How to Reduce Repeated Calls in Your Call Center?

Repeat calls are calls a customer makes to customer service multiple times to resolve the same issue. They occur when the call center’s agents fail to resolve the customer’s problem during the initial calls.

Lack of agent training, improper resolutions, or unresolved issues could be the reasons for repeated calls in the call center. It indicates poor customer service and creates a negative impression of the brand.

• Incomplete resolutions or unresolved issues.
• Miscommunication or lack of clear instructions.
• Knowledge gaps due to insufficient agent training.
• System errors or complex policies confuse the customer.

Every repeat call is an additional burden on the agent. Repeat calls lower agent productivity, create more frustrated customers, and add an extra operational cost affecting the overall productivity of the call center.

Each time customers call back, they must explain their issues from the beginning, which can be frustrating. Back-to-back calls can lead to anger and rudeness toward the agent, negatively impacting their morale. When customers are upset, they’re more likely to consider leaving or switching to another service provider.

Repeat calls add workload to the overworked call center agents. Plus, the angry customer impacts the agent’s mental health, which hampers their ability to deal with other customers, too. This, in return, lowers the agent’s productivity and overall call center efficiency.

Back-to-back calls from the same customer reduce call center productivity and negatively affect the finances of the call center. Every repeat call consumes time from an agent and uses expensive equipment, leading to double expenses. A call center usually aims for the first-call resolution to minimize costs and improve call center efficiency.
 

When the customer has to make repeated calls for the same matter, the brand image gets tarnished as customers feel neglected and ignored. Repeated calls from the same customer over the same issue show poor customer service, The customer may even question the quality of the brand if there are multiple issues.

Repeat calls hamper the company’s image and possibly cause customers to leave in the future as they may get frustrated with your poor customer service. So, it is essential to reduce repeated calls to retain customers and boost your call center’s efficiency.

Self-service solutions like Interactive Voice Response (IVR) enable customers to resolve minor issues without agent assistance. By automating simple tasks such as billing inquiries or queries about common issues, IVR reduces call volumes in a call center. It allows agents to give more time to handle more complex issues and solve them at once, reducing the chances of repeat calls.

Ensure that the calls are directed to the agents according to their skills so that the issues are effectively handled from the start. This helps in increasing the first call resolution rate.

It is essential to connect customers with the right agent and the right skills according to their issues. IVR and Automatic Call Distribution (ACD) make it possible to connect customers to the right skilled and experienced agent in related topics so that the problem is solved in the first call.

Focus on improving first-call resolution by analyzing the real reason for the call, and communicating clearly to reduce call repetition. Analyze complaints and customer feedback to identify recurring issues and pinpoint the improvement areas.

Additionally, speech analysis and AI-powered call transcriptions can be used to find the exact reason for the call back from the customer instantly.

Conduct continuous and frequent training to keep agents updated and upskill them. Focus on problem-solving strategies, product knowledge, and communication skills. Training enhances agent's ability to resolve issues efficiently.

When agents clearly understand the problems, they can handle them more effectively, leading to a higher first-call resolution rate.

Regular call monitoring helps to identify the call quality and pinpoints the areas where agents are struggling, where the product lacks, or where processes are inefficient. Supervisors can listen to interactions through call recordings or live call monitoring. Now, through real-time call monitoring, managers can train the agent on the spot while on the call for repeated call reduction.

Easy access to information helps agents to solve the client’s issues quickly. They also need to have access to the store of easy details related to customers and their problems to personalize the solutions when required. Also, as agents may not have technical expertise for all kinds of tech problems, having an information store can be helpful to agents.

This provides a way to self-train agents. Moreover, easier access to information empowers agents to provide users with quick resolutions and stop customer callbacks.

When using AI in your call center, you are likely to reduce the number of calls received more than once and the rate at which you deliver the service.

Surveys and feedback collection are crucial for the call center to identify its weak areas. Customers also get a place to vent why they are frustrated with the same problem, and the issues can be solved immediately.

Requesting customers to provide feedback after each touch point addresses the fundamental reasons behind the poor services, fixes the services, and evaluates customer satisfaction.

Feedback shows where the call center or the brand lacks. So, instead of being demotivated with truth bombs, you must note down all the complaints and try to improve one at a time.

Every call center aims to provide 100% resolution at the first call. Reducing repeat calls in call centers requires a proactive approach and the proper use of strategies. Optimizing the call handling process with self-service options, training your agents, and collecting feedback from post-call surveys can help you reduce the repeat calls in your call center.
 

To reduce repeat calls in your call center, implement self-service options with an effective IVR menu and analyze reasons for the calls using AI tools to identify and solve customer queries.

Identify the reason for the call clearly and try to resolve customers’ problems in the first call to avoid repeat calls. You should make sure your agents are well-trained and are equipped with centralized knowledge bases.