There’s a reason the word “hold” shares 50% of its letters in common with that hot place with the Devil. Both are H-words we’d prefer to avoid. Call back solutions provide an effective way to save your customers from the fiery frustrations of sitting on hold. There are many benefits to this service which improves efficiency for both your business and your callers.
About Call Back Solutions
We’ve all heard the message “your call is important to us.” It’s often paired with the automated voice telling us that the business we are trying to reach is experiencing unusual call volumes at this time. Utilizing a communications platform that offers queue management informing callers of their estimated wait time can help. Yet today an even greater number of callers want to enjoy the convenience of entering their phone numbers for a call back instead of remaining on hold interminably.
First introduced in the mid-1990s, call back solutions provide customers with the option to leave their number and name for a return contact, without losing their place in queue. It’s a simple way of saying to the customer you value their time and want to provide them with the best customer service possible in a streamlined way. Here are the many advantages of this call center technology feature.
Advantages of Call Back Services
Time is on their side.
By providing the queue callback option you are giving your customer back one of their most important and highly limited resources — time. In 2012, a survey of 2,500 customers found that nearly 60 percent of respondents believed “one-minute is too long to be on hold.” We can only imagine how many seconds have been lopped off that tolerance in the intervening six years of on-demand digital responsiveness.
The appeal of choice.
Call back solutions also empower customer choice. They can elect to stay on hold if they’d like to, but now there is another option. Either way, your agents are going to work hard to meet the customers’ needs. Yet now the customer regains control of the communication and doesn’t feel as if they have been taken hostage by Zamfir music fans.
Better moods = better interactions.
With call back services the customer gets a return call when an agent is available to address the concern or question. This gives your agents a better starting point as they no longer start the call trying to placate people angry about the hold delay or the aural assault of hold music or repeated brand messaging. The technology, too, can use the call back number to link into other customer history records to have the agent begin from a more knowledgeable position from the get-go.
Level out call volume.
Call back solutions help your business defer calls until volumes are more manageable. With this technology helping you better manage call spikes, you can improve call center productivity and optimize call handling to ensure the customers get the best experience possible while agents are buffered more effectively from the onslaught of overwhelming traffic loads.
Handling calls gets easier.
When an agent does finally get on the line with someone who has been on hold “too long” they will often get an earful. The customer needs the release of complaining about their negative experience. This not only makes the interaction more challenging but also hurts your agents’ call handling times. Your agents can be more efficient when customers feel heard and empowered.
Lower call abandonment rates.
Finally, call back solutions also lower the number of callers hanging up in frustration. A long wait time can cause someone to end the call and then try again later. Those recalls can negatively impact call volume handling all over again. Worse still, the customers may simply take their business elsewhere, without your customer agents even getting a chance to make a positive impression and provide excellent customer service.
Learn more about Callback and other contact center features here. Evolve IP’s experts are available to help you optimize your customer experience by offering callers the ability to request a callback based on your call center conditions. Learn more today!