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Boosting CX by Honoring the Callback PromiseBoosting CX by Honoring the Callback Promise

Agents and consumers alike can see benefits from a contact center’s callback strategy.

Frances Horner

July 6, 2022

3 Min Read
Boosting CX by Honoring the Callback Promise
Image: Denis Putilov - Alamy Stock Photo

Callback – also called virtual hold – has been around for over two decades. While there are uncertainties on who developed virtual solutions, us old-timers will remember that Virtual Hold Technology (VHT) was among the first. Today, callback capabilities are considered table stakes for contact center operations and customers. Customers would prefer to have their call answered immediately, and callback is an important component to enhance the overall customer experience.

 

The benefits of callback are undisputed, and cost/benefit modeling supports investing in the technology. Callback decreases the number of abandoned calls and helps to improve service level attainment as callback will add to the number of calls attended per hour. It also lowers contact center costs by reducing hold time, which in turn reduces telephony and trunk costs. More importantly, callback reduces caller effort and improves customer satisfaction.

 

When a caller chooses a callback, whether keeping their place in the queue for the next available representative or scheduled at a specific time, it signals to the caller that the organization respects their time and appreciates their patience. For contact center operations, it allows more accurate forecasting to manage peaks and valleys. Interestingly, it also reduces the number of repeat callers as the technology identifies duplicate phone numbers and lets the caller know their callback is already scheduled.

 

But the process is more than simply delivering a call back to the customer. Callback is not a build-once-and-done solution. It starts with a callback strategy that leverages the contact center’s current queueing approach. This requires the knowledge and skill to understand the mechanics of queueing and all the different behaviors to each queue in the system. No single approach can meet every challenge or requirement, but understanding the vendor’s algorithm will determine whether to employ place in queue (PIQ) or estimated wait time (EWT) to set callback expectations.

 

From my perspective, EWT is consistently inaccurate across the contact center industry. Often playing the EWT to a caller will increase abandonment rates. I recommend checking the number of calls in the queue (PIQ) and only offering PIQ when there are less than 10 callers in queue. It is really about delivering on the promise or expectation of when the call back will be received — don’t be tempted to treat callbacks as non-priority calls. Callers who have trusted the callback process should not be treated like second-class citizens. Callbacks should be given priority over new callers in the queue. Using either EWT or number in queue is determined by queue behavior.

 

Callback enables a call center to effectively manage its incoming calls and handle the customer’s concerns in the most effective manner. Customers simply do not have the time to wait on hold to speak with a customer service agent. Although there are many IVR services that can help reduce this time, callback technology is the best option for mitigating long holds, relieving frustration, and showing both agents and customers that you truly value them.

Frances is writing on behalf of the SCTC, a premier professional organization for independent consultants. SCTC consultant members are leaders in the industry, able to provide best of breed professional services in a wide array of technologies. Every consultant member commits annually to a strict Code of Ethics, ensuring they work for the client benefit only and do not receive financial compensation from vendors and service providers.

About the Author

Frances Horner

Fran Horner is a contact center visionary with a track record of helping healthcare organizations dramatically improve the patient and physician experience. As a strategic leader, she understands the importance of embedding customer engagement into corporate vision. As an expert in operations, Fran has a proven ability deploy the latest technology, relationship management tools, evidence-based metrics and Voice of the Customer (VoC) techniques to develop fully integrated contact centers that improve patient access and patient engagement.

 

Fran has more than 28 years of experience in contact center operations, with 15 of those in healthcare. Clients rely on her to develop solutions to some of their most challenges issues, from building a new patient engagement center to optimizing contact center efficiencies. She is skilled at driving change and implementing cost-effective solutions while enhancing the customer experience.

 

As senior director of patient access at a large academic health system, Fran created and implemented the vision for an omni-channel contact center that centralized hospital and physician scheduling, physician referrals, registration and insurance verification. As an Epic Principal Trainer for ADT, she developed project plans and training calculators, created content for training and collateral materials, and conducted train-the-trainer sessions to ensure patient-centric processes and workflows. Fran has also worked with global companies such as ABB Impell, British Steel and NEC to redesign their customer experiences and ultimately drive top-line revenue.

 

In 2009, Fran was named a “1to1 Customer Champion” by 1to1 Media in recognition of her commitment to building a customer-centric business that exceeds patient expectations while driving bottom-line results. In 2012, she co-founded Singola Consulting, a strategic healthcare consulting firm. In 2017, Fran launched VoC Consulting Group to help healthcare organizations streamline processes and leverage technology to improve the patient experience and make it easier for patients to access comprehensive, quality healthcare when it matters most.