How can you help prevent your customers from switching to the competition? Accenture’s “Customer 2020” research of consumer trends over the past 10 years found that:
- 80% of the consumers surveyed indicated that they could have been retained primarily if their issue had been resolved on their first contact with their provider
- Even so, over the past five years, first contact resolution remained the top frustration factor
Aramini Management recommends the following to improve first call resolution practices:
- Develop and track first contact metrics.
- Incorporate call-handling quality and service resolution standards among all employees.
- Define service incidents and track the number of occurrences.
- Establish service escalation procedures when issues cannot be resolved at the first contact level.
- Track escalation rates: which service issues are being escalated to the next level and why?
- Institute a resolution follow-up time period for those concerns that cannot be resolved at that time and advise the customer when they will contacted.
- Measure customer quality assurance allowing customers to confidentially rate their service resolution experience.
- Establish business etiquette standards for telephone and email ensuring everyone adopts the proper way to take a message, hold and transfer a call, and frame an email.