Customers’ negative experiences with contact centres have escalated over the past 12 months due to the pandemic and with contact centres having to deal with an influx of customer queries across different industries, it may not come as a surprise that customers will be frustrated about different aspects.
Awaken intelligence surveyed 750 UK contact centre customers to identify what they find.
find irritating about contact centres over the past 12 months and here are some of the following reasons why they get irritated:
Average wait time for the call.
A common contact centre complaint is customers getting easily frustrated when they have to wait for long hours before getting a response. Most contact centres put customers on hold until a support agent is available to attend to their problem or have to wait for whatever reasons while interacting with an agent.
This is counterproductive as most customers need quick solutions to their issues. This is why reducing hold time complaints will go a long way to create a more efficient customer service experience.
Not being able to speak to a real person.
An automated system at the opening phase of contact might be set up to improve customer experience. But this can be counterproductive. Research shows that 67% of customers admit that they’ve hung up out of frustration because they could not speak to a live person to provide solutions to their needs.
Often, customers have unsuccessfully tried to solve the problem themselves. They have probably scoured the Internet for self-service methods and will find it unhelpful to be redirected to a non-human guide.
There’s a high chance that this will drive customers to seek options from a different business. It is better to create simple automated systems or provide easy access to live representatives without keeping your customers stuck in a loop.
Making repeated calls for the same unresolved issues.
A customer is more likely frustrated before making a call to ask for help, so re-explaining their issues will drive the frustration over the roof and might even lead to them abandoning a business altogether. The best way to deal with this is to achieve a good first call resolution while documenting every interaction in case another agent takes over.
Transferring customer calls from agent to agent or making them repeat their problems because you are not paying close attention is a sure way to drive away customers. Nobody wants to go through the time-consuming process of repeating their problem multiple times.
Unfriendly customer support agents.
A customer support centre is only as good as the service agents. The impression service reps leave on customers will form the customer’s opinion of the brand. An important quality to consider before hiring a customer service agent is friendliness. A service agent must be able to relate with customers and show empathy on a professional level.
An already discouraged customer will be further upset when they have to deal with a nonchalant agent. Hire agents with the necessary soft and technical skills to de-escalate any kind of tense situation with customers.
No First Call resolution.
A low first call resolution rate is a common customer service complaint. A first call resolution is the ability of the contact support agents to resolve complaints within the first interaction with the customer. Customers will generally not continue business with a brand that leaves them feeling more frustrated after the first call.
Customers always prefer a speedy response to their problem and get irritated when they have to wait hours or days for a response. We’re living in fast-paced times and people expect solutions faster than ever before.
Lack of well-equipped customer representatives.
Agents not having enough knowledge or the right advice is one of the most common customer service complaints. A contact agent that is not well-grounded in the understanding of the product or service of their business is not going to be able to provide the right support to customers.
Customer service reps should be thoroughly trained on call handling etiquette, developing people skills and be familiar with the ins and outs of the product or service. Access to the right knowledge base that contains all the resources they need to resolve all customer complaints as skillfully as possible will go a long way.
Conclusion
Customers want to feel heard, understood and acknowledged. They need to feel like a business is primarily concerned about their satisfaction. Some customers give up after the first call when they realise the agents are incapable of fixing their issues.
It is important to reach out to customers to verify that their complaint was handled satisfactorily. Encourage customers to provide feedback on your service as it can be a pointer to information about whether the customer had all their issues addressed or not.
