CALL ROUTING

Do you have information regarding reduction in call handle times associated with skills-based routing in call centers?

Our benchmark research shows a possible 18 percent reduction in call handle times associated with the application of a skills-based routing package. The return on investment is usually rather large. This reduction in call handling time is even greater if the call center in question has the need for highly specialized call handlers and can easily identify several levels of call handling skills among its agents.

I hear a lot about caller value segmentation. What is this and could you give me an example?

With customer value segmentation you can pinpoint your best customers (i.e., for the airlines, those in the 100K-mile category). With your center's ability to recognize callers' phone numbers, it's possible to detect callers who represent more value to your company than other callers. Routing high-value callers differently is called value-based routing. For instance, let's say I am a 1OOK-mile traveler with one of the major airlines. When I call this airline from my home or my office, I am routed out of the normally long queue to a special group of agents dedicated to high-value travelers. But if I call from a pay phone, the center doesn't recognize me, and I am routed to the regular queue. That's the result of caller value segmentation

I manage a call center for a health care organization. The callers requesting our services need to speak with as many as 4 different areas or departments. This could mean direct transfers or call backs. At each of these steps we lose a percentage of our callers. Is this a common problem with this system? What % of callers should I expect to lose with each step?

WOW, this is very unusual. I do not think you can afford to lose ANY callers as they are transferred.

Seems like there is something "systemically" wrong with the design of call handling.

Needs attention.

Dr. Jon

I manage a contact center in Dallas Texas for a company called TNB Card Services. We are fortunate that our containment rate is typically between 78-80%. My questions is this, as service provider (Customer Service) for credit cards what is the average time a caller spends in the IVR.

Mindy,
Like so many of my answers, it depends on the circumstances. In a properly designed IVR messaging system, a customer spends less than 30 seconds working through the menus to find the right queue to be in to get the response they are looking for. In a credit card environment, if you have a well-designed self-service strategy in place, the customer can find and get their answer in less than 60 seconds…..more than that and the probability of them “opting out” increases quickly.
-Dr. Jon

My colleague is working on a paper comparing our transfer rates to standard 'benchmarked' rates. We have two types of transfers, misroutings and additional questions. Do you know what standard percentages are for these two types of transfers? Thanks-

This answer depends on the industry and the type of call, but in general, here are the answers:
Miss-routings = 16%Additional questions = 28%

--Dr. Jon

We are considering software that would allow us to utilize agents in two separate locations to respond to inbound calls (such as through load balancing). Are there any statistics on how this software can affect our call center performance metrics?

We find that products that distribute calls to multiple call centers have a positive impact on the following performance metrics: average speed of answer, percentage of 'once and done calls' queue time and service levels.

We need various Benchmarks (from any industry) of the distribution between customers using IVR vs. customers using a call center representative for payment with credit cards.

In the US, the cross-industry benchmark for customers with “delinquent accounts” using IVR versus live agents to make payments with credit cards is as follows:

23% use IVR
77% talk to a live agent

BTW, this is in contrast to the normal usage of IVR for self-service by customers, where on-average, 72% of all informational calls in consumer-product industries are handled by IVR self service.

What percentage of companies in the consumer products industry and in the retail industry have their collections done through a call center? To whom do they report (finance / customer service / other)? What are the collections call center responsibilities? Thank you

What percentage of companies in the consumer products industry and in the retail industry have their collections done through a call center?

From our database, the answer is 87%.



To whom do they report (finance / customer service / other)?

Typically they report to finance.



What are the collections call center responsibilities?

Receive the details about delinquent customers.

Input their phone numbers on an auto dialer.

Trained agents talk to the customers about payment.

Manage by "promises to pay'.