How to Optimize Call Queues for a Better Customer Experience
A cloud hosted PBX can help Australian businesses ensure customers have the best call experience possible even when they’re holding.
Call queues are an inevitable part of the customer journey. While no one particularly likes waiting on hold, customers have continued to show that speaking to a person on the phone is a valuable form of communication that they aren’t willing to forgo. One study shows that 76% of all consumers prefer the medium of phone calls to reach a business.
Whether you have a large or small business, call waiting lines are vital for managing inbound calls and for providing a positive customer experience. While queues can come with a bad reputation, most customers are used to waiting on hold to speak to customer service or a sales representative. The question is, how can you make your customer call experience stand out from the rest?
A critical component to impressing customers when they call is to ensure call waiting line don’t cause unnecessary frustration or friction. A cloud PBX business phone system offers unique features that can help in your efforts to reduce frustration and keep callers on the line.
How can you use a virtual PBX to make call line smooth and seamless? Here are a few ways.
Build a customer-friendly IVR
Virtual PBX systems, like Jet Interactive’s, provide intuitive call flow builders and easy-to-manage IVR system. An IVR, or Auto Attendant, helps your business handle calls more efficiently by diverting callers directly to the relevant department based on callers’ input. It’s typically a voice recording of something like “press one for sales, two for customer support,” etc.
Now, an IVR can often be a point of frustration for customers who are hoping to talk to a person right away, but it’s one of the most helpful tools when handling a high volume of incoming calls. In order to make the IVR customer friendly, give clear options they can choose from and try to keep them relatively minimal-no more than 5 for the first level if possible.
Additionally, avoid sending callers down IVR rabbit holes where they have to select multiple layers of options. Make it quick and easy for them to be routed to the right department to reduce any complications in getting them connected. With an integrated cloud business telephone system, you can also use features like geographical routing to further support them in reaching the right staff member based on their location.
Give voicemail or call-back options
Some people don’t have the time to wait in a call line, even if they’re confident your IVR has gotten them to the right department or staff member. Offering another option is a powerful way to increase customer satisfaction.
About 40% of businesses offer a telephony queue call-back option (ContactBabel via Forbes), but more businesses are beginning to implement this via their virtual PBX phone system. This phone system feature can decrease abandonment rates and increase customer satisfaction, and it’s a great way to make your call queue experience more convenient for your customers. If a call-back option isn’t the right solution for your business needs, offering a voicemail is another option that still allows you to receive customer communication.
Increase visibility to performance metrics
Cloud PBX systems make it easy to see what’s happening across your business with reporting features. They centralize all calls through one hub and offer reports that provide insight into how call flows and customer calls are being handled. You can see how long call waiting lines last and how many callers end up leaving the queue and when. This can help your team determine performance benchmarks and customer call best practices. It’s also a good idea to make the reports available to your staff who handle calls so that they are aware of how their performance affects overall calling performance.
Improve the wait experience
For customers who stay in a call line until their call is answered, you’ll want to ensure their experience is as good as it can be. One way to do this is to choose music that translates over a phone connection. Jet’s business phone system is based in Australia, meaning each connection is strong and clear, but on the receiving end of the phone, customers may have a range of phone speaker quality, meaning certain hold music can come across as sharp sounding or irritating. Hold music should keep the caller on the phone by letting them know the line isn’t dead and hopefully dispelling any anxiety or discomfort amidst the waiting, so it’s best to go with something calming and soothing with an easy-to-listen-to melody and no harsh instruments.
Another way to improve the call queue experience is to provide Period Announcements. This is when you drop in an audio message over the music to either inform callers of useful information or update them on their place in the queue. Giving them updated estimated wait times is a great way to communicate that you are working toward answering their phone call and that they’re getting closer to speaking with someone.
Call queues are vital to your business and to ensure you don’t miss any important customer communication or support questions. To learn more about how the Jet cloud telephone system can support your call lines and other business needs, contact us today.