One of the major US wireless telecom providers has 30 contact centers worldwide, and handles over 40 million calls per year from over 17 million customers. This company experiences several peaks in incoming call volume throughout the year due to special promotions. These surges in call traffic are in addition to unanticipated spikes to incoming call volumes result in much longer than normal hold times, and in many cases as long as 28 minutes!
In the highly competitive wireless market where customer satisfaction is a major differentiator, the call center management of this company realized that long hold times were having a negative effect on customer satisfaction, as well as caller frustration resulting in a high percentage of caller abandonment (lost calls/caller hang-ups). These two areas of customer frustration and lost calls also resulted in increased costs. Seeking a way to improve both customer satisfaction and operating efficiency of their contact centers the call center management company conducted a pilot project to implement a music on hold and message solution to improve on the primary areas of caller retention and customer satisfaction.
Initial analysis conducted of the long hold times and its dramatic effects:
• Unhappy customers – who may take their business elsewhere
• Caller abandonment rates of more than 43% (lost calls due to caller hang-ups)
• High talk times – from customers complaining to agents about their long wait
• Decreased agent morale and increased turnover – from listening to customer complaints about wait time and being powerless to help
• High toll costs – wasted money from hold time and abandoned calls
In order to measure the benefits and to quantify the value added by implementing On Hold Messages, the contact center monitored the on hold system performance over an 8-week pilot. According to performance reports using on hold messages was a success.
Performance results and of the benefits of the on hold system showed:
• Happier customers - callers aren’t complaining about hold time, increasing call handling efficiency
• Reduced caller abandonment (lost calls) by more than 94%
• Reduced toll costs – no more wasted hold time and reduced abandons
• Improved agent morale – happier agents as a result of fewer callers complaining about waiting on hold.
“Most businesses do not pay attention to on hold caller time, and underestimate its importance. The proof is message on hold plays a vital role in the customer experience and caller retention.”