Wake Up from 3 Customer Service Nightmares with Call Center Software

Imagine sipping the last drop of chamomile tea, slipping under a warm comforter, and slowly drifting asleep.

But instead of dreaming about flying over the Atlantic ocean with pelicans or frolicking through a field of daisies and puppies…

A nightmare with the worst call center fears takes hold.

But don’t be too afraid…

The heebie-jeebies won’t last all night.

By the time this post is over, the solution to these nightmares will bring the dawn and banish the darkness.

So, let’s get it over with quickly!

3 Customer Service Nightmares (And How Call Center Software Solves Them)

1. High Absenteeism

Is there anything scarier for call center managers than walking into work and finding out 4 agents aren’t coming to work?

Now imagine if that was during a holiday rush or similar busy time, depending on the call center and its business.

It’s awful.

The other agents have to step up and pick up the slack. Customers will definitely be complaining. Hold times shoot up. SLAs go in the trashcan. And the list of horrors goes on and on.

Not to mention the hit it delivers on the bottom line for call centers.

According to Circadian, the average rate of absenteeism in the U.S. is 3.1%, which equals 64 hours per work, per year.

The cost?

Roughly $2,660 per shift worker per year – not small beans. And absenteeism is very common in the call center industry.

It’s easy for employees to become mentally, emotionally, and even physically drained – leading to them actually getting sick or calling in “sick” when they need a personal day.

And if more employees aren’t coming in to work, the other agents will become more stressed out and have to take off work as well.

The solution?

Track absenteeism using call center software. Follow the trends and see at what times people are taking off work the most. Is it around the holidays? Weekends? People’s birthdays?

Maybe the call center is short-staffed and it needs to hire more people. Maybe morale is down and agents need a fun company outing. Whatever it is, by tracking it, call center managers are better able to solve it.

TCN shaped its platform around solving these problems, too. Workforce optimization and engagement tools provide agent-level customizable reporting for your inbound call center, giving you real-time data to measure productivity and even tone of voice.

2. Low First Call Resolution Rates

Low first call resolution rates create a vicious cycle that leads to poor customer service.

One thing to understand is that 68% of call center communications come from phone calls, so it’s extremely important that when an agent first answers a customer’s call, they resolve that customers issue.

If the caller has to call multiple times or spend a lot of time on hold, customer satisfaction is going to plummet.

There are a couple of ways call center software can fix this nightmare.

First off, not all agents should be handling all calls. Meaning, some agents are better suited to handle one group of customers over another.

This is why, instead of driving calls to agents in order, call centers should consider using skills-based call routing.

For example, if an irate customer is waiting on hold, it’s better to pass them off to an agent who excels in handling angry or frustrated customers, as opposed to the new guy.

Or if a customer wants to churn and start patronizing the competition, the call can be routed to a retention expert who knows how to keep people around.

Whatever the case, this form of call center software will surely help call centers avoid this nightmare.

TCN’s business intelligence tools can tell you more than just FCR rates, too. The system can automatically transcribe conversations, tags “flagged” phrases that you choose – like “unacceptable” or “disgusting” or “manager” – and also measures emotions through vocal analysis. Use these to flag difficult conversations and investigate unresolved calls back to their source.

3. Poor Customer Satisfaction

Too many agents ditching work and an inability to resolve customer issues inevitably leads to the worst call center nightmare of all:

Poor customer satisfaction.

And poor customer satisfaction leads to lost customers.

One of the best ways to measure customer satisfaction is by using Net Promoter Scores.

Net Promoter Scores work like this:

Businesses send out a survey asking a single question:

“How likely are you to recommend our company/product/service to a friend, family member, or colleague?”

Provide the customer with a scale of 1-10, all customers that answer with a 9 or 10 are your promoters.

To discover the score of net promoters, simply take the % of promoters minus the % of detractors.

If a call center discovers that they have more detractors than promoters, it’s time to improve the customer experience.

One particular call center software can help save the day:

Interactive Voice Response (IVR) system.

When customers call, the IVR interacts with them first, giving customers various options for achieving their goals.

Some customers are calling to pay bills. They don’t need to speak to an agent for that, so the IVR lets them pay the bill without ever speaking to anyone.

But there’s one more call center software that can help improve customer satisfaction we haven’t mentioned yet that helps call center managers finally sleep soundly at night…

Business Intelligence (BI) and How it Dispels Call Center Nightmares

BI helps call center managers do it all:

• Track employee behavior and improve it.
• Better understand customers and how to please them.
• Root out inefficiencies in the office and streamline the organization.

The list goes on and on.

And if any of you out there are troubled by the nightmares we laid out today, rest assured that you can wake up and wipe off the flop sweat from your forehead and realize that they have BI tracking – it’s all going to be OK.

Want to see how?

Get a free copy of our Business Intelligence Brochure and see how powerful BI is today!