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Call centers: Automated phone systems vs. live person
How much automation is too much? When customers spend as much time pressing numbers as they do talking to an actual customer service representative, I consider that to be bad customer service. It's understandable that some companies need a level of automation in order to handle the volume of calls they receive, but how much is too much? How much automation do you make your customers sit through?
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3 Answers
It is too much automation when the automation interferes with the objective of the call. It does not matter whether that objective is political, telemarketing, sales, billing, or collections. The purpose of phone system automation is to free the live telephone operator from routine and mundane tasks like dialing the phone, awaiting an answer, and leaving messages. The automation process should stop as soon a live person on the other end answers or at the latest when the person's ID is confirmed (this must be within reason and should be handled by the live telephone operator if extensive identification is required). This can be achieved through predictive dialers that use algorithms and scoring formulas to determine the most efficient call volume in order to maintain constant live-person connects.
There should be as little automated phone as can be helped. I am very empathetic and am always thinking about how I would like to be treated and act accordingly. When I call and I reach an automated phone system I am pressing "0" from the start. I don't care about reaching accounting or any other dept. that has no bearing on what I am calling about. There are though some situations where they are helpfull, but the queue needs to be handled in a timely manner.
How much automation is too much depends on your product/service and your customers.
- If my task is easy, basically not requiring talking to anyone, it irritates me that I have to wait in queue to talk to an agent
- If my task could easily be taken care of any time, it irritates me that I have to call in during business hours - when I am busy - to talk to an agent
This case study talks about how a utility improved their after-hours customer service by implementing an IVR: http://www.tinyurl.com/utility-casestudy.
Regards,
Kirsi
http://www.pronexus.com
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