go a long way toward giving your customers the kind of experience that increases your company’s stature in their eyes.
- Time is valuable to your callers, so it’s important to convey a sense of urgency that shows your agents are respectful of their time and focused on finding a solution.
- Active listening is the act of listening mindfully, without distraction, to fully understand what the customer is saying before you reply or respond. It builds connections between customers and agents. It gives an agent a better understanding of the reason for the call than if the agent was distracted. It’s another sign of respect, and it’s a skill that can be taught.
- Sincerity comes through in a conversation and shrinks the emotional distance between customers and agents. Agents need to check their tone of voice to be sure they’re perceived as interested in helping rather than sleepy, bored, or annoyed.
- Customers today can usually recognize when an agent is reading from a script. That not only can give the customer a sense that he or she is “just one of thousands” who hear that identical script. The script also makes it hard for an agent to listen actively, to convey a sense of urgency, and to exude sincerity. If you need to use scripts in your call center, consider ways to give agents more latitude in their conversations with customers.
- Consider investigating the issue of emotional intelligence, which describes how one communicates, empathizes, and influences others. Agents with high levels of emotional intelligence have the natural ability to forge connections with others — a key step in achieving the crucial emotional connection between the customer and the company. Learn more here, here, and here.
- Finally, Agent Satisfaction is a metric most call centers track. A poor score can affect the cost of operations and the level of customer satisfaction. A poor rating on this metric can allow the infectious nature of what dissatisfied employees say and do to negatively affect the entire operation. If you are not currently monitoring this critical metric, we suggest you do so. Your agents will be grateful that you are concerned about their job satisfaction. Your customers will reward you with greater levels of customer satisfaction. It’s a solution where everyone benefits.
Conclusion
As technology continues to advance and digital transformation gives customers more ways to interact with a company, the need for customers to feel an emotional bond becomes more important. Call center agents have an excellent opportunity to build relationships, to increase customer lifetime value, to reduce churn, and to enhance the customer experience. When your call center goal is to minimize expenses and maximize CX, it only makes sense to investigate these “people issues” because, after all, people are the lifeblood of every business.
