3 Common Inbound Call Center Services Mistakes and Ways to Avoid it

Posted by Andrew Philips on January 28th, 2021

Customer is the king. Customers know everything and even an iota of their dissatisfaction on services can issue the death warrant for an enterprise. These serve as the fundamental principles for inbound call center services agencies as they strive on a regular basis to sharpen their customer serving skills. However, few commonly made mistakes still pose as major roadblocks for agents to register a satisfied customer. Here’s a look at the three common mistakes in inbound call center services that can be easily avoided:

Customers put on long hold- No matter how much valid the reason is to keep a customer on hold, it must be kept in mind that every customer’s time is precious, and each minute lost is equivalent to registering an irate customer. Ideally, if during the conservation, the agent has to connect to different departments to retrieve a certain piece of information to address the incoming query, they should arrange for a call-back to the customer instead of having the person put on hold for an eternity. SMEs should utilize QA software that can monitor the entire customer interaction and track the caller waiting time during the conversation. This will help in identifying the opportunities for the agent to improve and improvise to curb the waiting period of customers.

Customers having to repeat details- This is one of the most unpardonable inbound call center services mistakes that have frequently earned the ire of customers. Not only does the practice of having customers to repeat their details is a sheer wastage of their time but also is reflective of agents’ incompetency and their inability to pay attention to a customer’s conversation. For a returning customer with a new query, agents should have their basic information handy through the CRM software. This should negate the need the of a returning customer to repeat their basic details. For a new customer, ideally the agent should not accommodate details entry in the CRM software during the conversation, instead, they should focus on resolving the query. In tandem with the query resolution, the agent can note the details in a document which can be used later for the customer details entry.

Bots vs real agents- Even though chatbots are covering for the restricted workforce in call center agencies, it must be considered that chatbots can cater to only a standard set of queries. The current unexpected scenarios induced by the Covid 19 pandemic have set a flurry of unique queries which can only be resolved by real agents with experience.

Parting note

At the end of the day, an agent with zero motivation and without directions cannot be expected to provide inbound call center services that are flawless. It is a mundane task for agents to resolve inbound queries while being entirely disconnected from their roles. It is essential for the superiors to get them aligned with their KPIs, let them know about the quality of services expected from them, and allow them transparency of information across the organization.