After a tough year for many businesses, customer loyalty remains a key part of their strategy. Providing great customer service is a key part of keeping customers loyal and returning. In fact, not only does a fully satisfied customer contribute 14 times more to a company’s revenue than a partially satisfied one, but according to the “Serial Switchers” report, poor customer service can cost a company well over $75 billion a year.
The current challenge
54 % of organizations have seen an increase in the volume of cases handled by telephone operators since the start of the pandemic. Additionally, many businesses are having to adapt to the operational challenges associated with the health situation. Therefore, which include strict prevention measures. So the question for a business is: how can I optimize customer service in the current environment? This is where inbound call reduction strategies can be particularly effective.
What is call forwarding?
Call forwarding is the process of reducing the number of incoming calls by redirecting the customer request to an alternative self-service channel. The goal is to ensure that customers can find answers to their sms services questions efficiently, while reducing the number of incoming calls that reach telephone operators.
Simply put, call reduction strategies allow you to direct customer inquiries to self-service channels such as FAQs, online help, or virtual customer assistants.
This strategy, if done well, reduces the workload of the agents, and in this way allows them to focus on the most complex cases without compromising the customer experience. This approach, if set up correctly, can even improve the customer experience.
5 Steps to Create an Effective Call Reduction Strategy
1. Monitor customer calls
First of all, it is important to identify the most frequent requests made by customers during calls. Once the recurring themes or problems have been identified, specific content can be created that responds to them, which customers can access independently.
For example, people calling to request a loan can be automatically directed to speak to an operator. While if a customer wants to switch to paperless billing, the request can be done in self-service mode. In this case, the call will be redirected to the online portal to complete the procedure.
2. Create an online customer forum
Online customer forums can be invaluable to businesses. Creating a dedicated online space where your customers can share real-time information and answers to individual questions is really helpful. In fact, if monitored and moderated, they provide comprehensive answers and thus eliminate the need to resort to operators.
3. Use proactive communications
In short, it’s about anticipating customer calls, providing them with information before they need it. Using automated emails, SMS , and even prominent signage on your company website, it’s easy to keep customers informed and encourage the use of self-service channels.
For example, after a prospect applies for a loan or service online, they often call to ask about the process and status of their application. This call can be by the numbers: let’s avoid these statistical sins of the past avoided by sending the customer a confirmation SMS with a link to FAQs or a dedicated landing page explaining the process. Subsequent recurring SMS updates can also be sent updating the customer on the status of their application. Since SMS boasts a 93 % open rate , businesses steps to effectively can be confident that the update will be received and read.
4. Adopt a multi-channel approach
It is important to remember that proactive communications are only effective if they are receiv and read by the recipients . For this reason, the choice of the most appropriate channels will be dictat by the preferences of your customers. Therefore, we always consumer data recommend a multi-channel approach, which considers for example email, banners on the site and SMS. SMS are a privileg channel, given that 87 % of users of all age groups declare that they appreciate those receiv from companies. Furthermore, 23.98% of people find it useful to receive a reminder via SMS for renewals.
