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Tactics to reduce your call abandon rate : I

As a matter of fact, callers do not like to be on hold for a long time and agents do not enjoy talking to callers who have been on hold. Bu8t these things occur quite often. According to a research, call abandonment is on the rise, as call centers are being asked to do more with less while facing increasing call volumes (growing at 20% per year). Moreover, each abandoned call reduces first call resolution (FCR) rates and leads to customer service inefficiency. This further means that a high abandon rate is a sure sign of caller frustration.

Call abandonment
Call abandonment

In order to deliver an exceptional customer service, consider lowering abandon rates as it lowers costs, improves customer satisfaction and experience. Here are a few strategies that can be employed to lower the abandon rates:

1. Consider increasing the capacity:

This is the simplest way to improve your call abandon rates. This will help in reducing or eliminating the number of customers that have to wait. Therefore, you should consider increasing the number of staff that you employ. As an alternative, you can also consider making changes to your scheduling or reducing your average handling time.

Increasing capacity
Increasing capacity

2. Be honest to your customers:

In cases where hold-times are an issue, consider preparing customers by placing a message in the interactive voice response system or automatic call distribution system. This will inhibit a sense of loyalty as you will be honestly informing them of estimated wait times. This will lower their desire to abandon the call and encourage customers to call during off-peak periods.

Estimated wait time
Estimated wait time

3. Increase your ring time:

Another useful tactic to reduce abandon rate is increasing your ring time, rather than clicking straight through to an automated message. This will help you gain vital extra seconds at a low risk. People are less likely to abandon calls at such instances because listening to the repetitive ringing sound is a familiar experience for most people and is less likely to irritate them.

Increase ring time
Increase ring time

 

 

 

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Call abandonment rate and its elements

An abandoned call refers to a call or any other type of contact proposed to a call center but ends before any communication takes place. Call abandonment rate better known as “Abandon Rate” further refers to the percentage of inbound phone calls made to a call center or service desk that are abandoned by the customer before speaking to an agent.

Call abandonment
Call abandonment

Types of abandoned calls:

  • Short abandoned calls:
  • Calls abandoned in the IVR:
  • Transferred calls
Abandoned calls
Abandoned calls

Calculating abandon rate:

The mathematical formula to calculate abandon rate is as follows:

Abandonment rate % = [Number of Calls offered – Number of Calls handled] / [Number of Calls offered] * 100

There exists a revised formula for the above calculation which excludes shortly abandoned calls ( occurring due to various reasons):

Abandonment rate % = [Number of Calls offered – Number of calls abandoned in 5 seconds – Number of Calls handled] / [Number of Calls offered – Number of calls abandoned in 5 seconds] * 100

Abandon rate
Abandon rate

Common mistakes regarding abandon rate calculation:

i) Excluding short abandoned calls:

Generally, calls that abandoned in the first 5 seconds are excluded due to two reasons:

  • Customers dial the wrong number and only realize when the call is connected.
  • They dial the right number but think they may have dialled a digit incorrectly and then hang up and redial just to be sure.

ii) Failure to measure calls abandoned in the IVR:

The correct procedure of calculation is measuring the abandon rate from the telephone network side of the system and not the agent queue. But unaware of this fact, many people fail to measure calls being abandoned in the IVR. The reason being that they had chosen to only start the statistics from the moment that people left the IVR and joined the queue proper.

iii) Counting transferred calls as two different ones:

This is yet another mistake that people often make. It is not a correct method of abandon rate calculation if you count transferred calls as calls that have been handled twice.

Abandoned calls
Abandoned calls

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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How to deal with a difficult customer: III

1. Leverage the power of your smile:

Callers would appreciate calm and friendly demeanor. Donning a pleasant expression automatically helps your voice convey friendliness and openness. On the other, staying straight-faced, on the other hand, immediately removes that kindness from your voice. Therefore, try greeting a pretend client as you would on the phone i.e. out loud, first with a smile and afterwards without. This would help you deal with a difficult customer and please him/ her. Moreover you would not be subjected to hear hear more of a strain indicating that you do not really want to be talking to this person right now !

Smile while on call
Smile while on call

2. Understand that nothing is meant to be taken personally:

There are many instances where while dealing with a difficult customer, business owners or customer support agents take it personally. It needs to be understood that customer is being difficult due to past experiences with other companies. It is a fact that customers who have had bad prior experiences with other companies are often hyper-sensitive and read into things too much and often end up becoming difficult over the smallest things.  Whenever any such case is encountered, it is important to calmly and clearly put the situation into perspective for the customer and assure them that their queries will be resolved in the shortest possible time span. This will lead to the customer being calmer and more cooperative.

Dont take things personally
Don’t take things personally

 

 

3. Business owners and customers desire the same thing:

A pleasant, happy and speedy transaction is what both business owners and customers desire. Therefore, while dealing with a difficult customer, business owners can resolve any disputes by letting the customer know they are willing to fully work with them to make them happy. Letting the customer know they are there to help will lead to the customer becoming less difficult and easier to work with.

Contenting your customers
Contenting your customers

 

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How to deal with a difficult customer: II

1. Let your customer’s know that you care:

In order to deal with a difficult customer, numerous of strategies can be employed. It becomes crucial to show concern for the customer’s feelings. Your voice communicates your attitude when handling customers on call. People respond more to how you say something than what you say, so, try to be as polite as possible. Your words should be convincing enough to make your customers realize that you care.

Show your concern
Show your concern

2. Let your client vent:

Never try to interject with a solution or even interrupt with clarifying questions when your client is bursting out. In most cases, clients are looking to release their frustration. Since it is a part of the job, so, it cannot be ignored but a clever tactic can be your savior. You can mute your end and let the client vent. As a matter of fact, giving the client full rein over the conversation for the first few minutes helps him or her get out those frustrations, blow off some steam, and eventually, be able to focus on getting to a resolution.

Let your client vent
Let your client vent

3. Exclude the blame game:

Instead of blaming others or your company, use indirect approach or “I” statements when trying to clarify. In order to explain what went wrong, use either the indirect approach i.e. asking relevant questions before refunding or “I” statements like “I need additional information.” as much as possible. Never acknowledge that you or your company is to blame as it could lead to lawsuits.

Stop blaming
Stop blaming

4. Use caller’s name in the conversation:

Interjecting the caller’s name into the conversation is yet another strategy to deal with unfavorable situations and a difficult customer. Addressing your client with the given scripts without using his/ her name sounds a lot more formal and much less sincere. Once you use a name, you are suddenly speaking with a real person who has a legitimate reason behind his or her frustration.

Addressing the caller
Addressing the caller

5. Go above and beyond to solve customer problems:

Try leaving no stone unturned in solving your customer’s issues. Never avoid solving their problems even if solving the customer’s problem isn’t among your job duties. Try to get all the facts you can, and then tell the customer how you can help. This would further help you tackle a difficult customer as well.

Strive to solve the problems
Strive to solve the problems

 

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How to deal with a difficult customer: I

In today’s era, quality customer service is a necessity when you are trying to stand out of the crowd. It helps you differentiate your competitors. Businesses with poor customer service risk losing revenues, profits and even going out of business. You need to know that dealing with difficult customers is a part of any business and it is inevitable that you will need to deal with a difficult customer from time to time. As a matter of fact, you can’t control anyone else’s behavior. All you have control over are your own actions. However, you can influence how customers respond to you to some extent. Here are some steps to handle such situations:

1.Listening is the key:

Understand that the customer desires to be listened. So, just tune in to the customer rather than looking for the nearest exit. Strive to acknowledge and understand the customer  Let the person talk, and pay close attention to whatever he/ she says. You may even repeat or paraphrase some of what you hear.

Listening
Listening

2. Mirror your customers and connect accordingly:

In order to prepare yourself for handling difficult customers, you first need to mirror them. Some of your customers may have high technical knowledge and others may need high-level explanations. Some may need extra reassurance that things are going to be fine while others do not want to waste time unless you can offer a solution on the spot. Identifying and categorizing your customers accordingly can help you connect better with them. They will feel more like you truly understand what they want you to. Moreover, this will help them be more open to your assistance.

Mirroring your customers
Mirroring your customers

3. Never argue or show lack of interest:

Make it a point to never argue with customers when they are angry, displeased or complaining. When you allow a customer to push to an extent where you lose control of yourself, you lose control of the situation. Showing boredom, irritation, disdain or displeasure can make you lose a good customer.

Never argue with angry customers
Never argue with angry customers

4. Think before acting:

Dealing with difficult customers requires thinking before responding. Responding when angry can lead to nasty situations. Therefore, responses should exclude personal emotions and be given carefully.

Think before acting
Think before acting

 

 

 

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Strategies to improve first call resolution stats: III

1. Avoid conflicting metrics:

Call centers make use of a number of metrics to determine quality and profitability.  Some of these metrics are business oriented and others are customer oriented. In order to boost the first call resolution stats, the metrics provided by the call center should be clear enough in order to avoid any confusion. Let’s take an example of conflicting metrics: If the focus is on reducing the time per call the call centers might find FCR rates falling as agents would be looking to wrap up the call as soon as possible, irrespective of the customer issues. Thus, the call center metrics should be exempted of all sorts of confusions.

Call center metrics
Call center metrics

2. Make use of agent feedback:

Agent feedback is yet another tactic of improving first call resolution stats. This requires instituting a system of soliciting feedback from your agents. Since they deal with customers all day long, they can provide insights on what changes can be made to improve FCR rate. These agent feedbacks can be used to ask about workflow, systems and processes that need to be tweaked or implemented to achieve higher rates.

Feedback from agents
Feedback from agents

3. Ensure the proper functioning of your IVR system:

A properly functioning IVR system is highly recommended for improving first call resolution rates. It exempts customer frustration so that do not hang up. Moreover, this improves the efficiency of the call center system.

Cloud IVR

4. Ensure proper resource access to the agents:

There are instances where given the dozens of applications agents need to deal with on each call, they aren’t able to quickly access that information. This causes customers to be transferred multiple times which further leads to customer dissatisfaction. Another common hurdle to first call resolution is that agents are not given the authority to deal with issues beyond the basic, such as dealing with returns, offering discounts, etc. and then the customer call gets forwarded. Therefore, providing proper access to resources can help your agents work efficiently and hence increase FCR stats.

Access to required resources
Access to required resources
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Strategies to improve first call resolution stats: II

1. Minimize call escalations:

In order to improve first call resolution, you need to analyze your call center communications to find out the most frequently escalated calls. Once you understand the issues that prompt these calls, take steps to minimize the escalations. These steps may include more training, larger number of self service options on the website, change in business operations. This would help increase the FCR stats as customers don’t have to call too often.

Call escalation
Call escalation

2. Make use of group chats:

Group chats enable all members of the help desk to add information about issues they might be having and they can post questions about issues they might not be familiar with.  Some of the softwares that can be used for this purpose are Google Hangouts, Lotus Notes Same time and Skype. You can leverage these softwares to boost your first call resolution stats insanely.

Group chats
Group chats

 

3. Avoid miscommunication:

Miscommunication occurs when either the customers or the agents start assuming things. As a result, customers call again as they are not very sure how the matter will be resolved. This further results in a decrease of FCR stats. So, agents have to be very careful to avoid any chance of  miscommunication. For an effective communication, customers must be made aware of all the aspects of the case so that there is no need for them to call again to confirm.

Miscommunication
Miscommunication

4. Offer incentives and rewards:

Offering incentives and rewards is an enticing method to improve the FCR stats. You can have a monthly award for the highest level of FCR and special incentives for the team if they achieve their targets. You can consider instituting incentive programs among employees who hit the requisite numbers. This incentive can be tied in with other perks and can be in the form of bonuses, promotions, recognition and more.

Incentives and rewards
Incentives and rewards

 

 

 

 

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Strategies to improve first call resolution stats: I

In our previous post, we talked about the importance of FCR for call centers. You are now familiar with the numerous benefits that first call resolution can provide you once you start using it in your organization. Now, let’s look at the some of the effective strategies that can be employed to improve your first call resolution stats:

1. Leverage knowledge database:

In order to boost the FCR rate, knowledge database can be used as a powerful tool.  Provide updated, highly informative and quality knowledge databases to your agents. Make sure that the articles in the database should be clear and concise, with good instructions on how to fix the issues. The knowledge database should be efficient enough so that the agents do not have to scroll through tons of unnecessary information.

Knowledge database
Knowledge database

2. Train your agents and provide them superior analytical tools:

Invest in training your front line agents in all the necessary elements related to your business operations. Properly trained agents can do little even if they do not have good customer service tools and resources at their disposal. To boost the FCR stats further, you can even consider investing in an efficient live chat solution that identifies where the other person is chatting from. You can deploy tools with superior analytics capabilities  and knowledge resources that make updating your FAQs and knowledge base easy.

Training agents
Training agents

3. Monitor call quality:

Monitoring involves checking call quality, making sure the agents are not being rude and checking that the right processes were followed . In cases where the agents miss an easy FCR, a helpful email should be sent informing them of where they went wrong and what they can do next time. Meetings can be set up in those cases where the agent is making consistent mistakes and the FCR level is far below what it should be.

Monitoring call quality
Monitoring call quality

 

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Importance of first call resolution

By now, you are familiar with first call resolution and elements it consists of. FCR is a highly efficient method of improving chat centers’ efficiency. It is a fact that large number of organizations have heard about first call resolution but only a handful of them truly understands its importance. the actual usage of the metric is surprisingly low. The possible reason is their nonchalance towards this powerful mechanism. Here are a few reasons to let you know why you should aim for first call resolution:

1. Increases agent efficiency:

The most common parameter for evaluating the agents’ performance is call duration. It is employed by most of the call centers but it is of no use as it only leads the agents to quickly get rid of customers. Emphasizing on resolving customer issues in the first call, will not only help organizations to determine the best performers and reward that behavior but also increase their efficiency.

Increases agent efficiency
Increases agent efficiency

2. Improves customer satisfaction:

Instant query resolution is directly proportional to customer satisfaction. Therefore, an increase in first call resolution correspondingly translates to an improvement in customer satisfaction. Resolving your customers’ concerns in the first call means efficiently availing the opportunity that they give you to display the quality of service that they expect from you.

Improves customer satisfaction
Improves customer satisfaction

3. Boosts customer revenues:

First call resolution is an effective way of making your customer open to upsell or cross sell activities. But if the issue is not resolved, customers will be frustrated and will be least interested to do further business.

Boosts customer revenues
Boosts customer revenues

4. Deflates operational costs: 

FCR directly impacts the repeat calls. This leads to an increase in the operational efficiency which further reduces the operational costs. Moreover, it takes the pressure off call centers caused by call spikes. According to a research, a 15% increase in FCR results in a 57% reduction in repeat calls.

Reduces operational costs
Reduces operational costs

5. Helps gain customer loyalty:

Resolving customers issues and concerns in the first call makes customers feel that they are being acknowledged and valued by the organization, eliminating the thought of switching companies. This helps gain customer loyalty, improves customer retention and repeat businesses.

Helps gain customer loyalty
Helps gain customer loyalty

 

 

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Your ultimate guide to first call resolution

First call resolution is a term related to CRM system. It means properly addressing the customer’s need the first time they call. This eliminates the need for the customer to follow up with a second call. The average time an agent spends on each call is known as talk time and is a common call center performance metric. Moreover, fast talk time averages are desirable. However, fast talk time averages accompanied by poor first call resolution rates are a sign that customer calls are not being answered satisfactorily.

First call resolution
First call resolution

Follow up calls are consistently monitored by the call center managers because in addition to being an indication of customer dissatisfaction, follow-up calls create an overall increased call volume. This further indicates the increased requirement of agents. In most cases, an increase in talk time is acceptable as long as the first call resolution rate increases along with the talk time.

Call monitoring
Call monitoring

According to a research conducted by CFI Group states that FCR has the most impact on customer satisfaction, and therefore, a customer’s loyalty and likelihood to recommend.  It also states that across all industries, almost a fifth of all callers hung up due to dissatisfaction as their issues could not be resolved.  Out of these dissatisfied callers, 68% are at risk of defection, 43% said they would definitely defect, and 25% weren’t sure. Also, it has been reported that for every 1% improvement in FCR, you get 1% improvement in customer satisfaction.  Moreover, if a customer’s inquiry or problem were resolved in the first call, only 3% of those customers would be at risk of switching to a competitor.

Unresolved queries lead to dissatifaction
Unresolved queries lead to dissatisfaction

These days, some of the centers allow agents to determine if the customer’s issue was resolved on first contact while other centers use their QA (Quality Assurance) people to decide whether calls were resolved on first contact. However, this method is based on random sampling and doesn’t reflect a complete picture. On the other hand there are a number of centers that employ post-call surveys and directly ask the customer whether or not their issue was resolved on the first contact.

Quality assurance
Quality assurance

 

 

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What is meant by net promoter score?

Net Promoter Score refers to a management tool that can be utilized to gauge the loyalty of a firm’s customer relationships. It serves as an alternative to traditional customer satisfaction research and is correlated with revenue growth. NPS measures the loyalty that exists between a service provider and a consumer. The provider is the entity that is asking the questions on the NPS survey and consumer is the customer, employee, or respondent to an NPS survey.

Net promoter score
Net promoter score

Working of net promoter score:

The Net Promoter Score is calculated based on responses to a single question: How likely is it that you would recommend our company/product/service to a friend or colleague? The scoring for this answer is most often based on a 0 to 10 scale. Moreover the consumers are also categorized according to the score with which they respond:

i) The ones who respond with a score of 9 to 10 are called Promoters, and are considered likely to exhibit value-creating behaviors, such as buying more, remaining customers for longer etc.

ii) Those who respond with a score of 0 to 6 are labeled Detractors, and they are believed to be less likely to exhibit the value-creating behaviors.

iii) Responses of 7 and 8 are labeled Passives, and their behavior falls in the middle of Promoters and Detractors.

NPS elements
NPS elements

The Net Promoter Score is calculated by subtracting the percentage of detractors from the percentage of promoters. For calculating a net promoter score, passives count towards the total number of respondents, thus decreasing the percentage of detractors and promoters and pushing the net score towards 0.

Companies are encouraged to follow the likelihood to recommend question with an open-ended request for elaboration, soliciting the reasons for a customer’s rating of that company or product. These reasons can further be provided to front-line employees and management teams for follow-up action. Moreover, additional questions can be included to assist with understanding the perception of various products, services, and lines of business.

An example of NPS survey
An example of NPS survey

Net Promoter System also requires a process called closing the loop. It is a process by which the provider actively makes efforts to convert a detractor into a promoter.

Converting detractors to promoters 1
Converting detractors to promoters 1

Proponents of the Net Promoter approach claim that the score can be used to motivate an organization to become more focused on improving products and services for consumers. A customer is able to leave comments in the surveys sent to them which allows a company to use the VOC (Voice of Customer) to ensure that company is meeting the expectations.

Voice of the customers
Voice of the customers

 

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What is customer experience management?

Customer experience management refers to the collection of processes a company utilizes to track, oversee and organize every interaction between a customer and the organization throughout the customer lifecycle. CEM aims at optimizing customer experience through gaining the loyalty of the customers in a multi-channel environment. A company needs to create a strategy that encompasses all customer interactions in order to manage the customer experience.

Customer experience management
Customer experience management

CEM depicts a business strategy designed to manage the customer experience. Moreover, it provides benefits to both retailers and customers. Customer experience management can be monitored through surveys, targeted studies, observational studies and other such methods of research. 

CEM monitoring process
CEM monitoring process

Customer experience management can be related to customer journey mapping. Journey mapping is a design tool used to track customers’ movements through different touchpoints with the business in question. It shows the track starting from the first encounters people may have with the brand continuing through all the different route people can take through the different channels or marketing. Other strategy involved in CEM is integrated marketing communications which involves sending a consistent message amongst platforms such as advertising, personal selling, public relations, direct marketing, and sales promotion.

Customer journey mapping
Customer journey mapping

CEM holds great importance in terms of research. In order to leverage CEM, development into the conceptual and theoretical aspects are needed. The reason behind the interest in CEM increasing so significantly is that businesses are looking for competitive differentiation that makes them stand out of the crowd.  Therefore, they inculcate CEM in order to be more profitable. That is why businesses want to offer a better experience to their customers and want to manage this process efficiently. Researches prove that in order to gain success as a business, customers need to be understood. Academic research along with recognizing past customer experiences can help manage future experiences.

Businesses utilizing CEM
Businesses utilizing CEM

 

 

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Uses of automatic speech recognition system: II

1. Provide quick access to information:

Automatic speech recognition system is the best available technology if you have customers who need fast access to information. There are many circumstances when customers do not actually need or want to speak to a live operator. This happens when they have little time or they only require basic information. In such cases, speech recognition can be used to reduce waiting times and provide customers with the information they need. Using a speech recognition system, incoming customer calls are filtered according to requirements and those wanting basic information are automatically directed to the speech recognition system that quickly evaluates the nature of the enquiry through a series of prompts. However, there is an option to speak to a live operator at all times for the caller’s convenience. In addition to all this, the average call time is reduced significantly with the use of this amazing technology, hence, freeing up skilled agents for more complex calls.

Quick access
Quick access

2. Intelligent call steering:

Automatic speech recognition system provides an option of replacing complicated and often frustrating ‘push button’ IVR. This is done by leveraging the ‘intelligent call steering’ (ICS) which does not involve any button pushing. The system simply asks the customers about their requirements and then transfers them to the most suitable resources to handle their call. As an example, in some companies, callers dial a number and are greeted by the message “Welcome to ABC company, how can I help you?” The caller is then routed to the right agent within 20 to 30 seconds of the call being answered with misdirected calls reduced to as low as 3-5 per cent. Moreover, the system can more accurately assess the nature of the call and transfer it to the most appropriate department in the very first attempt. This further helps in reducing the call waiting time and exempting misdirected calls to a large extent.

Reduced call waiting time
Reduced call waiting time

 

 

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Uses of automatic speech recognition system: I

By now, we are familiar with the automatic speech recognition technology. We have already discussed about its basics, working and benefits. Now, let’s take a look at its uses. Automatic call recognition can be used for the following purposes:

1. Handle high volumes of customer service enquiries:

Automatic speech recognition system is highly beneficial for businesses that have very high volumes of calls from repeat customers. It is useful in cases where calls occur in irregular peaks. The problem of high volumes of customer service queries can be solved by diverting the calls depending simply on their nature.

High call volumes
High call volumes

2. Identity authentication:

ASR technology proves to be highly useful where you need to authenticate someone’s identity on the phone without using personal data. Some advanced speech recognition systems provide an answer to this problem in the form of voice biometrics. The system allows you to create a voiceprint based on specific text such as ‘Name’ and ‘Account Number’. This information is then stored against the individual’s record, so that whenever they call again, they can simply say their name and if the voiceprint matches what they have stored, then the person is put straight through to a customer service representative. The benefit of this technique is that it takes less than 30 seconds and also bypasses the need for the individual to have to run through a series of tedious ID checks such as passwords, address details and more.

Voiceprints
Voice prints

3. Put caller’s through the right department:

By applying speech recognition, you can allow callers to choose a ‘self-service’ route or alternatively ‘say’ what they want and be directed to the correct department or individual. This technique helps in in three ways:

i) It ascertains what the call is about

ii) It takes the customer through security checks or other parameters if required

iii) Lastly, it transfers the customer to the appropriate member of staff.

The details that the customer has already provided appear on the screen so that they do not have to repeat the information. In other words, it helps the customers to voice their needs in the most appropriate manner.

Directing the callers to the right department
Directing the callers to the right department

 

 

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All you need to know about automatic speech recognition

Automatic speech recognition, also known as speech recognition is the inter-disciplinary sub-field of computational linguistics that develops methodologies and technologies that enables the recognition and translation of spoken language into text by computers. This technology is known by various names such as computer speech recognition or speech to text (STT). Automatic speech recognition can further be defined as the independent, computer‐driven transcription of spoken language into readable text in real time.  In other words, ASR is a technology that allows a computer to identify the words that a person speaks into a microphone or telephone and converts it to written text.

Automatic speech recognition
Automatic speech recognition

The ultimate goal of ASR research is to allow a computer to recognize all words that are intelligibly spoken by any person, with 100% accuracy, in real time. Moreover, this recognition is independent of vocabulary size, noise, speaker characteristics or accent.  Commercially available ASR systems usually require only a short period of speaker training and may successfully capture continuous speech with a large vocabulary at normal pace with a very high accuracy.

Speech recognition
Speech recognition

The entire process that takes place in an automatic speech recognition is described below:

i) The process begins when a speaker actually speaks a sentence.

ii) The software then produces a speech wave form, which embodies the words of the sentence along with all the extraneous sounds and pauses in the spoken input.

iii) Next, the software converts the speech signal into a sequence of vectors which are measured throughout the duration of the speech signal.

v) Lastly, using a syntactic decoder it generates a valid sequence of representations.

Working of ASR technology
Working of ASR technology

Being an amazing and highly efficacious technology, automatic speech recognition offers various benefits. Some of those benefits include:

i) Accessibility for the deaf and hard of hearing

ii) Cost reduction through automation

iii) Searchable text capability

 

 

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Benefits of automatic call distribution (ACD): II

1. Shorter response time:

One of the most important benefits of ACD is short response time. This call distribution system is highly capable of identifying VIP callers who have a reputation of high-ticket transactions. Since, the ACD system filters the calls on predefined criteria, these calls get answered more readily by the agents and in cases of non- availability of agents, VIP calls are placed first in the queue. In addition to all these benefits, a caller can also opt for a call back instead of waiting in the queue that further improves call handling.

Shorter response time
Shorter response time

2. Cost reduction and resource optimization:

In ACD, the call is transferred to the most appropriate agents such that the customer can get his query resolved without transferring him to other agents or departments. This reduces the time taken to answer a call and hence reduces cost-per-call of the call center. It enables the agents to use their expertise in solving the problems of a caller rather than indulging in activities that are outside their scope. ACD acquires usage data which enables the managers to assess KPIs and optimize resources more efficiently.

Reduced costs
Reduced costs

3. Enhanced customer contentment:

Callers hate it when their call is transferred to a number of agents with none of them having the solution to his/her problem. As a solution to this problem, ACD provides an option to receive an agent call back. This facility reduces their pain of waiting in the queue. For this purpose, pre-built messages are sent to callers with estimated wait times based on the length of the queue and agent availability. Moreover, automatic call distribution system aids in delivering highly responsive customer service that channels each contact to the right queue and agent resource and creates  better business outcomes. This further leads to increased customer contentment.

Customer satisfaction
Customer satisfaction

 

 

 

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Benefits of automatic call distribution (ACD): I

So far we have discussed about automatic call distribution system, its features and its integration with the IVR technology. Apart from its mind blowing features ACD offers a number of benefits that are extremely useful in increasing the efficacy of any organization. Let’s take a look at some of those benefits:

1. Deeper understanding of customers’ needs:

Automatic call distribution system is highly efficient. However, upon integration with CRM and other communication platforms such as social media and live chat, it allows the agents to have a smarter conversation with the customer by understanding their needs thoroughly. ACD enables the entire team to view all the past communications and history of the customer on a single interface which is easy to update. This further enables call conferencing and transferring to different departments with customer’s data on their tips.

Better understanding of customers' needs
Better understanding of customers’ needs

2. Impeccable call routing:

Automatic call distribution system follows an algorithmic approach that analyzes vital caller statistics such as caller ID, area code and IVR specifications to assign the call to the most appropriate agent. This enables the contact center agents to reduce the possibility of errors, call drops and call transfer to wrong agents. Thus ACD provides an impeccable call routing or skill specific routing which improves the efficiency of the entire system to a great extent.

Call routing
Call routing

3. Improved agent efficacy:

When ACD is employed, agents are directed to handle calls  for which they are trained. Since they have expertise and the required subject knowledge to handle a customer this increases their confidence in dealing with a call and also improves their productivity. Moreover ACD provides them access to the caller’s information before answering the call, which results in a meaningful discussion. This further leads to customer satisfaction, strengthens customer relationships and increases loyalty to a large extent.

Improved agent efficacy
Improved agent efficacy

 

 

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Capabilities of automatic call distribution system

Automatic call distribution refers to the process of routing incoming calls to the most suitable agent who can answer the caller’s need appropriately. Moreover, it comes pre-integrated with a Computer telephony integration technology and an IVR that provides the options of self-service and helps in reaching the appropriate department directly. ACD is a highly capable technology. Some of its capabilities include:

1. Skill-Based Routing :

Skill based routing means that incoming calls can be routed to the specific agent or department based on pre-determined criteria. In other words, the call is routed to an agent with appropriate skill-set and who can address the customer’s needs properly and efficaciously.

Skill based routing
Skill based routing

2. Quick responses to VIP Callers:

Some of the callers are regarded as high value callers based on pre-determined info. With the help of ACD, such callers are immediately routed to the most appropriate agent. In cases of non- availability of agents, they are placed first in the waiting queue.

Immediate responses to high value customers
Immediate responses to high value customers

3. Meaningful and valuable conversations with the customers:

CTI stands for computer telephony integration. Upon integration with CTI and skill-based routing, ACD allows agents to view the customer’s information such as past communications history, before they answer the call. This results in a very meaningful conversation with the customer.

CTI technology
CTI technology

4. Route calls to agents at different locations:

ACD has a provision for connecting agents at multiple locations. In other words, it can easily route calls to agents sitting at remote locations. Therefore, all the agents working in different geographies can function as a single team.

Connecting agents at multiple locations
Connecting agents at multiple locations

5. Call-back Feature:

With ACD, callers can opt for call back instead of waiting in a queue. Due to this facility, the callers do not have to wait and as soon as an agent is available, he calls back immediately.

Call back service
Call back service

6. Upgrade agent coaching processes:

Call center managers can go for call monitoring, whispering and call barging with the aid of automatic call distribution system. This can help in upgrading agents’ skills by leveraging the call monitoring facility.

Utilizing call monitoring to coach agents
Utilizing call monitoring to coach agents

 

 

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ACD and its integration with IVR technology

As discussed earlier, IVR is a technology that allows users to obtain information from a phone system without the assistance of an operator. On the other hand, ACD technology automatically routes calls to phone agents based upon organizational rules.

IVR
IVR

ACD stands for automatic call distributor or automated call distribution system. It is a device or system that distributes incoming calls to a specific group of terminals or agents based on the customer’s selection, customer’s telephone number, selected incoming line to the system, or time of day the call was processed. In most cases it is a part of a computer telephony integration (CTI) system.

ACD
ACD

ACD system is meant for routing incoming calls which employs a routing strategy that determines how the calls are handled inside a system. This strategy is a rule-based set of instructions based on an algorithm that determines the best available employee or employees to respond to a given incoming call. Additional data are solicited and reviewed to find out the customers’ requirements and help make a match accordingly.

Routing incoming calls
Routing incoming calls

Integration of ACD and IVR technology:

After IVR and call distribution integration the system works as follows:

i) ACD system uses the DNIS (Dialed Number) to check the necessary rules for processing a call on the number as soon as it receives a call.

ii) Further an associated IVR program is invoked by the ACD.

iii) The IVR client process then invokes a server process on the application server and starts a two-way communication with the respective IVR Server.

iv) An IVR program controls the flow of the IVR script by prompting the caller and requesting key input or directing the caller to another ACD call routing path, extension, or voice mail.

v) The respective IVR program can perform customer information lookup, transaction processing or initiate outbound calls and prompt the called individual with the same messages and accept phone key input from this individual as well. Hence, the caller and called individual can be connected.

An example of ACD and IVR integration
An example of ACD and IVR integration

 

 

 

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Incredible benefits of IVR technology: III

1.Faster problem resolution:

IVR system offers a faster problem resolution. When this efficacious system is employed, it routes the callers to the best employee to service their needs, questions are often answered and problems are resolved in the initial attempts. This further results in an improved customer support system and contented customers.

Problem resolution
Problem resolution

2. It reduces the cost of operator talk time:

IVR helps cut down on answering service talk time as well. Using front end IVR with your answering service means giving callers the opportunity to service their own needs or promptly transfer themselves to the right person which further leads to the reduction of the cost of operator talk time.

Cost reduction
Cost reduction

3. It exempts call transfers and saves time:

Since the callers are always directed to the most capable agent or most appropriate department, so the probability of instant problem resolution is high. Moreover, the agent who receives the call will be more qualified to answer the caller’s question and will be less likely to transfer the call to another agent. Hence, IVR systems prove to be real time saviors.

Time is saved
Time is saved

4. It improves the quality of customer service:

As a matter of fact, the agents working in a company that uses an IVR are more proficient at solving specific problems and meeting specific needs of the customers that they are assigned. This results in an increase in customer service efficiency.

Improved customer service
Improved customer service

5. It boosts the inbound call capacity:

With the aid of IVR, more calls can be answered simultaneously. Unlike the traditional reception, where there is  a flurry of please holds or funky hold music while customers await transfer, IVR technology encourages a speedy problem resolution. It allows for a higher call volume and eliminates the need for additional reception staff, and its low cost means a higher ROI.

Boosted inbound call capacity
Boosted inbound call capacity