12 April 2022
Missing customer calls is never a good thing as it can mean losing business opportunities, customer loyalty and valuable interactions with your customers.
During peak time, it can be difficult to talk to each and every customer and some will even hang up before an agent gets to them. Businesses sometimes think you can’t change this, but we think you can. There are ways to minimise the number of lost calls and make sure customers are spoken to when they need it most.
There are three types of ‘lost calls’, Missed, Abandoned and Dropped. Missed calls are when the customer is disconnected due to agent availability and long queues. This happens because the call is dropped automatically by the phone system.
Abandoned calls are when the customer hangs up before reaching an agent. This can be for many reasons but the biggest one is long wait times. Dropped calls are the most uncommon but it is when the call is dropped due to a technical issue. This can be because of poor signal or a busy network.
So how can you minimise those ‘lost calls’? Below we talk about how you can help keep those calls and how Square One Network can help in your contact centre.
Queue Announcements:
No one likes being on hold, however the hold music can even be a worse experience for your customers. Introducing queue announcements helps give your customer information about their wait time or what position in the queue they are.
Having these announcements are more likely to keep your customers on the line and therefore reducing the number of lost calls.
Callbacks:
Even though you have implemented queue announcements, people have busy lives and your customer might need to put down the phone. With callbacks, the customer keeps their place in the queue, they don’t receive a call randomly throughout the day but they can hang up and get on with their day.
Call Slots:
If it is peak time and agents are busy, callbacks are tricky to get to. Adding call slots allows you to give your customers an option to receive a call at a specific time and day, making it easy for them to not wait around for your call.
You also have the chance to call them back at a quieter time, removing stress and pressure on your agents while encouraging a better call management culture. It isn’t the best approach for urgent calls but it is helpful for queries that can wait a few hours.
Not all of these will be applicable for those in an emergency but you can implement other features like omni-channel communication for those who are in serious need of your help.
Data:
A lack of data and poor call management is the most common cause of lost calls. You may not know what calls were lost, at what time and day and the numbers that called. Do you know which day is your busiest or the average length of your queue?
It is fundamental to know and act on this data to implement the right tools and features for your agents and your business. A modern cloud-based contact centre can give you the option to automatically call back anyone who put the phone down before speaking to an agent or who chose a callback.
A cloud contact centre is where your business can thrive and again, get back to all of your customers. Use our managed chat, Melu to talk to an agent today or drop us an email to talk about your contact centre requirements.
