Simple ways to avoid this and get Paid

Is there anything more frustrating then this sentence, "Your call is important to us please hold....?" The only other more recent sentence I can think of this one, "Due to Covid-19 our wait times are long than normal.." Granted some people will always hold as they need to talk to a person but a large percentage could also able to cure if they were given the chance and if the pandemic has taught us anything we cannot rely on having full capacity call centers.

This article is not rocket science or any new technology but describes a few very simple ways to avoid your customers having to wait for long periods of time or hanging up which creates more effort for your company to call them back, send another notification or worse still see them fall behind a payment.

Why is it important? A motivated customer with the will and intent to pay is gold dust and according to research most people believe anything over a 1 minute hold is too long. A single poor experience can reduce a customer's satisfaction not to mention their will to pay so its important to remove as many barriers as possible and offer a path of least resistance.

First, create a dedicated 24/7, IVR which is separate from your general IVR number which avoids unnecessary navigation of multiple options and frustration. A customer that wants to simply pay, make a promise to pay or even tell you they have paid already can do this without in a good IVR without the need to speak with an agent in less than 1 minute. A leading energy provider saw the benefits of this approach with 67% more cash collected within 4 days, ROI of ï¿¡150 for every ï¿¡1 spent, 76% agree customer experience improve and 5% more customers removed from debt within 25 days*

Secondly, adopt IVR deflection which is great way to shift your inbound traffic to a self cure route. Simply add an option into your dedicated IVR, "If you do not want to hold for an agent we can send you a SMS with a one time secure link to pay, press 1 or if preferred an email press 2"

Alternatively you can divert them to Live Chat (Bot) which is a very effective and fast growing channel but may be limited to people with a good smart phone. Lastly, you can offer and create a call back which is less efficient as it requires human intervention and is not necessarily in real time which means you have lost your highly motivated customer with the intent to pay!

Last but not least if you want to divert a consumer from voice to a new channel the key is that its an instant message (as you have a motivated customer) and that it has a call to action which enables them to cure. Email and SMS does not need not be one way and there is nothing more frustrating then an generic email that reminds you to pay or contact a business that comes from an address like this...DONOTREPLY@.... Whilst consulting on a transformation project with with a bank they stated that over 40% of their daily inbound calls were simply from customers promising to pay within the next 7 days. The process to remove even 10% of these calls using a call deflection digital SMS was a huge cost saving for them but more importantly it also meant their agents could now spend more time with people who needed help with complex issues. Both email and SMS can be interactive and have a single or multiple calls to action with embedded phone numbers, buttons or links that do not ask for either any PII data or payment card details but can still be highly effective. (see below PTP example)

There are many ways to reduce call waiting times that can be seamlessly integrated into your current process and will significantly improve your cost and time to serve your customers with little upfront cost and minimal disruption to your business. To understand more best practice tips or to request a business review which evaluates your current process and measures this against leading organisations please contact me simon.howard@illiondts.com

*https://www.illiondts.com/learn/case-studies/uk-energy-retailer/