Kathrine Rabjerg Hansen
Marketing Manager
Jan 25, 2024
How to avoid repeat calls in the customer center
Repeat calls are a drag on the overall customer experience. Such calls are often time-consuming, cause frustration for both customers and agents, and lead to confusion. In addition, they can be difficult to handle because agents need to gain a comprehensive understanding of the customer inquiry as well as the previous conversations.
While repeat calls can be impossible to avoid entirely, there are measures you can take to minimize the amount.
What are repeat calls, and why should you avoid them?
Repeat calls occur when a customer calls a contact center repetitively, addressing the same issue.
Often, such calls are associated with complex cases that involve multiple steps and follow-up processes. But in fact, repeat calls are also typically due to …:
unresolved issues during the first call
prolonged processes that cause customers follow up
lack of clear and consistent communication
system, technology, or human errors
poor follow-up
incomplete information causing confusion
self-service errors
The complexity and frustration levels depend on what caused the repeat call in the first place.
If you work in a contact center, repeat calls are most likely a part of the everyday call handling. In fact, on average, 13% of all customer inquiries are repeat calls – and they can be frustrating to handle, as they are often significantly longer than the average ones and increase the agent workload.
In addition to this, customers are 41% more likely to express dissatisfaction during the call.
The number of repeat calls depends on the type of organization and how well the team manages to work actively with reducing the amount of it.
The organization with the fewest repeat calls has 9%, while the highest has 25%. That means that even for organizations with a relatively low amount of repeat calls, there is still room for improvement.
Three ways of minimizing the number of repeat calls
Even though the reasons for repeat calls varies, the approaches to avoid them often prove to be similar. Which approach you prefer to start with depends on the size of your organization, your resources, and coaching approach.
Gather all key knowledge in one database
One of the most important ways to avoid repeat calls is simple: Focus on resolving the customer's inquiry during the first call.
Repeat calls happen for various reasons, and some inquiries require multi-step processes and extensive follow-up to ensure the customer receives the right help.
Therefore, there is significant potential for improvement by focusing on First Call Resolution (FCR). This is especially important because agents sometimes rush through conversations to reduce call duration, leading them to skip crucial parts of the conversation, such as needs assessments.
The first step to improving your FCR is categorizing calls into relevant groups. These categories should form the foundation of a knowledge database containing key information on important topics. The knowledge database should be easy to search, and the answers should always reflect the successful techniques your agents have proven to work.
If you want to successfully use the knowledge database to proactively improve, it is important to remember that agents often have different expertise areas and development needs. That is why agents often also need guidance on which topics they need to explore further to improve customer experiences.
Keep in mind that your customer service knowledge database should be continuously updated. The same applies to any self-service or FAQ database to minimize the chances of customers receiving inaccurate or conflicting information.
Improve your self-service and FAQ pages
Customers often prefer to find answers on their own when given the chance. This saves them time by allowing them to avoid phone queues and the need to call during specific hours.
For simple inquiries, it is easy to provide relevant answers through self-service portals or FAQ pages. However, it is crucial to ensure these pages are regularly updated, ideally using insights from actual customer interactions.
By updating your self-service and FAQ pages based on data from customer conversations, you ensure that both questions and answers align with how your customers communicate, making it easier for them to navigate and find the information they need.
Facilitate intelligent routing
Agents typically have different areas of expertise and interests. Although it is important for agents to develop new skills, both agents and customers benefit from allowing experienced agents to handle complex cases within their area of expertise.
There are several ways to facilitate intelligent routing, and how you approach it depends on your resources.
One popular way to ensure that customers are directed to the right queue is by optimizing your Interactive Voice Response (IVR) system. An IVR allows customers to narrow down their issues through a menu. This way, customer service centers know whether a call concerns a private inquiry or a company-related one before picking up the phone. This helps them route the customer to the correct queue.
Another option is to utilize new AI solutions. Some systems allow customers to explain their problems and use this information to intelligently route them to the correct queue, along with a brief summary of their issue and suggested solutions based on best practices.
Want to learn more about how to minimize knowledge gaps and repeat calls with AI
Knowledge gaps occur in about 12% of all conversations. These gaps not only lead to repeat calls but also increase conversation length and customer frustration.
The best way to close these gaps is by collecting and categorizing data from customer conversations, then using it proactively to streamline interactions and improve quality.
Learn more about how to leverage your data and how AI can support you in the article below.
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