Contact Center Best Practices
As we reach Labor Day and Summer busy season transitions to a steady Fall, the business owners we work with are reflecting on how Summer went, and what we can improve for the upcoming off-season and next Summer. For the past 4 months, P4P has fielded thousands of calls every day from customers on behalf of movers. This being our 11th Summer doing so, we have learned a few things about Contact Center operations, some of which we’ll share here today!
Call Speed
Make the 1st call within 60 seconds of receiving the customers information, or answer an inbound call in five rings or less. P4P collects a ton of data on this subject and we have found that there is a 27% higher conversion to appointment when a customer is called within 60 seconds or answered within five rings. After four minutes, the numbers decrease dramatically with conversion falling off by more than half. With the average appointment call lasting 6-8 minutes, this means if you only have one person answering the phones, you are most likely throwing away half your leads.
Follow Up Multiple Times
Summer is busy, both for you and for your customers. With the phones ringing all day long with operations management issues, and sales peoples calendars stacked with appointments, we generally forgive ourselves for only contacting a customer once and then not following up. At P4P, we know that multiple attempts to customers take only seconds to execute, and our software platform tracks things like number of call attempts and time of day in which we are calling. This attention to detail pays off: over half of the customers who don’t pick up on the first attempt end up speaking to us on a follow up call.
Record Calls for Quality Assurance
At most companies, the unfortunate truth is that the lowest paid, least experienced team member is typically answering the phone, providing the first impression to your customers. Their lack of knowledge and inexperience can be an instant turn-off, and providing training and ongoing QA on calls can significantly increase call conversion and customer experience.
Over 11 years of managing contact center operations for the largest van lines and smallest agents, P4P has learned these techniques and many more about providing a positive first impression for customers in a high-converting and cost-effective manner. If you think you may be guilty of any of the above issues this Summer, let us know, and we can help show you how our professional contact center services can help you up your game!