Do I Need to Repeat Myself Again?
Tuesday 17 May 2011
A 2009 UK survey conducted by YouGov*, found 83% of the 2,127 consumers surveyed said that they had experienced and were left frustrated by long waiting times, 69% claimed that they had experienced and were frustrated by repeating information when passed to another agent, and 68% said that they had experienced and were frustrated by having to repeat information from a previous call.
Long waiting times and having to repeat information are classic symptoms within many contact centres reliant on telephony as a means of customer service. Telephony certainly has its drawbacks, not only are consumers often held in lengthy queues but they also have the prospect of having to navigate a complex IVR system or automated attendant system, even before they can speak to a customer service representative. Once engaged with an agent further frustration lies in a call transfer whereby the receiving agent has little information regarding the enquiry as they often don�t have the capability to see what has been discussed with the previous agent
As a result of such disjointed telephony services, more and more contact centres are adopting live chat as an additional form of contact for their customers. With products such as WhosOn Live Chat a customer service agent can easily identify who the caller is, where they are located geographically and the website journey they have made they can even view the current web page the visitor is on. More importantly any chat log that has occurred either current or historically is also shown, even if a chat is transferred between agents, this leads to less frustration from the customer perspective as they don't have to repeat what has previously been discussed.
Further advancements such as skills based routing and ticketing ensure high levels of customer service are maintained and that the enquiry is handled by the correct agent with the relevant skill set, instantly improving first contact resolution, which has a significant impact reducing contact centre operating costs. Another area where cost savings are being derived is the one too many approach with Live Chat, in simple terms a contact centre agent can handle multiple simultaneous chats in comparison to a telephone call where only one conversation can take place.
It is clear that live chat has many advantages some of which are often overlooked by contact centre managers, those organisations that have already implemented live chat will agree that the customer service benefits, improvement in customer satisfaction and cost savings derived far outweigh the initial investment.
* YouGov/Corizon consumer survey. Total sample size was 2127 adults. Fieldwork was undertaken between 7th - 10th August 2009. The survey was carried out online. The figures have been weighted and are representative of all GB adults (aged 18+).