Surprise: Callers Would Rather Solve Their Own Problems
January 19, 2016
With each New Year comes not only a fresh start on the calendar, but a reassessment of company priorities as well. Many organizations use the New Year as an opportunity to take stock of where they are and where they’re headed. Contact centers are no exception.
In a recent article posted on CustomerThink — a global online community of business leaders striving to create profitable, customer-centric enterprises — writer Jeff Toister examined call centers based on a recent study from the consulting firm Strategic Contact.
Toister reviewed the survey results and noted that all the challenges identified by contact center employees were interrelated. The challenges, broken down by percentage of respondents, were:
- A high attrition rate (24.19 percent):
- Lack of cross-departmental collaboration (19.13 percent);
- Self-service issues (18.41 percent); and
- Level of service (18.41 percent).
“Look closely and you’ll see that all of these issues are interconnected,” Toister noted. “Addressing them requires a holistic approach.”
He then breaks down the issues one by one and offers some insights on how to resolve them.
Attrition: “Many contact centers make the mistake of trying to address attrition by focusing on motivation,” he notes. “[But] smart contact centers address the root cause. What contact center agents really want is to find meaning in their work. They want to solve problems and help customers.”
Collaboration: “Many of the issues that contact center agents are asked to resolve are beyond their control,” Toister says. “They must rely on other departments to help set things right.” Once you get people to collaborate, problem-solving becomes a joint effort.
Insufficient Self-Service: It is understood that customers would rather solve their own problems, but not every center is equipped to help them do so. “Unfortunately, contact centers usually have to rely on other departments to help them expand their self-service offerings,” he writes. That’s where the problems begin.
Service Levels: This problem feeds on itself. “High attrition leaves contact centers understaffed, which in turn leads to longer wait times,” Toister says. “Poor cross-departmental cooperation allows chronic problems to go unresolved. This generates more customer contacts, especially when customers are unable to use self-service.” And then the problem grows.
They say that recognizing the problem is half the solution. Those in the industry may need to take a hard look at their business and see where they’re falling short. The first step toward solving a problem is admitting you have one.