Today’s world of business is saturated with competition. That is why in the CX marketplace, a lot of importance is placed on customer experience as it tends to be one of the biggest assets of a brand or business when it comes to satisfying clients and creating a base of customer loyalists. According to a study conducted by Dimensional Research, 52% of customers say that they have made an additional purchase with a brand after a positive customer service experience. This is proof that great customer service is a big win for the brand and its customers.
Top 5 tips for reducing After-Call Work:
Source: Slideshare
Since ACW is an essential aspect of customer experience, it must be taken into account that it is not all about minimizing the time but ensuring that the agents are productive and efficient with their time.
#1 Effective and continuous agent training
Ensure consistent training of your agents from the day they are recruited for the project. Stress on the importance that after-call work time though only a few minutes can make an astounding amount of difference in the quality of their work making it easy for others and themselves. At VOIZ, we make sure agents applying for CX jobs such as customer service jobs, telemarketing jobs etc are trained in comprehending software, handling customer queries, time management, etc. There is general training neglect when it comes to after-call work in most workshops and training sessions. By acknowledging that this is an essential aspect of training, you can significantly improve agent productivity thereby enhancing customer satisfaction and experience.
#2 Make sure to have ‘average’ times instead of having ‘set’ times
By focusing on average time, you are keeping your employee happy and at the same time at the top of their performance game. For example, if your average representative takes 120 seconds to update the CRM, but 70% of your reps take only 60 seconds to update the same; then it’s more likely that you can improve on that.
#3 Implement an after-call work timer
By giving representatives an ACW timer, they are made aware of the time within which they need to wrap up their after-call work. This timer gives agents an opportunity to focus on their after-call work and with a countdown in place that can properly prep them before they are made available to take more calls. Having a timer such as this will psychologically trick agents to reduce their after-call work; eliminating the chances of agents using this time as an excuse for a break and will help them refocus and centre themselves for the next call. Ensure that the after-call work timer is realistically set so that the ‘pressure’ of time is kept to a minimum. If the pre-set wrap-time is too low, then agents may rush through ACW tasks, leaving customer records and details inaccurate and incomplete.
#4 Implement a customizable and modern CRM system|
A well-integrated CRM system intends to track and store customer information and data to facilitate efficient, easy and effective customer interactions. This way, you get to analyze the process of the call centre and customize the CRM system with a new list of values and fields that can considerably lower the after-call work, thereby improving the average handling time. For instance, if you plug and integrate VOIZ’s call centre software into your CRM, it makes it possible to streamline your agent’s workflow and boost their performance and productivity.
#5 Make use of a knowledge base
When we throw quality and speed into the same sentence, it’s ideal to always have solutions at hand. This will also help in boosting agent confidence while dealing with customers who are explaining their problems. By creating a knowledge base with an inbuilt set of commonly occurring problems, and questions and their corresponding answers; you are making solutions accessible and easier for agents to figure out. By consistently updating the database, you are making data and information available to agents in real-time, reducing the chances of asking customers to repeat their queries and speeding up the resolution possess.
Summarizing it:
After-call work represents a tiny window of activity with the potential to have large consequences for your customer service experience. In addition to helping your agents keep track of various kinds of information and details; it enhances the brand’s capability to customize and personalize future customer interactions thereby stimulating great customer relationships.