You have been calling the customer care center for the last 10 days to get your query resolved. But, every time you call, your call gets connected to one of those representatives who either lack knowledge or are incompetent to offer the requisite help.
What happens during most of these calls is either your call is put on hold or left unattended and then disconnected. The duration for which your call is left unattended without any individual at both ends speaking a word is known as Dead Air Space.
Dead air space is fatal and can severely damage your brand reputation. Imagine a situation when a customer contacts the customer care center, and what they get to hear is a long silence or dead air for a minimum of 30 seconds. While ‘30 seconds’ may not sound like a long period for the agent, it actually feels too long to the customer and is enough to fade their confidence in your brand.
While creating dead air space is never the intention of any customer care executive, a number of factors can cause it. This may include factors like lack of sufficient knowledge, slow software, tough queries raised by the customer, or the agent being too busy finding an appropriate solution.
Undoubtedly, dead air space is uncomfortable for both the customer as well as the agent. Therefore, it is important to look for some effective ways that may help in reducing dead air space. Some effective ways are mentioned below:
1. Keep Sharing Updates With Your Customer
To avoid the risk of annoying your customers, it is important to keep them informed and updated about the steps being taken and progress made in their query resolution. For instance, letting them know that you are looking for particular information in the system is a better idea than putting them directly on hold without any explanation. This will give your customer reassurance that their query is being fixed and rightly resolved.
2. Seek Their Permission Before Putting Them On Hold
There can be situations when it is important to put the customer on hold. This may include checking the order delivery status, cross-checking some product-related information, etc. In such situations, it is important for the contact center agent always to follow the rule of “seeking the customer’s permission” before putting any of them on hold.
Asking for their permission will not only please them in the first place but will also encourage them to render the support required to resolve their query.
3. Initiate Conversation To Build A Rapport
One of the most effective ways to keep a customer engaged, besides finding the best possible solution for their query, is initiating a conversation. There can be times when the customer denies being put on hold or is too eager to find a resolution.
In such situations, it is best to engage them in some interesting conversation. This helps keep the dialog on the customer involved while also giving the agent enough time to find the best solution.
4. Share Promotional Discounts and Offers
Rather than keeping your customers on hold and bored, it is better to share information about some promotional offers and schemes for them. But, it is important to stay cautious when using this trick, as sharing this information won’t be a good idea if the customer on call is unhappy with your services.
If that is the case, it is best to first offer a resolution to the customer for their query and then seek their permission to share any such information. Sharing this information will not only help in attracting more sales but also in the company’s promotion and building brand reputation.
5. Keep Your Agents Informed
One of the simplest yet most effective ways to reduce dead air space is by keeping your agents informed and updated. They should have detailed information about the products and services offered by the company. Along with this, it is also essential for them to be aware of the ways that may enable them to fix the customers’ problems quickly. This can be done by offering them regular training sessions and helping them know the best possible ways to make an unhappy customer happy.
6. Phrases to use to avoid dead air space
Contact centers have always leveraged the art of communicating to render quality customer service. Smart and effective use of words and emotions has often made it easier to convince customers. Top phrases that are used to avoid dead air space include:
- Thank you for being on hold
- We appreciate your patience while we retrieve your data
- Please stay online while we work on your case
- Please stay on hold while we process your request
- Allow us a minute to serve you better
While phrases have made it easier for contact center agents to avoid dead air space, leveraging dead air questions to render quality customer service sounds equally good. The top questions agents can ask include:
- Please tell us a little about your experience while we retrieve your data.
- How has been your experience so far with the product or service?
- What made you choose the particular model or the package?
- How happy are you after making the purchase?
- Do you have friends you would like to recommend this product to?
7. Silence Isn’t Always Golden
At times, staying silent is important, but this does not work effectively in every situation. Silence on a customer call is a form of disrespect to the customer’s time and effort. This is because a customer contacts a call center to find a quick resolution to their problem and not to maintain silence. Therefore, minimizing silence and offering an immediate solution is important not only to improve customer satisfaction (CSAT) scores but also to improve customer retention scores. Take a closer look at your speech analytics data, spot the common errors, fix the issues and you will soon be able to attain the desired goal.
