Customers live in a fast-paced era where instant gratification can be the most significant trigger determining them to take action, remain invested, or abandon a mission.
This undeniable truth is even more accurate in the business world, where every second they spend waiting can significantly cost the company in question. Add the importance of having excellent interactions with customer service and support that deliver value and a great experience for the interlocutor to offset the troubles of having to wait by the phone, and you’re in for the most overwhelming adventure of your life as a business owner. However, assuming you know how to make your customers wait enthusiastically, or at least without feeling like wasting precious time they’d otherwise spend more pleasantly. You’re likely to hit their spot – and the jackpot afterward.
The value received during interactions with customer service and support is a decisive factor for 80% of consumers, influencing whether they stick to the company or move forward to a rival. Stay ahead of the curve with the best tricks and practices that make the waiting time more bearable and rewarding, and see how your customer retention rate (CRR) improves as you go.
Relax them up with strategically chosen music.
Holding songs isn’t just music to customers’ ears but also a method of having their perceived pastime shrank through meeting a primary psychological necessity. It keeps the anxiety from long waiting under control, reduces the perception of “dead air” that makes waiting unbearable, and makes callers feel like they’re contributing to their solution-finding process. After all, their patience is directed toward meeting a mutual goal – resolving the urgent caller’s issue or answering their question.
Many inbound customers come with urgent queries, grievances, and thwarting issues, which is where music comforts them. They’re on hold for a higher purpose while other similar requesters are getting their problems solved. Furthermore, it reassures their on-hold position while they’re keeping the phone on speaker or earbuds connected without having them stare at their phone.
Given today’s endless possibilities to choose suitable music developed for your niche and specific type of service and customer from software providers like Melody Loops, you can quickly and cheaply ensure you’re making the most out of this undertaking. From child-friendly to relaxation-inducing to mainstream music – you have numerous options to shift consumers’ perception from having their nerves stepped on to working with a highly proficient, respectable, and customer-oriented business that knows how to offer top-tier services regardless of the area proposed.
A short advice: Choose music that doesn’t loop too frequently so customers won’t feel their time flying as strenuously.
Offer omnichannel support
Customers want fast-as-lighting solutions for their issues and questions, which often implies avoiding making a phone call to contact an agent and using alternative solutions, such as chatbots or FAQs. For instance, a customer may have already browsed your webpage, other webpages related to a similar service or product offered by you, or communities discussing such topics – regardless of how far they had to dig to avoid picking up the phone.
When their first to third methods have failed them, they’re squeezing their patience to get a human-made answer, thus engaging with the whole experience of calling CS agents. Therefore, you want to ensure they’re finding the needed help through their means and terms while enabling them to seamlessly work up to a more solid support channel, like voice channels, when necessary.
An omnichannel strategy connects the channels to build a seamless UX. Your business can run an FAQ, product page, or callback widget, enabling callers to plan a call independently without hitting the green sign or using a chatbot. Adding AI’s help, you can gather these submitted requests during hold times, both virtual and traditional, so they’re guided to the suitable department and the right agent.
Companies can offer customers rapid and pertinent support through such an approach while considerably reducing hold times and call volumes – all working in both parties’ favor.
Give them the callback option.
Suppose there’s anything more burdensome than waiting endless minutes on the phone to face the harsh reality that your problem wasn’t solved after all your patience. In that case, that is letting time pass without having the minimum guarantee that your issue will be resolved by the end of your experience. When such daunting scenarios occur, having consumers become more frustrated as minutes pass and no customer service rep is there to take their call can be a break dealer for their future interactions with your business.
The last thing you want is to have them anguished at the thought of contacting your customer service and spreading hateful reviews about your business. Since employing more staff is often easier said than done, the next wise thing you can do is opt for a callback service, which enables callers to hang up the phone and move on to waiting for a callback from an agent right after they become available or at a specific date and hour chosen by the demander.
When customers opt-in for such an option, they’re bound to witness their perspectives shift from hostile to positive, contributing to a more pleasant call when the agent finally gets in contact with them. This positive feeling carries over into their interaction with the agent and significantly reshapes the perception of your company’s services, so choose your tools wisely.
The wrap-up
Regardless of how you slice it, customers hate being put on hold, and for good reason. They feel unappreciated, hopeless, and frustrated, ultimately detrimental to the business.
With the three tried-and-tested methods above, you can experience a difference and see your CRR rise dramatically. So, how are you going to cut hold times? Which technique seems the most suitable for your enterprise’s customers?
