The ability to understand the perspective of the customer calling for assistance is a very important aspect of the call centre business. With frequently changing market dynamics and customer’s likes and dislikes, keeping a track on the customer’s expectations gain an utmost importance. However, there are few things that are undoubtedly disliked by the customers.

1. The customers highly dislike being on hold for long or not even for a second. This gives them an impression that the business doesn’t care about their importance.
2. If a caller is held for long then there are 90% chances that even the agent will not enjoy talking to them.
3. Sometimes the call is disconnected before the information is understood by the caller or delivered effectively by the agent. This also pricks the callers.

But with the increased inflow of callers and some other cramped factors, such problems become unavoidable. One another reason that adds to the bad customer experience is the fact that the call centre service provider has to assist a large amount of the callers with the comparatively small workforce. In such cases, the abandonment rate touches the sky.

Moreover, the blame couldn’t be put on the customer if he hangs up after listening to the automated feed nth time in repeat. Leaving the customers with a bitter experience turns the company’s image down. And since the market is filled with the competitors, the customers have a wide range of alternates to choose from. Although it seems easy to take the charge of the things going the other way, in reality, it’s a bit of a mind-churner. But despite all the hurdles, the abandonment rate could vanish within seconds. Here’s how:

1. Inform customers– The sudden increase in the inflow of callers could bring a catastrophic phase for the call centre agents and ultimately for the business. Such failure not only damages the image of the business but also adversely affects the customer retention rate of the business. Surprisingly some call centre service providers cope well with such difficulties by informing the callers. The research shows that when the callers are made aware of the expected wait time in the IVR, then instead of hanging up they wait. But the studies also reveal that 35% of customers prefer changing the business after a poor customer assistance experience.

2. Know the insights- The effective knowledge of the customer’s waiting time could help in reducing the abandonment rate. The customer’s patience is an important factor that helps in the analysis of how the customer reacts to waiting. Thus maintaining a record of the reasons of the people abandoning the call would give areas to be improved and worked upon. And ultimately such improvements result in better management of the call queue providing distinguished customer experience.

3. Call-back- Sometimes the situation goes out of control and the agents are left with no option but to make the callers wait. This situation worsens when the callers do not feel compensated for such delay no matter the reason behind it. If the call couldn’t be picked, the caller must be ensured of a call-back. This gesture basically swipes off the cruel mask of the call center’s or agent’s face. Once informed about the call-back, the customer would be able to utilize his time in doing something productive instead of waiting for the call.
   

There have been various studies done on the customer’s behavior when interacting with the call centre agents. Some of these studies reveal that the customers love the brands or businesses who prioritize and give value to their time and concern. And such customers often ignore the bad service if they have been treated well in the past. So, the call centre service provider putting the customer on the top of the list can create a win-win situation for themselves.

Summary

The reduction in the rate of abandonment clearly signifies the betterment of the agent’s performance. It also assures the fact that the majority of the callers are happy with the services. And last but not the least, low abandonment rate keeps the retention rate of the customers on track.