By
Gordon McCleary
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Date Published: September 26, 2013 - Last Updated August 22, 2018
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Comments
Courtesy call back serves as a great customer service process for those times your call center is experiencing a spike in volume. The ultimate goal is that you would rarely need to use a call back feature, but it’s inevitable.
How many times have you called an agency only to wait in queue for a representative while thinking “I have things to do”, or "it would be really convenient if they would just call ME back"?
Whether you experience many spikes during the course of the day/month/year or if your call center rarely experiences spikes, this feature is a good idea regardless of the size of your center or your average call volume. Courtesy call back reduces the time callers have to physically wait on hold or in a queue. By having this technology-- even if you have a low call volume and/or very few call volume spikes--you are sending a message to your customers and employees that customer contact and satisfaction is of the upmost importance to your organization and that you will implement customer friendly technology as a means to achieve your goal of service excellence.
The call back feature enables your ACD system to offer callers (who meet your criteria) the option to receive a courtesy call back instead of waiting on the phone and in queue for an agent. Courtesy call back does not change the time a customer must wait to be connected to an agent, but rather enables the caller to hang up and not be required to remain in queue listening to music or hold messages. Callers who have remained in queue or have undergone the courtesy call back process appear the same way to agents answering the call. If the caller decides to be called back by the ACD system, they are prompted by the system to do so. Here is how our voice prompting works:
*”Thank you for calling (your company name here)”
*”Your current hold time is” (you can set this threshold)
*”If you would like a call back without losing your place in queue, please press 1”
*”Please enter your 10 digit telephone number”
*Thank you, you will receive a call back once a representative becomes available (call disconnects)
The request/call remains in the ACD system just like a normal call and when the ACD system determines that an agent is available, the system delivers that call to the agent with a prompt to call back.
How does your phone rep know they have a call back? As mentioned, the call back appears in the queue like any other call, once the representative picks up this call from the ACD, they hear the following automated voice prompt:
*You have a courtesy call back call, please press one. (By pressing one, the system automatically places an out bound call to the customer)
There are many ACD call back software packages out there with different features. The above describes the package I am familiar with and have implemented in our call center.
I manage a medium size call center with 60 seats. Over the past few months since deploying this feature, we have had just over 1,000 customers utilize this service. It’s a very convenient service for our customers and that is the exact message we want to send them. If your goal is service excellence and you do not have a courtesy call back feature in place, you may want to take a look at this service as a nice simple addition to your technology mix.
Want to learn more about how your contact center can use innovative approaches such as a courtesy call back program to improve the customer experience? On October 24, Gordon McCleary will be speaking in an ICMI webinar: The Customer Journey Redesigned: Looking Ahead to 2014 . Register for this complimentary presentation and help your contact center prepare for the year ahead!