Why Doesn't Everyone Have This?

ecamulli — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 16:43:13 GMT

This is a question I get quite often after I tell a person about Virtual Hold Technology. I get this question from friends, acquaintences, strangersand sales prospects. It's a valid question. I mean...if I told you that you could talk to the right specialist, the first time and get your questions answered quickly and easily, and that all you had to do is hang up and get a callback in 5 minutes...would you do it? I'm going to go out on a limb and say that99% of people out there would say "YES" emphatically. So, this truly begs the question, "why doesn't everyone have this?"

Self-Service and Unified Communications.

These are two initiatives I see out there that contact center people believe will solve their hold time woes. I'm not going to insult your intelligence by defining these for you. Instead, I'm just going to tell you why they are not the final answer.

We engage companies everyday who have persevered, endured and implemented these strategies, but still have hold time issues. They call us for help because they have come to some conclusions about customers, resources and technology. I will share their conclusions with you now:

First, they realize that most people like sit-down restaurants a lot more than they like buffets. I like a good buffet once in a while because I getto pick and choose andserve myself and get more food any time I like. But, most of the time when I decide to go out, I do so because I want to be served. I want my food brought to me, I want the server's opinion on the specials, I want to sit and relax. And then afterwards I want to evaluate the service and even tell my friends about it if it was exemplary. As human beings, it's in us to serve others and to be served by others. In the same manner, most of us have the personal desire to clearly explain our situation to a customer service representative, gain human acknowledgement,and thenreceive clear and friendly answers in return. The back and forth interaction, when positive, releases some kind of endorphins in the brain.We know this because the whole thingfeels good! In my last posting,I explained how acomputer system took care of everything. But I didn't like it. There was no joy and my opinion of the company was still negative to neutral. Here are some stats I recently ran accross that I found very interesting as well: according to a 2007 consumer survey by LightSpeed, 91% of consumers feel that companies are pushing them to use self-service systems instead of talking to people. 74% react negatively when they feel they are being pushed to use self-service.

Secondly...companies realize that, while Unified Communications connects and unitesthe organization in a way that can better serve customers quickly, the organization still only has a finite number of specialized resources available to help customers. There are only so many tier 3 tech support specialists in your org. You only haveso many billing specialists who know how to change the shipping charge, adjust the tax rate for a different state and mail a new invoice to a different address not on file. Unified Communications may help you locate these valuable resources in your enterprise, but to depend upon their availability is totally unrealistic. They are highly skilled and in high demand!

At the risk of sounding too salesy, Virtual Hold complements these two strategies because, in essence, you are reserving your besttable for your customer who will then be served by your best waiter or waitress. Instead of having "any warm body" answer the phone, let the wait time rise a few minutes and allow only your specialists to take the calls. Don't worry, Virtual Hold will be there to help.

So to answer the question: why isn't Virtual Hold everywhere yet? Because we have a lot more teaching to do... and that's what makes this job fun :)

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Why Doesn't Everyone Have This?