15 Speed Tips for Reducing Repeat Contacts

Our panel share their best advice on reducing repeat contacts in the contact centre.

1. Train agents how to ask open questions and think ahead

Train your agents to go above and beyond to achieve customer satisfaction.

Agents should know how to ask open questions, as well as how to think two steps further and provide information which could be useful for a customer later.

With thanks to Ugne

2. Agents need to know the difference between ‘transaction’ and ‘resolution’

Ensure that the agents are actually resolving your customers’ issues, not just seeing them as transactions.

Encourage First Contact Resolution (FCR) and for agents to take ownership of the issues they are presented with.

With thanks to Nicky

3. Give customers self-service access to the updates they want

We give our customers access to their information via the web.

Providing our customers with the ability to track a request and check updates as often as they want is what they have become accustomed to.

It also stops them from ringing us as often.

With thanks to Dave

4. Train your agents to properly manage your customers’ expectations

Manage expectations. People tend to get frustrated if they are promised something that doesn’t happen – no matter how big or small!

Agents should make sure customers fully understand what will happen next before they hang up the phone.

With thanks to Rosie

5. Each department should understand their role in the customer journey

If internal SLAs are not aligned, it makes it difficult to deliver on promises made to our customers.

Each department needs to understand how their roles interact with the customer journey.

With thanks to Julia

6. Make sure other KPIs aren’t working against FCR

Make sure other key performance indicators (KPIs) aren’t working against First Contact Resolution (FCR).

For example, very restrictive Average Handling Time (AHT) targets.

With thanks to Leanne

7. Encourage agents to take ownership of customers’ issues

Allow agents the time to resolve issues themselves, by taking ownership and caring about the customer.

With thanks to Rosie

8. Make your IVR nice and easy

Make your IVR nice and easy.

It isn’t great if your customers regularly dial the wrong option and have to be transferred, or hang up and call back in.

With thanks to Farah

9. Show senior managers customer comments

Use customer sentiments (via a survey) to sway senior managers to invest in a good CRM system.

With thanks to Dave

10. Log call query types

Understand the reason behind your repeat callers by logging call query types.

With thanks to Nicky

11. Agents should be allowed to put customers on hold to achieve FCR

We encourage our agents to put customers on hold if they are unsure of any information.

They just explain to the customer that they want to make sure they are giving them the correct information and that they will come back to them soon.

They also offer to call them back if the customer doesn’t want to wait.

With thanks to Rosie

12. Proactively gather additional information if required

Schedule an outbound contact should additional information be required.

With thanks to Tim

13. Focus on average answer time rather than Average Handling Time (AHT)

We don’t monitor Average Handling Time.

Instead we target average answer time, so our agents focus more on the quality of the customer experience.

With thanks to Naomi

14. Monitor post-call survey results and follow up if necessary

We keep an eye on the post-call survey results and, if required, contact the customer in their preferred channel.

With thanks to Amir

15. Train agents to educate your customers on self-service options

Promote a culture of education by training your agents to teach customers about self-service options.

This will help ensure all of your callers are fully informed and have the option to self-serve next time.

With thanks to Nicky

What have you tried to reduce the number of repeat contacts coming into your contact centre?