“Are you missing the ability to receive a real-time alert when the customer states their problem is still not resolved?” is one of many questions that is included in the 25 Mistakes to Avoid with Post-call IVR Surveys eBook and self-assessment. The purpose of the eBook and self-assessment diagnostic questions is to help others leverage customer insights to improve their desired outcomes (loyalty, sales, cost control). The effort to compile what works, based on scientific evidence, is to eliminate dysfunctional practices that are prevalent in the industry and help you to get amazing results.
Since inventing post-call IVR surveying for contact centers 20 years ago, I have been on a crusade to end survey malpractice and make lives better for those that are committed to service excellence. Come join me in this crusade by commenting on articles on our blog and sharing it with your fellow customer experience and contact center colleagues.
Why is this a problem?
Other than family issues (especially if you have a teenager), what keeps you up at night? Your contact center is full of reasons to lay awake worrying and second guessing decisions. Customers can certainly be as much trouble as a teenager with unreasonable expectations and feelings of entitlement. Without the benefit of a family meeting, how do you know your customers are feeling resentment and discontent? The fear of the unknown from your customers, whether that be real or imagined issues on their part, creates a large amount of uncertainty about what the day will bring for your agents.
One of the largest sources of dissatisfaction to your callers is what they consider to be unresolved issues. Worrying about that one customer who decides to air their customer service issue via social media outlets may be something that haunts you at night, but the larger issue is that the “one” represents many more than you will actually hear from – directly or indirectly. Rather than trying to put the genie back in the bottle, how can you be more proactive with these callers and, more importantly, determine the root cause of the unresolved calls?
As with your teenager, the ability to foresee issues and develop a response (or evasive action) leads to a much more productive outcome. Customer feedback is the perfect guide to navigate the troubled waters if you have the correct information.
The Solution
An effective post-call IVR survey program gets you the answers that you need to understand issues for particular customer segments. But, understanding the patterns of satisfaction and dissatisfaction on a schedule for analysis will not allow for the real-time proactive response that is necessary to combat the effect of social media blasts from your customers. Important to the management of the customer experience is an immediate awareness of an issue.
Your post-call IVR measurement program needs to have the ability to determine if the customer perceives an issue or problem to be unresolved and to allow for the request to be contacted by a member of your escalation team. The proactive offer of assistance happens immediately through the post-call IVR survey and most contact centers are able to conduct an investigation and respond to the customer in less than an hour. The post-call IVR survey system is a tool that can be programmed to send an email to your team that includes the customer’s scores and the comments left about the agent and about the reason for the unresolved issue.
Not using this tool effectively will – and should – keep you up at night and will be costly to your organization.
