You have likely heard the recording, “this call will be monitored for quality purposes” when phoning into a call center. By now, it’s so commonplace that most customers don’t give it a second thought.
Most call centers use this for training and compliance but as 3C Contact Services tells their partners, monitoring calls can serve another highly useful purpose: it can help you to route your calls based on how agents handle them.
There are affordable solutions available to enterprises looking to find a way to match their agents with certain types of callers. Even listening to calls and how your agents handle them can determine who is best suited to handling certain types of calls. You may have an agent who can calm an irate caller or one who has an eidetic memory who can answer any questions your customers may have, no matter how obscure.
However, don’t saddle your agents with only one type of caller, as this will increase their stress level. Here are just a few of the ways to determine how to route calls within your organization:
Look at the Words They Use
Whether you’re using software to monitor calls or doing so yourself, there are certain words that customers use that can help you to classify them. From there, determine which agents are best suited to handling these types of callers.
What are Triggers?
For some customers, certain situations may just trigger an adverse reaction, including anger or mild annoyance. You want to avoid these situations and by recognizing what might cause them, you can create strategies to avoid or de-escalate any potentially stressful situations for both your customers and agents.
Monitoring calls for even one to two weeks can help you to determine which agents are best suited to handling certain types of callers. Not only will this help you to cut down on potentially stressful situations and increase customer satisfaction, it will also help to reduce the amount of time your agents spend on calls.
Whether or not you let your employees know they will be paired with certain types of callers is up to you, but you should let them know that you are impressed with their ability to handle certain types of callers. But again, do not solely send them these types of calls; not only will it lead to increased stress, but they may start to experience dissatisfaction with their job.
Another advantage is that you can use how your agents address certain types of calls for training purposes. This could entail how to handle potentially difficult situations or strategies for retaining knowledge about your products and services, such as an FAQ you can post on your web site and your agents can use to answer customers’ questions.
