Have you lost customers because you put them on hold?

If yes, you are part of the major chunk of companies that have lost a fortune to customer attrition or defection. Businesses lose customers everyday by putting them on hold. Such a simple act can cost millions, maybe more to the business. How? Businesses are not aware of the hidden costs involved when they lose a customer, customer defection are big drivers of price compression which directly affects the profitability. Customers, in the words of renowned marketers, are to be treated as Kings, and they expect to be treated as such, and when the company asks them to be on hold they get frustrated. And when you try to waste something that is invaluable, TIME, they react. And how they react can be improbable. One unpleasant contact center experience can end up being a social disaster for the business by putting the companys reputation at stake, let alone losing the customer.

ClickFoxs second annual bench-marking survey, Consumer Tipping points, examines how bad customer service affects consumers, what frustrates them most, and how they complain about it. The results on what frustrates customers the most ; Being on hold for long periods of time came second (17%) to having to speak with multiple agents and start over every time(42%).

Disgruntled customers react in many ways; they could take their business elsewhere, could tell friends and family about their experience or they could share it with millions by posting it on social websites. On hold calls frustrates the customers in various ways:

1. Long wait

2. Monotonous or annoying music being played while on hold

3. No apologies from the agent for putting the customer on hold

4. Not able to get a human (agent) on the line

To avert this problem contact centers have two options; they can either increase the number of agents or introduce a call back function.Increasing the number of agents would be unfeasible due to budget constraints, and excessive agents during off-peak hours or seasons could increase the operational overheads of the business harming the profitability. Call back mechanism allows the users to schedule callbacks to call customers at their preferred time. In case the customer requests to talk to the same agent in his interaction, you can enable the same agent callback.

Call-backs is the best option where callers are given the choice of receiving a call-back by an alternative agent who is available, this would result in improving the bottom line as well, which is the main concern of every business.

The call back feature would improve customer satisfaction and reduce customer churn by

1. Making the experience more enjoyable for the customer: The customer is been given the choice to receive a call-back. Here the customer is felt important, which matters a lot.

2. Improve First Call Resolution (FCR): FCR’s can be improved and abandonment rates can be reduced. Every customer is addressed by an agent.

To never lose a call of a customer use call center software like Ameyo that has helped BPOs and enterprises to be on top of the game by implementing the Callback feature. And to take it up a notch solution like Ameyo can let you dynamically manage your call queues while prioritizing your customers; the agent is able to track the incoming calls and react accordingly.