We have all done it. Whether in our personal lives, or at work, we have all done call avoidance at some time!
What is Call Avoidance?
To put it clearly and simply, it is when a person does not answer the call when it is ringing. Call answering is essential for business.
You receive a phone call and see the number on your mobile phone display, whether you recognize the number or not, you simply do not want to answer it. It might be someone that you know is calling and you do not want to answer them. It could be the wrong time of day and you are too busy to speak to that person. It could be a number that you do not recognize, and you will wait for them to send a text or leave a message. You might be predicting the call before it happens, and you are not ready to deal with that kind of call. You might be working in a call centre and you just think that someone else will deal with it.
There are loads of reasons for avoiding a call, some are valid, some are unprofessional, and some are an emotional reaction to a situation. But why does it matter? They will call back, right?
In your personal life, if you are the kind of person to not answer calls when your friends or family take the time to phone you, you could miss social events, stop getting invited places, or lose friends. If there is an emergency, you would be the last person that someone would call, because you have the reputation of not answering their call. You are untrustworthy, unreliable and demonstrate a lack of interest in that person, or that situation. This damages your personal brand.
How does that look in your professional life?
In a job that means phone calls make money, they need to be answered. Missing calls, on purpose or by accident shows a lack of respect for customers, a business that doesn’t care about listening to customers or converting sales, and is happy for their customers to go elsewhere, or to put their concerns in writing! Which is even worse!
Customers who struggle to speak to the business they are trying to buy from, or build a relationship with, talk with their feet, and walk away. On average customers will try 2 times to speak to the company that they are trying to buy from, and if they do not get through, or it is simply too hard to speak to the representatives, they will walk away.
This has been a common problem when businesses outsource their work to a Philippine or Indian call centre. If there is a language barrier, if there is a problem understanding the customer or the agent, or if there is simply a bad connection, businesses lose more money than they save by outsourcing their work. Call avoidance statistics are a key management metric when looking at customer engagement and staff performance.
Why does it matter?
In the world of omnichannel communications and 24/7 customer care, why does it really matter to drop a call here and there? If the customer does not get through to an agent, they can simply go to Live Chat, send an email, leave a comment on Facebook, or try again later.
No.
In the modern world, customers expect excellent and immediate service. There are so many other businesses offering something similar that the customer no longer needs the specific business, they have more options, and other companies are willing to provide them with the service that they want.
If a business has multiple channels of communication, it is a clear expectation of every customer that when they want to speak to that business, someone is there to assist. Businesses have websites, mobile phone applications, email addresses, social media accounts, SMS, Live Chat, landline phone numbers, international numbers, and a physical address that customers can visit if absolutely necessary! There are so many possible ways for a customer to contact a business that people could be forgiven for thinking that the phone call is less important than it used to be.
More business is conducted over the phone than by any other communication channel.
The phone call is often the first point of contact that a customer has with a business
An in-bound sales call converts sales and makes more money than 8 outbound cold calls
Phone calls are often a response to an issue, that issue could be an advert that a customer has seen, a problem that they are having with the product or some help that they need with the service provided. If any of these 3 issues goes unanswered, the business will lose money and it will damage the reputation of the brand.
The 3 main reasons for Call Centre Call Avoidance
Anyone who has worked in a call centre, or on the phones has experienced an irate customer, a situation that they can not resolve, and has probably said something that they should not have said on the phone. These 3 issues are high on the list of reasons why call centre agents avoid calls.
Firstly, let’s not get irate.
When a call centre agent receives a call from an irate customer it is a stressful call, it also requires notes to be taken, possibly supervision and support post-call to make sure that the issue is resolved, and the correct response was given. It is part of the normal working day to receive a call or 2 from an irate customer. It happens frequently and it usually affects the agent, the team leader, possibly the management, and it can affect the mental health and motivation of the agent for the remainder of the day.
Too many irate customers in a day can make the agent lose interest in their job, disengage from wanting to support their business and their customers and simply wish that the day would end quickly. They are draining, emotionally and physically. Often after an irate customer call, the agent, their trainer, and their team leader must engage in call analytics to ensure everything went well. This includes listening to the call recording and spending time with extra training.
In the UK and the USA over 2 thirds of households have experienced problems with services or products purchased and have made an irate phone call to the business that has caused the problem. With so many product failings, or services being less than expected, and these calls getting handled by call centre agents working 9-hour shifts, often overseas, it is clear to see why some agents might resort to avoiding calls. We are trained to take every phone call as if it was the first of the day, but if we have just had someone shouting and cursing at us, the next phone call is not going to go well, so it is often wise to take a break!
When a customer is irate, or feels that they are not being listened to, or feels that the service that they are receiving is under-par, they will complain and want their call escalated to the highest possible person to deal with it quickly. The process of resolving these calls is tiring, and involves a lot of people, so the call centre agents simply do not want to take these calls.
These calls ruin a good day’s statistics, because they are long calls, and often do not get resolved. One call resolution statistics go out the window, time on call gets longer and customer retention drops. These calls are simply bad for business performance, and agent performance, so it is better to find alternative means to manage them!
I wish I had known that before the call.
The next most common reason for call avoidance is lack of training, or product knowledge. It is awful when a customer knows more about your product and services than your call centre agents. It is worse when it is a new agent on the phone, and they are not equipped with either experience or knowledge to handle the call.
The agent wants to do a good job, they want to deal with the customer, they want to sound professional and knowledgeable, but in some cases, they should simply transfer the call quickly to someone who knows better and is more experienced.
If an agent has a call, or more than one call, where there is evidence that they are out of their depth, and they can not resolve the concerns, they can not fix the issues and they cannot deal with the customers, they often get moved teams, but before that happens, they feel out of their depth and they will miss a few calls.
With good call recording, call monitoring and supervisor training, these issues can be resolved quickly, but often too late, since the agent is already demoralized and has missed a few calls, whilst trying to read up on the issues that they have missed.
Oops, I should not have said that.
The next main reason for call avoidance is after a call where there has been something said that should not have been said. In overseas call centres, people can be dismissed for using their mother tongue instead of the language of the customers. Even where the comment is not made to the customer, but when the customer is on hold, or when they are asking for help.
The guilty feelings, or the nervousness that the agent feels after making a mistake can often lead to avoiding the next call.
Finally, working from home so no-one is watching.
The pandemic has allowed so many more people to work from home, this can lead to productive staff working hard without the distractions of an office, or it can lead to people avoiding work because their dogs need a walk, their children need attention, or they are at home, and no-one is watching.
6 Strategies to Reduce Call Avoidance.
- The system controls the calls.
Where your business removes the possibility for call avoidance from the agents this will naturally result in lower call avoidance. It has negative effects such as more stress and pressure on the agents, but this can also be controlled.
With ConxHub the system administrators can control the amount of downtime or minutes between calls and can force the agent into an available status. If an agent is off their phone for too long on an unauthorized break, system controls can be implemented to ensure the next call goes to that agent. With live reporting, a clear dashboard showing who is making calls, when they are making them, and their schedule for calls, a good system can reduce call avoidance and make it impossible for agents to avoid calls without good reason.
A good system like ConxHub can show you exactly when people are off calls, when they are leaving notes, when they are in training, and can be customized to maximise talk time. The control also allows for stressed agents to take breaks, and to work as a team to improve call quality.
- Escalate calls faster
As soon as a call becomes hard to handle, for any reason, it should be escalated. Live agents can listen in to calls, especially the first call after an irate call, and especially when an agent is indicating that they are struggling with a call. The sooner it can be managed, the faster it can be resolved, and the less likely it is to escalate out of control. Call Avoidance happens for the 3 reasons above, so managing those 3 reasons as early as possible will reduce call avoidance of agents. More support, better training, and faster call transfer will reduce call avoidance and reduce customer complaints.
- Smaller teams with more support and better training
With smaller teams in the call centre everything that happens can be seen, especially if they are all working together. If the teams are remote, simply assign a team leader to manage and monitor fewer numbers of staff, so calls can be escalated, training can be given quickly, and support is immediately available.
Working in an Omnichannel environment also means that training and guidance is immediately available through the FAQ pages, or the CRM Solution that agents are using. When they are struggling, they can ask for support and a team leader can “Whisper” into their phone giving advice and guidance on the issues, without the customer hearing.
With fast call transfer, immediate support, and training, call avoidance will reduce and customer retention will increase. Everyone wins
- Clear and fair policies and procedures for staff working the phones
There are often policies in place to punish people for call avoidance, there are rarely policies in place to reward it. Where mistakes are made, it is often related to pressure and the policies that the agents agree to can be added pressure. Where the policies are fair and aim to understand the concerns of the agents rather than penalize them for all call avoiding, no matter the circumstances, the agents will respond better and be happier
- Reduce the metrics
Call centres often have KPIs in place to monitor and improve agents. Where there are metrics for “one call resolution” and “Average time on call” these 2 metrics can badly affect call avoidance. If these 2 were removed, it would allow agents to perform better on calls. Where there is pressure to resolve calls, and to reduce the time it takes to speak to someone, this automatically means that people are more likely to avoid calls that are long and troublesome. Often complaint calls can not be resolved on the call and require escalation. Most irate customers’ calls are longer than the average call, and whilst they do require attention and should be logged as training needs, the agents should not be penalized for these types of calls.
- Rewards for longest call, most calls in a day, and most irate customer calls handled well
We mentioned rewarding call avoidance earlier. This might seem counter-intuitive and counter-productive, but it is also fun, and reduces the stress and the pressure on the agents. After a long call, someone needs a break, that is human nature, so reward them with a 5-minute break, or a longer lunch break, or an earlier scheduled break. This means that they will return refreshed and will not make a mistake on the next call. It is the company forcing someone to avoid the next call, rather than forcing them to take it, which could lead to an error being made.
If someone has had a lot of irate customers in one day, it is not their fault, they do not cause the issues that the customers call in to discuss, so they should be rewarded with an earlier finish, or a free coffee the following morning!
The metric of the most calls in a day is often a goal for agents, and this common metric often leads to people rushing calls, but it is common to monitor and reward it.
Being customer-centric also means being employee-centric and valuing the hard work that your agents provide.
In conclusion:
Having a system in place that monitors and controls call flow through Active-Q systems means that you and your agents will be happier on the phone. This also means that you can call people when you feel you are ready to make that call and there is less pressure. The ConxHub system has all the monitoring tools that you might need to reduce the negative effects of call avoidance.
Having a phone system that allows for better training, monitoring, transferring calls and support means that your agents are less likely to avoid difficult calls. The automatic routing means that customers complaining are immediately sent to the “Customer Cares” department where they are trained in caring for irate customers and resolving their concerns quickly.
Call avoidance is an issue for all businesses; however, it is also a training point that can be improved, with the right human and technology support.
