Donna
Siegel

Shave Seconds Off Telephone Customer Service Talk Time

The growth of e-commerce and e-mail have not diminished the need for a solid telephone-based customer service program. But telephone service quickly becomes too expensive, unless you manage average call length. Fortunately, there are proven techniques to Shave Seconds Off Telephone Customer Service Talk Time.

However, even though talk time is not the most meaningful information, it is still an important measure for customer service. Part of an effective customer service program is efficiency in handling customer calls - looking for methods of cutting seconds out of the average call. That's what one company looked at, and this is the story of what they did.

Meet KS Enterprises

KS Enterprises (an alias for the purpose of this article) is an unusual company in today's investment world. It has a single product line (retirement plans) and a focused market niche (small organizations). Its marketing department has primary responsibility for selling plans to various organizations. Maintenance of those plans, as well as helping participants through the complex experience of selecting investment options, is the responsibility of the customer service department.

Most of the contact with customers is by phone, so close attention is paid to phone volume and efficiency. KS noted that some recent changes in its business had markedly pushed up the volume of calls received by the service center. Before making significant increases to their staffing to cover these calls, they decided to examine whether the current customer service reps were as efficient as they could be. Maybe additional people would not be necessary, or at least not as many new people would be needed as the company feared.

Measuring Efficiency

Since all customer contact calls into KS and similar investment companies are automatically recorded, it was easy to get recordings of representative service conversations. Several sample calls were pulled from a specific date; then additional calls were sampled 1 week and 2 weeks later. About 200 calls in all were reviewed and analyzed to determine:

• How long was the overall call?
• How much time was the customer talking?
• How much time was spent by the reps answering questions and addressing other customers needs?
• How much time was spent on extraneous points and issues?
• What techniques did the customer service person use during the call?
• Which of those techniques helped make the call productive and efficient?

In addition, call patterns were reviewed to see what factors caused a person to call back a second or third time related to the same point.

What Was Happening On Those Calls?

There were four different patterns of calls that emerged which showed significant areas for improvement in efficiency:

1. When The Customer's First Question Was Not The Real Question
The typical pattern for a call was for the customer service rep to offer to help and then wait for the response. The customer then usually spent from 10 to 30 seconds explaining their story or asking their question, at which time the rep gave an appropriate response to the question as asked.

It sounds on the surface like an efficient process, but it wasn't. What was hidden under the surface was that the customer didn't always know which question to ask. So, the customer asked a question, the rep responded; and the customer, after patiently listening, said: "No, that's not what I meant." Now the customer had to restate the question or story and start again. This process was often repeated several times in a single call!

For example, the customer might say: "When will I receive my next statement?" and the rep would answer: "You should receive it in about three weeks." The customer would say thanks and hang up. Five minutes later another rep would receive a call from the same customer saying: "I understand I won't get my next statement for three more weeks. Is there any way I can check on my balances in the various mutual funds before then?" That was the real question, but the first rep, by merely responding to the surface request, had failed to identify it.

2. When The Customer Was Not Articulate In Investment Terminology
A similar phenomenon took place in calls where the customer was not familiar with investment terminology or was a little slow in understanding technical details. The customer service rep would answer the question and then pause. When the customer did not ask a follow-up question, the rep would go on to ask if there were any more questions - to verify that the customer understood. The problem here was the customer didn't have the foundation to respond, so the customer would just allow the call to be terminated.

Even worse, the customer's question would sometimes trigger a long-winded investment lecture which went well beyond the customer's current information needs, which in turn led to further questions by the customer for clarification. A small technical question that could have been answered in 3 - 5 minutes could easily turn into a 20-minute dialog, with minimal additional benefit to the customer.

But we're looking at efficiency, not quality of calls. On the surface it appears like an efficient call. However, the customer would get off the phone with the rep and, most of the time, call right back. If the customer was lucky, the call would be routed to a different rep who might be more effective in helping resolved the question.

3. When The Customer Needed Information
A common call to the customer service line was a customer request for information about an investment option or a retirement plan feature (such as loans or emergency withdrawals). Many of the reps responded to these requests by verifying the customer's address and offering to send them out the appropriate brochure, form or document. These often appeared to be 60 second calls, but their net effect was usually to trigger another call.

After receiving the written information, in many cases, the customers called back to discuss their needs further or to request different information (when what they asked for was not what they needed.) The number of call-backs here was enormous.

4. When The Customer Took Control
There was a small segment of customers who called in for a specific piece of information or transaction. They had all of their information organized, they understood what they were asking for, and they knew when they had achieved their objective. When the customer was in control like this, the reps knew exactly what to do and could go about it efficiently.

Defining The Customer's Needs Determined The Efficiency Of The Calls

As the data from the calls was analyzed, a single factor seemed to determine whether or not each call was the most efficient. The factor was whether or not the customer service rep understood exactly what the customer wanted or needed from the call. As soon as the real meaning for the call was clear, the rep could put all resources to work on getting the answer.

This meant changing the reps' habits to avoid side trips, as well as both under-presenting and over-presenting. We focused attention on the preliminary opening statement from the customer. What was the customer actually asking for? How did this fit with his or her needs? How well did the customer understand the implications of the question?

The New Approach To Efficiency: Asking Questions Up Front

As a result of the analysis we asked the reps to start asking the customers more questions about their opening statements. We found that most of the time it took only 2 or 3 questions to determine exactly what the customer was trying to do. This part of the conversation usually took no more than a couple of minutes.

After the rep thought they understood the customer's reason for the call, they verified their understanding with the customer and then went quickly into resolution of the problem or answering the question.

For example, if the customer asked for a withdrawal form, the rep would now ask the customer to explain their purpose for this withdrawal. Once they know exactly what the customer had in mind, the rep could tell the customer how to fill out all relevant spaces on the form, where to send it, and other provisions of the withdrawal procedure which fit the customer's situation.

The Proof Of The Pudding Is In The Tasting

Both managers and reps alike doubted the findings of the analysis. They were convinced that asking question up front would lengthen, not shorten calls. They needed proof.

We kept a set of the original call tapes to serve as a starting point of reference. We trained the reps on techniques for asking investigative questions and spent time developing their comfort in asking these types of questions. Then we asked the reps to ask more up-front questions for the next week.

After they had had a week to practice their new techniques and become comfortable with them, we made a new set of call tapes, compared them the original calls and measured the lengths of the calls. We also looked at the before and after call logs to determine the rates of same-customer call-backs. The calls in the second, post-training, group were an average of 10 seconds shorter than the previous calls. Although the reps were spending more time asking questions, they spent less time presenting the wrong information or having to repeat information the customer did not understand. What's more, there were significantly fewer call-backs from customers asking the same questions again and again.

What You Can Learn From KS To Shave Seconds From Your Calls

If you're a customer service manager or representative providing information on complex services or products, you can probably make your calls more efficient by using the following steps:

1. Record sample calls of your own.
2. Identify portions of the call which are wasted activity.
3. Run a test where the rule is to ask questions to find out the customer's complete need before taking any action.
4. Record sample calls from the test.
5. Compare the test results against the initial sample and you should see a significant increase in efficiency.

Give it a try and see if you don't shave those critical seconds off your calls. 

SeaBird Associates Inc
3011 NE 7th Drive
Boca Raton, FL 33431
Phone: 561-750-9233
E-mail: Donna Siegel

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