Digitising phone calls: the win-win gamble over customer relationships

Delivering quality service is a key challenge for all those involved in customer relationship management. However, this observation is crying in vain in contact centres: wait times are getting longer, call centre agents have less and less time to deal with incoming call requests and quality is getting worse. 67 % of French people have a poor opinion of call centre agents (Genesys opinion poll / Interactive Intelligence / Harris Interactive, November 2016).

Faced with these challenges, digitalisation is storming the barricades to overturn this trend and new solutions are emerging to address the twin challenges of ever-increasing volumes of contacts/the customer experience.

Digitising phone calls: what does this mean?

Historically, the only way of dealing with a customer query was over a telephone call, sometimes long, sometimes short, with all the known problems: wait times, associated costs, and a non-scalable solution. In the last few years, new solutions have appeared that fulfil, on the one hand, the potential of the channels, in the form of Chat lines and on the other, by delivering self-care solutions (customer portals, dynamic FAQ pages, Chatbots).

All the same, a significant number of customers prefer to use the telephone, even though it is not the best medium to deal with their query. In particular, in cases involving a simple requirement with no added value in being handled by a live agent (for example: change of address or checking the progress of the claim). This is the opportunity that the French company Dial Once has seized by launching the first solution on the marketplace to Digitise Incoming Calls.

This simple expression hides a complete system that launches a visual interface on a smart phone as soon as it receives a call. The object of this screen is to replace the IVR (Interactive Voice Response), which is seen as an irritant. The user is offered a smooth customer experience, receiving a direct answer to their query and the offer of other communication channels, even the opportunity of being put through directly to their adviser.

For that, the company's content and digital services are put to good use, services like dynamic FAQs or even a Chatbot.

It should be made clear that the user is free at any time to ask to continue their call by speaking to a live agent.

What challenges does this process address?

Digitising incoming calls addresses several challenges:

Customer satisfaction Customer relationship management is made simpler and paves the way to an easy route to self-care without putting up with the traditional Interactive Voice Response. In addition, this process is scalable and guarantees 24/7 availability, which is itself an improvement on telephone or Chat line services.

A reduction in contact volumes 75 to 80% of customers who use a self-care system (dynamic FAQ or Chatbot) via the visual IVR obtain a response without having to contact a live agent. The result is a considerable reduction in the volume of phone calls and the costs associated with dealing with them (EUR 5 - 12 per call whereas a request dealt with by a dynamic FAQ costs less than EUR 0.50). At the same time, this frees up call centre agents to spend more time dealing with requests which really merit their attention (commercial opportunities for example).

Customer education A digitalisation tool is able to track user journeys and collect invaluable behavioural data. It is also therefore possible to identify where the contact comes from (from a website page for example) or to measure the bounce rate.

Knowledge about the customer In addition, self-care solutions like the Inbenta dynamic FAQ are able to provide a detailed analysis of questions asked by users, which helps to understand their needs as well as offering statistics on response rates and customer satisfaction.

Inbenta evaluates the Dial Once solution

The Dial Once and Inbenta solutions are designed to work together perfectly. It is very easy to integrate a dynamic FAQ and a Chatbot.

You will see below an example of the user journey inside the Dial Once visual IVR. The implementation of a solution to digitise incoming calls is carried out in two stages:

Before anything else, you should put together a full picture of what you can offer in terms of self-care. Do you have a knowledge database or at least a section entitled FAQ on your website? Implementing a dynamic FAQ will only take a few weeks if you work with a specialist organisation like Inbenta.

Implementing the Dial Once solution is achievable in a few weeks, using existing content and services. The process is transparent to the end-user as there is absolutely no effort on the part of the customer.

How do you go about it?

Digitalisation brings benefits both to the end user who receives answers immediately without having to wait to speak to a call centre agent; and the business that can deliver an excellent customer relationship management service by filtering out low added-value-calls.

The implementation of such a project will take only a few weeks with significant improvement in the quality of service as well as a greater understanding of the customer. Are you interested in implementing a call digitalisation solution linked with a dynamic FAQ or a Chatbot? Our team of experts is ready to discuss your requirements to implement a solution that is tailor-made for you. Don't hesitate to get in touch with us.