Remember, waiting seems twice as long as it actually is, especially if there is silence or bad music. Apple now at least lets you select the type of music you listen to. If the wait is more than five minutes use a virtual queue: see later in this article.
The record wait time I’ ve seen is the State Department’ s passport line, with a reported wait of 4 hours and 20 minutes. They did provide ongoing reporting to give you a feeling of progress in queue.
2. NOT KNOWING ME
That AI spits out multiple messages points out a critical and understandable source of rage, namely that companies don’ t know the customers, no matter how often they do business or spend with them.
For instance, why do frequent flyers need to be told every time that the call is being recorded for training purposes or asked if they want a text link: which they have rejected the last 20 times they have called?
AI could easily determine the last time customers were told about the recording and if they have rejected the link and eliminate both of those messages: saving time and reducing my frustration.( Legal would admit that if you have recently been informed of the recording, you don’ t need to be told every time.)
THE COST OF BAD IVRS IS EXACTLY THE SAME AS THE COST OF BAD AI: CUSTOMER STRUGGLE AND MARKET DAMAGE.
3. CANNOT UNDERSTAND MY INTENT
AI should be able to know if you’ ve just had a transaction failure and ask if that is why you’ re contacting. Further, it should help you communicate your intent by suggesting words that are actionable based on whatever input you’ ve made.
4. FINDING A HUMAN
People like and, in most cases, prefer to interact with other people, particularly with urgent, important, emotionally-charged matters. While 90 % want to self-serve, at the first glitch, they want a human.
Few things annoy anxious customers more than denying that access to them. And it is happening with AI just as it has been happening with IVR.
Giving customers the ability to“ zero out” quickly and easily over the channels if need be is key to ensuring customer loyalty and repeat and referral business.
A general rule of thumb is to have all channels in view, though you can encourage one over others. For instance, AARP’ s Help Page has a type-ahead driven“ How can we help you?” entry point. At the same time, lower on the page, it provides the phone number, chat, email, and even the mailing address. The chat has a fast enough response that it has almost totally supplanted email as a channel.
It is ok to hide a channel as long as you do it knowingly. One Boston beer company with a small service unit intentionally dropped the 800 number in favor of social and email. Their policy of same-day response assures consumers rapid, tailored replies.
The beer company’ s manager knows that a few older consumers may be put off by not having an 800 number. But he has told us they are not the target market, and the company is willing to live with the recognized cost of not hearing from the older market segment via the telephone.
The manager has fully educated his quality and marketing departments on the science of the multiplier( 12-20 problems for each complaint received), so he’ s still getting good impact with his data.
On the flip side, operators at Chick-fil-A provide many guests with their cell number on a sign. The CEO of Sonos had a website contact us page that provided his direct email address at the bottom, as did Jim Robinson, the former chairman of American Express in the AmEx Monthly Newsletter.
You learn a lot via unfiltered input: and such an action sends a message to the rest of the organization that they should be open to complaints.
The solutions for access rage are remarkably simple and common sense.
• Publish Help and Contact Us at the top of the home page, not hidden at the bottom.
• Stop using stock messages. If you recognize the customer via phone number or email, use AI to determine if the last time they got the message and delete repeats.
• Publish response times near the channel, e. g., chat response standard 20 minutes. For long waits on the phone provide virtual queues; as long as you keep to the promise, little dissatisfaction is caused. Do like Apple and give the customer a choice of what they listen to: Eastern Onion used to have jokes and Aflac lets you listen to a duck quack.
24 CONTACT CENTER PIPELINE