One of the greatest opportunities within Contact Centers to improve AHT & FCR(average hold time and first call response) is with frequent callers. Frequent callers are those who call, on average, more than once a month.There are 2 types of frequent callers:
* High Value--Callers who buy/consume a lot of a businesses products/services
* High Maintenance--Callers who expect a certain outcome and will continue to call until satisfied
When a frequent caller calls, the following steps should occur:
* Identification--Start with identifying who the caller is based on their ANI, member number, or other method
* History--Once identified, look at the caller's history to determine if they are a frequent caller, high value, and why they typically call, and route accordingly
* Personalize--Offer the caller what they use most often first - IVR self service app, customized queue messages, and/or talking to a particular agent skill
* Educate--If the caller's request can be handled automatically on the web or IVR self service, as part of the call wrap-up, the agent should politely encourage the caller to take advantage of this service and address any issues or concerns.
* Reward--With callers who first try and self-serve on the web or IVR, but cannot get their needs met and need to talk to an agent, put them in the front of the call queue, give them the best agents, and then have the agent acknowledge and thank them for trying to self-serve.
In the future, as smart phones get smarter and everything moves to high speed IP networks, being able to send information while talking to an agent will further help improve AHT and FCR. Trans-modal communication, the ability to talk, chat, co-browse, and send pictures/video simultaneously has a lot of promise in the contact center, but this will require IP/SIP peering with the carriers, especially as the cellular industry moves to 4G.
Both the customer and the business want to address issues faster and more accurately. Since it is to the advantage and desire of both, the opportunity to succeed is high.
