Press 1 for a Human - Best Phone System Practices for Connecting with Customers

Automation and information technology are an integral part of customer service in today's world. Having the best customer representatives in the world isn't enough if the customers can't reach them or get frustrated and angry along the way. If customers can't get the help and attention they need they will eventually take their business elsewhere. Optimizing your phone system to best support your customers' needs is a quick and extremely cost-effective way to raise overall customer service.

Give a human option from first menu

When customers call a hotline they usually have a pretty good idea of the information and level of help they need. When they can get the information they need from an automated system they will choose using it instead of waiting for a live operator. Many customers like to use efficient self-service systems. Incoming call numbers can even go up when customers learn to depend on such systems. But when there is a complex problem, nothing substitutes for a live voice on the line, and the customer knows it.

Because customers know what they want when they call, you need to make sure they can get it. When a customer calls a hotline looking to speak with someone, and there is no obvious way to reach an actual human, your company is giving customers the clear message that you don't want to talk to them. Give people an option from the very first menu that will obviously take them to a live operator.

Some voice trees will take you to an operator when "0" or "00" is pressed. Because many poorly operated companies make it very difficult to get expensive human contact, customers have learned undocumented tricks like this to compensate. This common option should be honored, but make it your goal that your customers don't have to "cheat the system" in this way.

Give service availability up front

If your hotline is only open certain hours, give the information up front. Don't let the customer stay on hold endlessly, without hope of getting help. Let the customer leave a message instead. This is also true if the night service is different. Anecdotal evidence suggests many calls to doctors' offices have started with a discussion of their test results only to find they were talking to an answering service representative.

Be honest about the expected hold time

When the customer is going to wait for more than a few seconds on hold, it becomes absolutely critical to manage the situation. The first or second time customers hear "your call is important to us and will be answered shortly" they might believe it. By the time they've been listening to that for 20 minutes there is a good chance they won't believe anything the representative says when they finally speak to one. If the customer knows the expected wait time, they can control their experience. They can hang up and try again later, or turn on the TV and wait. If they have no clue what to expect, their frustration and anger will mount over time, and the first thing the service representative will have to do is let them vent.

When the customer knows how long the wait is, it's called a "visible queue". It allows customers to choose whether to wait or not, and can also save you in 800 number phone charges. If a customer waits on the line for 20 to 30 minutes and then gives up, they have wasted their time as well as your money. If they learn the wait time is too long for them, they will hang up immediately, saving you phone charges. You can check your system abandonment statistics to see how much money you would save with a visible queue.

"Unprecedented call volumes" are only an excuse if they really are unprecedented

Make sure you're up front about a serious change in availability. If there is a special reason for a delay or outage, such as a blizzard, give it up front. Customers will understand if a situation outside your control causes a problem but only if you do the best job you can to stop them from wasting their time. However, if you have a repeating message that wait times are high because of "unprecedented call volumes" and this excuse is used for weeks on end, you lose credibility.

Don't shove customers to other forms of service

In today's world the vast majority of companies have some sort of web presence. On a company's web site you can usually find answers to common questions, technical support information, and even email addresses for customer service. Phone trees are often used to try to train customers to go to solutions that are cheaper for the company, such as email or web sites.

This approach present several problems. While it is reasonable to present this information once or twice while on hold, the endless repeating of this kind of message gives the customer the impression that they are not important enough for your company to deal with personally. If the customer won't try using the web or email after the first two announcements, they aren't going to. The other thing to consider is that the vast majority of companies have very poor response times to email, if they ever respond at all. Customers don't care about the cheapest way to interact with your company. They only want what's best for them. If you want customers to use a cheaper method, you need to make it a better method.

Don't hang up on your customer

There's nothing more frustrating than waiting on hold for over twenty minutes and being hung up on with no warning. If you need to empty the queue for some reason, don't do it by hanging up on your customers with no explanation. If can't help your customer now, at least let them know and give them the option of leaving a message. Be sure to check and respond to any messages that customers leave, within 24 hours.

Make the wait as pleasant as possible

If you don't have a tape loop of repeating messages, what should you do? The simplest and usually best answer is music. Most companies play some sort of popular but not offensive music. Some companies do better and give their customers a choice of listening music. "Press 1 for Yanni at the Acropolis, press 2 for Pink Floyd - The Wall", etc. A possible exception to this guideline would be technical support hotlines. For technical support, it may be useful to cover basic problems and their solutions.

If you do make announcements during the time customers are on hold, make sure not to tease them. Many times the music will cut out, and customers assume that their call is being answered, only hear a recorded message. Make sure your message comes on without delay.

Notify the customer near the end of the wait

If the customer has decided to wait 30 minutes to talk to you there's a good chance that his or her attention has wandered. They could be doing email, watching TV, or making dinner while they are on hold. Some customers will put the call on speakerphone and then wander away from the base unit. If a customer representative suddenly picks up, there's a good chance the customer will need to make some physical adjustments before he or she is ready. Sometimes a quick greeting yields no answer and the customer service representative hangs up to move to another call, resulting in a huge scream from the customer who has been waiting.

If you prepare the customer, you can make the start of the call go more smoothly and save both time and money. You can save the customer from wasting their time waiting on hold, and eliminate wasted money for the company. Give the customer notice with a one minute warning or a "your next in line" notification.

Test and monitor your voice tree quality

Phone tree programming is complex and often has bugs. The phone tree system should be fully tested after every programming change and at regular intervals. Don't rely on technicians for all testing. Customer service managers should consider a basic sanity test on their system every single day with a phone call from outside the system.

Another way to look for problems is to keep an eye on your statistics. Make sure you understand and control the statistical operations on your call center software. You should be able to understand when people take a wrong turn, when they give up, and correlate that to why. Hang-ups generated on your end should also be tracked. You need to extrapolate from the log data to understand real world behavior and track down fixable problems.

Check the quality and content of recordings. It's not unusual to run into two or three different quality "your call is important to us" recordings as you traverse a phone tree system. A scratchy recording sounds sloppy.

Improve your phone system to rise above your competition

There are tons of jokes and cartoons about phone systems and being put "on hold" in newspapers, magazines and websites. The jokes are funny precisely because so many systems are so bad. If you can improve your system, you can keep your customers coming back and spending their money with you, not your competition.