5 Tips for Reducing Customer Service Call Duration

Your call center is a critical part of the overall customer experience you provide. If you opt to outsource your call center management, you need to consider the provider’s capabilities before partnering with them – and average call duration is one of the most important metrics to consider. Generally, shorter is better. Reducing the amount of time your customers stay on the phone for customer service inquiries is a win-win. Your call center will be able to handle higher volumes, while customers save time and have a better experience. For optimal call duration, your call center or call center provider should do the following:

1. Expand the decision-making authority of agents. Putting customers on hold to track down a supervisor to make a simple decision eats up time. Since most of these decisions involve free products or discounts, one solution is to give agents a small budget of “make-good” cash to apply toward these scenarios.
2. Create a robust and up-to-date knowledge base on your ecommerce site that both customers and call center agents can easily access.
3. Train agents thoroughly. Before agents start answering customer calls, they should receive a detailed overview of your company’s systems, policies, and products to enable them to quickly handle a wide variety of customer inquiries.
4. When evaluating call quality metrics, make sure that the ability to manage hold time during calls is accounted for.
5. Foster cooperation between departments. Sometimes, customer service agents don’t have all the answers and need to put customers on hold while they reach out to the appropriate department. Take steps to ensure that agents have available and reliable contacts where necessary.