I was in a taxi on my way to LaGuardia on a snowy Friday afternoon. A proactive text message informed me that my flight was cancelled (drat!), launching my desperate effort to find a route home. Of course everyone was calling the airline, so the queues were backing up. They offered a callback, so I took the bait. I “sat” in queue while I simultaneously scoured online booking options and nervously watched the clock and the New York City traffic. Impatient, I tried the call center again, and received a brilliant message saying they had me in a better position in queue based on my previous call. Shortly thereafter, the callback came, they rebooked me out of JFK, and the taxi and I changed our path. That was the moment I fell in love with Callback Queuing, like so many other customers and contact centers.
Nobody wants to wait in queue, and there are times when a center just can’t staff to meet the volume demands. My little snow storm is an excellent example. A callback offer with a successful reconnect can deliver a “Wow!” customer experience.
Now this is where that research comes in. As Shankar Vedantum of NPR recently reported, “It turns out that when we think about experiences, we don’t think about the experience as a whole — we are significantly biased by how the experience ends.” So “You weren’t there to answer my call when I needed you!” is readily overshadowed by “That was great that you called me back and I didn’t have to sit in queue!”
Now we know why customers love it. But why do contact centers love it? It can help them meet service level or other metrics. It can improve customer satisfaction or Net Promoter Scores. Perhaps they can even avoid staffing up for peaks (and therefore overstaffing in general), overtime, on-call, outsourcer coverage, or other complex or costly staffing maneuvers. I’m quite happy to keep my newfound positive outlook on Callback Queuing (CBQ) and for centers to gain these benefits, if they do so with the customer front of mind.
I’ve written an article that describes the technology and provides concrete suggestions for getting your implementation right. It also outlines considerations when choosing a vendor. Download the article now. Or, if you’d like to talk about the technology’s application to your center, please get in touch with us!