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How To Save Your Customers Time When They Call You

Have you ever analysed the number of inbound calls to your Customer Service team that are just customers needing help with simple, routine tasks?  Things like:

  1. Updating credit card details
  2. Changing address details
  3. Making a payment
  4. Registering a purchase
  5. Ordering a replacement membership card or loyalty card
  6. Requesting an appointment
  7. Asking for a form
  8. Checking a balance

Easy as these enquiries are for your teams to resolve, they still take more time than they need to.

Take this common scenario

Your customer has 5 minutes during their lunch break to call you to change their address details.

  • They spend the first 3 minutes waiting in the queue, listening to repeated “Your call is important to us” messages.
  • The call is finally connected, but they spend another 30-60 seconds having to verify with your team member that they are who they say they are.
  • Then they explain the reason for their call and the team member repeats it back to them while they bring up the necessary programs on their computer. Another minute goes by.
  • If your CRM system isn’t integrated with your Contact Centre system, your team member will need to ask them to hold while they try to find the customer’s account details in another window. This could take another minute or two.
  • Your team member updates the record and repeats it all back to ensure it’s correct. Finally the changes are done, and by now the customer’s patience has worn thin. The simplest request has taken so long that they have no confidence in your ability to do what they asked, so they request confirmation that it has been done correctly.
  • So after the call has ended, your team member needs to spend another minute or two copying and pasting the details from the CRM system into an email, before wrapping up.

It’s easy for time to blow out, turning a 2-minute routine task into 10 minutes of frustration for the time-poor customer, and a not-too-pleasant experience for your team member.

How to save customers time and reduce 10 minutes to less than 2 minutes

Here’s how the above scenario could be revised using Premier Contact Point for Mobility, and potentially save 8 minutes.

1. Your caller dials your customer service number and is greeted with your IVR welcome message

2. The PCP Mobility system recognises that they’re calling from a mobile phone and advises that you’ve sent them a text message with a link to speed things up

3. Your system sends a link to a visual menu

4. They click the link, which opens a web browser showing several options

5. Caller taps “Update Contact Details”

Time so far: 30 seconds

6. The caller enters the following info into a form and then taps OK

  • Account number
  • Address
  • Phone number
  • Email address

7. Details are confirmed on the next page, and the caller’s presented with the following options:

  • To continue waiting in queue to speak to a live agent
  • To request a call-back, or
  • To end the call and receive confirmation of changes made

Time so far: 1 minute 15 seconds

8. If they choose to end the call, PCP Mobility sends the caller a link to a Contact Summary which includes all their updated info:

  • Account number
  • Address
  • Phone number
  • Email address

How efficient is that? A 10-minute, laborious call turned into 2 minutes of customer self-service. Easy.

And it gets even better.

If the caller chooses the option to speak to a live agent, your team member has all the updated information in front of them when the call connects, can greet the customer by name, and doesn’t need to put them through the verification process.

If they need to do more – like pay a bill – your team member can send a text with a link to a secure payment facility and wait while they make the payment straight from their phone.

When payment is confirmed, your team member is notified, and can then thank the customer and finish the call by sending an SMS with a link to display a summary of:

  • Updates made to their contact details
  • Confirmation of payment made
  • A summary of what was discussed on the call
  • A link to reactivate the call if necessary.

This extra task has only taken another couple of minutes.

Saving time substantially improves CX and loyalty

If the mere thought of calling your company fills your customers with dread because they know it’s going to take ages, it’s time to do something about it, before they find a competitor who’s more efficient.

Time is the one commodity that seems to be shrinking rapidly for everyone, as we try to cram more and more into each day.

If you can reduce the time your customers spend doing routine tasks, not only will they be grateful and impressed, but they’ll be more likely to stay loyal.  Once they can trust you to serve them quickly and efficiently, they won’t want to give that up, even if they might be able to save a couple of dollars elsewhere.

This is supported by research: 86% of consumers are willing to pay up to 25% more for a better customer experience. (RightNow)

And what’s more – it reduces your costs, and frees your team up from repetitive routine calls, so they can devote their time and energy to more complex customer calls.  A win-win for everyone.

See How to Reduce Time with Our Mobility Service

If you’d like to find out more about the Premier Contact Point Mobility Module, call us on 1300 85 11 11 or email us. We’ll give you a behind-the-scenes peek, so you can see how easy it is to consistently deliver an impressive mobile customer experience that significantly cuts time and saves money.

Ready to take your CX to the next level?
Get in touch to get started.