Putting a caller on hold.

An agent should not put a customer on hold without seeking permission. If the agent abruptly says ‘hold on’ and puts him on hold, the customer would feel helpless and less important. To avoid this, there are four steps to putting a customer on hold. The agent needs to tell the customer the following before putting him on hold.

Explain the reason
Take permission
State how long it will take
Thank the caller if he/she agrees to be put on hold


Example:

Agent: ", I need to research on this issue and it may take 2 minutes. May I place you on hold?

Customer: " All right"

Agent: "Thank you"

If the hold exceeds the stipulated two minutes the agent should get back to the customer and request for more time. If he/she doesn’t want to continue holding, the agent may have to request the customer to call back after sometime or assure him/her that the agent will call the customer later (depending on the policy followed by the process)

Upon return the agent has to thank the customer for being on hold.

Agent: "Thank you for being on hold, "

Most customers may not mind being placed on hold. They will wait for the agent to get back. But if they are placed on hold for too long without any explanation, they might feel that the agent has forgotten them or hung up on them. Then they themselves might hang up. When you place customers on hold for more than two minutes their perception of that time is a lot more. This perception, in turn makes them impatient.

Some customers who have called before and who have been placed on hold dislike the thought of being placed on hold. The agent has to strategically word the request for hold, for the customer to accept it.

Dead Air

Dead Air is the time span between words/sentences during a call. An agent needs to worry only about long periods of dead air. Dead air happens when there is no communication. This could be due to various reasons.

Insufficient product knowledge
Referring to the manual while on call.
Waiting for the database to appear on the screen
While typing
While waiting for downloads, upgrades etc

How does one control dead air? The easiest way is by using fillers like OK, All right, Go ahead, Please proceed...etc. Other fillers are echoing the customer's name, numbers etc while reconfirming the customer's information and type simultaneously. These types of fillers are used when the time span of silence is just a few seconds or less than a minute. When the agent is pulling up a record or checking the warranty status, he needs a minute. At this time, he should inform the customer what he/she is doing.

At the initial stage of the call, when you have to pull up the records, you could say, "Please give me a moment while I pull up your records". This is called buying time. The customer is given a reason for the pause.

If the silence is going to be for more than a minute, the agent should put the customer on hold.

Driver's Seat

Stage 1 – Opening the call

Take control of the call right away with an enthusiastic and cheerful greeting. ALWAYS smile before picking up the phone. Your smile will be heard by the customer.

When an agent smiles and sounds cheerful, the customer feels happy that the Agent is ready to sort out his/her issues. The customer is co-operative. The agent is in control.

If the agent opens the call without a smile and sounds scripted, the customer gets the impression that the agent is bored and indifferent to his problem. The customer then becomes either aggressive or remote, and unfriendly. This in turn makes the agent’s job difficult.

Hence it is important that the Agent takes control of the call at the very beginning. Research shows that the first 30 seconds of a call are the most important moments during when the customer forms the first impression about the agent. Just as the agent tries to visualize the customer, the customer also tries to visualize the person at the other end. So remember the first impression is very important.


Stage 2 – Collecting Information

An agent can lose control over the call while collecting information, if he/she doesn’t listen carefully. Companies need a lot of information about the customer for various purposes. They use this information for marketing, upgrading their products, and research. So it is very important that the agent collects information correctly. The agent needs to listen carefully and then reconfirm/verify the information collected.

Sometimes the customer is frustrated by the time he/she reaches the agent because the person has been transferred many times. He may not want to waste time giving any information. If the customer is adamant about this, the agent should give in gracefully and empathize. The agent needs to apologize for the inconvenience caused and proceed straightaway to listening to the issue and resolving it. The moment the agent agrees to resolve the issue instead of collecting information, he is back in control of the call. He can try to collect information after resolving the issue or in-between resolution when time permits.

So the catch phrase for this stage is listening carefully to the customer’s voice and tone to stay in control.


Stage 3 – Listening to the issue and Paraphrasing

This is one of the most important stages of a call. It is at this stage that the agent first comes to know of the customer’s issue. It is very important that the agent understands the issue correctly because without proper understanding of the issue, he/she will not be able to give a correct resolution. The agent needs to listen carefully. He/She may not understand the customer word for word, if the customer's accent is not familiar, but the agent still needs to pick out all the key words. These words are usually stressed by the customer. The agent should keep a paper and pen handy and note down all the important points. This way the agent will not forget any of the information given by the customer and therefore will not have to ask the customer to repeat.

After listening to the problem, and noting down thekey points, the agent needs to make sure that he/she has understood the issue correctly. The agent paraphrases the issue to confirm that he/she has understood what the customer has said. The customer is also reassured that the agent has understood him/her even if there is an issue with accent.

Right after paraphrasing, the agent takes control over the call by assuring the customer that he/she will make sure the issue is resolved. But the agent should not make any false promises. If the call has to be transferred to another department, it should be done at this stage. When the agent takes ownership of the call, the customer feels confident of being taken care of.


Stage 4 – Asking probing questions

Make sure you ask only relevant questions. Don’t prolong unnecessarily. Go into the next stage of resolution immediately. Use close ended questions as much as possible. This will help the agent to get specific answers and thus control the flow of conversation.


Stage 5 – Troubleshooting -> Resolution

This is the HEART of the call. To be in control of the call, the agent needs to be very careful during this phase. He has to guide the customer to a resolution. This should be done in a very informal, friendly manner. The agent should use simple language to explain or instruct. He should give simple step by step instructions to customers, whilst troubleshooting. Simple instructions help him/her to be in control and not lose time explaining again and again. Remember time is money.

There are few other important rules to follow to remain in control of the call at this stage.

Always give one instruction at a time.
Always reconfirm that the customer has completed a step/task (script-Have you done that? OR have you clicked the Next button?)
Repeat instructions if necessary
Always tell the customer briefly what you are about to do, and then instruct him how to do it.

After resolution, you need to reassure the customer that his/her issue has been set right. Do it confidentially and cheerfully. Do not be in a hurry to close the call. This gives the feeling that the service is dependable.


Stage 6 – Closing the Call

This is the last stage of the call. The customer should feel that the agent was happy to serve him. Close the call with a smile. Your tone should be warm and friendly. The customer should feel that you appreciate his/her business and look forward to doing business with him/her fora long time.

In the Driver's Seat

It is very important that the agent has control over each and every single call that he/she handles. This is possible only when he/she has in-depth product knowledge and excellent communication skills. When you are in control, you sound professional and project an image of competence. You sound calm, friendly and under no stress. This in turn gives the customer confidence, and that you will resolve the issue on hand.

If the agent is not in control of the call, it is only natural that the customer takes over. This will only create confusion and frustration. In order to avoid this, we need to understand what call control is, and how to control a call.


What is call-control?

When you are in control, you direct the flow of conversation. You decide what the next step is going to be. To be in control, you do not have to be aggressive. In fact if you become aggressive, you lose control of the call, because no customer will want to co-operate with an aggressive Agent.


General tips to control a call

Sound enthusiastic and confident from the start of the call

Listen carefully so that the customer doesn’t have to repeat himself over and over again. The customer will lose confidence in you if he/she is made to repeat.

Be empathetic in your response, when the customer states the issue & the inconvenience faced by him/her. It always helps to understand the customer’s state of mind.

Be friendly and courteous.

Never assume anything. Always ask questions to be sure of the situation.

Resolve the issue logically and systematically

After understanding the issue, assure the customer that you will make sure his/her problem is resolved.


Areas of call control and how to go about it

Call flow - Controlling a call starts with understanding the flowchart of a call. The flowcharts of most inbound tech calls are similar, with very few variations. The call starts with the call opening and proceeds through collecting information, listening to the issue, paraphrasing, asking probing questions, resolving and call ending. An agent should know the flowchart of his call thoroughly and should follow it. In case the customer is impatient and doesn’t want to go through the second stage of collecting information, go ahead and listen to the problem and resolve it. But always try to get all information before closing the call.

Effective Troubleshooting

Even though questioning starts during the stage just prior to resolution, it continues through resolution also. Both open ended and close ended questions are used to validate, collect and confirm information. Along with these questions an agent may need to describe, explain, instruct, direct and visually confirm to guide a customer through resolution.

Descriptions: explanations of what a particular object looks like

Example: IDE cable is a flat white colour wire with red colour stripes on it.

The internet explorer icon looks like a blue ‘e’.

Descriptions and Directions go together. You have to first tell the customer where he has to look (direction) and then tell him what to look for.

Example: On the top of the screen, do you see a button labeled refresh?
At the bottom of the screen, do you see the start button?

After visually confirming that the customer has located what he needs to look for, the agent gives Instructions.

Example: Agent: "On the bottom of the screen, do you see the Finish button?"
Customer: "Yes"
Agent: "Click on it please!"


Different types of Instructions given whilst troubleshooting:

EXAMPLE:

Typing commands – These types of instructions should be given slowly so that the customer has the time to type the 'command' in the keyboard.


Instructions where the customer needs to use the mouse or keyboard. The agent has to give instructions one by one:
E.g. "Go to Start" pause until the customer finds the start button. Then give the 2nd instruction, "Select Run", again wait until the customer does that. Then give the next command, "Type in _____". There are several other commands such as right click, click, hit enter, press, check, uncheck....etc.


Instructions where a physical activity needs to be done, wait till the customer executes the instruction.
E.g. Connecting and disconnecting cables;Opening the side panels of the tower; Installing software using CDs


Instructions for checking resolution, wait till the customer sounds convinced that the issue has been resolved. Do not hurry closing the call.
E.g. "Try going online".