Polite robots, voice recognition systems and discounts to reward long wait times help companies communicate more effectively with customers on the phone and increase revenue from the first call. 80% of customer service callers resolve their problems from the first call, according to a study by Teleperformance Russia, which surveyed nearly 8,000 respondents in eight countries. Whatever the method of communication – by phone, email or chat – three things really matter to the customer: how quickly their issue is resolved, whether the company is able to communicate effectively on topics related to their real needs, and the speed of response to their call.
Five communication mistakes
Naturalness, the ability to communicate and evoke sympathy is the most essential skill for a call center operator. Teleperformance Russia has gathered a collection of mistakes that irritate customers the most… The operator calls the client by name too often. This causes a negative reaction: interlocutors feel that they are being manipulated. Even the question “How do I address you?” asked in a standard short conversation is often perceived as manipulation. One of the responsibilities of call center operators is to communicate with customers via online chat. Many companies put pictures of strangers in the chat window – almost porn stars or girls with model looks. This also looks fake: the client wants to communicate with a real person. Especially if the company sells toys, not tools for guest workers. Exaggerated enthusiasm in intonation, too upbeat music. In our culture it is not customary to talk to strangers with such intonation. That’s why it’s better to test voice appeals for an answering machine on a focus group. Operators on the phone speak in memorized phrases or, even worse, read out ready-made texts, so-called scripts. In this state they cannot hear the interlocutor. Scripts have to be used by companies that make no effort to recruit, train and develop employees. Customers are annoyed if they are put on hold several times, switching to another operator or trying to find information in this way. This should not be done more than once.