In the past, you may have looked at automating your phone systems, but could not find the right fit or you felt that it would cause more trouble than it was worth. However, the landscape is very different now.
By Stephen Power
As fuel and other such unavoidable costs are causing increased overheads for the waste industry a key focus is to deliver systems that will reduce costs while improving performance. One area that can be dramatically improved and create gains financially is in call centers. There are two main reasons for this:
1. Technology is delivering more functionality and scalability at more affordable price points.
2. The nature of calls into waste collections is very predictable. In fact, through an in depth research process, we were able to uncover that 85 percent of customer calls to call centers are payment/bill related questions, or collection related questions.
So, Why Are Customers Calling You to Question a Bill?
Most companies will have online payments systems that customers have access to, but customers ignore these and keep making calls. So, let’s keep this simple and look at why your customers are still calling;
1. They simply prefer to call
2. They have a question about their bill and want to talk about it
3. They have no other option but to call
When you look at the above reasons, these can be difficult to shift to an automated system. Machines cannot do everything and many of us have had bad experiences in the past with automated systems. However, technology has moved on and the customer journey and satisfaction levels have dramatically improved. With improved systems that are simple, efficient and easy to use, customers will start shifting to the automated system rather than wasting their own time and money on a call agent availability queue.
Better Systems, Greater Adoption, and Higher Customer Confidence
Let’s look at, in real terms, how automated phone systems have improved and what this means to customer adoption and confidence:
1. It begins when the customer dials. The system recognizes the number and opens their account. This cuts out the need for a customer to start typing in numbers and logins. You are already improving the customer experience by saving them time and not asking them to enter usernames or passwords.
2. When the account is retrieved, the system states the current due bill. The customer is offered an option to pay in full or it can offer other routine amounts that they usually pay. This is extremely user friendly and straightforward and speeds up the payment process dramatically.
3. If they have paid before and their card number is saved, they are simply asked to confirm. Again you are saving the customer time and avoiding mistakes in entering card details.
No doubt, there are always going to be calls that will be hard to automate. This can be particularly true when it comes to specific questions on a bill. However, by analyzing the questions being asked, you can start seeing common questions being repeated and then add a prompt to your options to match it. This is a bit of a science, but it is an area that is well worth working on as the gains in efficiency and wages are very worthwhile.
Moving Forward with Automation
Perhaps, in the past, you looked at automating your phone systems but could not find the right fit or you felt that it would cause more trouble than it was worth. However, the landscape is very different now. First, the technologies involved have improved dramatically. Concerns that you may have had in the past are no longer big issues. Second, with regards to adoption and usage rates, your customers are becoming more and more comfortable with automated systems and in fact many now prefer this over speaking to an agent. Again, this is due to the advances in the technologies involved and how much quicker an automated call system can handle routine tasks. Anecdotally, when we speak to clients that have adopted such systems, they speak about other key results that perhaps are not always obvious.
Examples of this include clients that speak about the ‘always-on’ solution offered by automation: ‘My automated phone system does not take sick days or holidays and is always taking calls 24/7 … it just makes sense to move to this system.’ Maybe now is the time to start putting your call center costs on hold. | WA
Stephen Power is the Product Director at WIS where his main focus is on the continual development and advancement of all products developed by WIS. He can be reached at [email protected]. For some useful videos to show these solutions in operation, visit www.wiswm.com/reduce-call-centre-costs.