While we often focus a lot of our attention on new and innovative technology in the CX industry, such as chatbots, we can’t forget that phone calls continue to be an integral part of any contact center. In fact, studies show that phone calls are the preferred method of interacting with customer service representatives. With more than 50% of customers reaching for the phone instead of emailing or using a chatbot, phone numbers are still the most-used channel for CX.
Phone calls often provide efficient CX journeys, allowing a customer to speak directly to a human agent. In addition to meeting the desire for clear, prompt responses to customer queries, phone calls allow an agent to focus their full attention on your customer, which offers a personalized experience when compared to canned answers from a chatbot.
However, phone calls aren’t immune to CX-related defects. Just like other CX channels, it’s imperative to test and monitor your phone numbers to be sure that your customers are receiving your calls. With an automated phone number testing and monitoring solution, you can overcome several key challenges that can hinder your contact center’s performance.
Improve Pick-Up Rates
Over the past several years, spam filters have become more aggressive to protect customers from unwanted spam calls and malicious actors. While this is essential to protect phone users, it also makes it difficult for many businesses, as a spam filter may mistakenly flag or block an otherwise credible call.
These filters can have significant impacts on your organization, as well as on your customers. For example, imagine that a patient fills out a form on your healthcare organization’s website, requesting a call back for assistance in filling a necessary prescription. Then, one of your agents calls the patient. However, because your number didn’t break through the spam filter, it was flagged on the patient’s phone. Because the customer thought that the call was unwanted spam, they are likely to believe that your agents never reached out, which creates a poor opinion of your customer service.
But number testing allows you to completely bypass this issue. With a testing solution, you can test and monitor whether your calls are breaking through spam filters and reaching your customers. And, when your calls are displayed properly, you’re more likely to see pick-up rates and customer trust greatly improve.
Understand Your Customer’s Perspective
But just breaking through spam filters isn’t enough. It’s important to also understand exactly how your customers are experiencing your phone calls when they are received.
There are many factors to consider when delivering quality CX through phone calls, such as the following:
- Are your international customers receiving your calls?
- Are your IVRs outdated or in need of any updates?
- How is your call quality?
Cyara’s automated phone number testing solutions allow you to accurately replicate your customer journeys in real time. These tests gather and analyze key data, including connectivity, voice quality, latency, and packet loss, so you can assure performance at scale.
While there may not be any issues on the agent’s side, your customers may be negatively affected. This means that your phone numbers may be experiencing significant issues, while you’re completely unaware until a customer complains. And, by that point, the damage has already been done and it may be incredibly difficult to overcome.
Proactively Address Issues
When it comes to delivering quality CX, you often don’t have more than one chance to make a good impression. And, even then, many customers are likely to move on to a competitor after a bad experience, even if they’ve been loyal to your brand in the past.
For instance, let’s return to our previous example of the patient requesting assistance from a healthcare provider. Whether this is their first or tenth time interacting with your customer service team, it only takes one mistake before the patient may seek out another healthcare provider for assistance. So, before the call even has a chance to be caught in the spam filter, it’s your responsibility to ensure that your call will reach the patient.
Cyara’s automated number testing solution works to verify that your CX journey is always performing exactly as designed. If an issue occurs, it will immediately send an alert to your support team. These rapid alerts empower your teams to begin addressing the issues right away, so your customers are less likely to experience any potential defects that could have a negative impact. Accelerate your issue remediation timeline and eliminate risks to your brand’s reputation when compared to manual number testing processes.
Conclusion
Phone numbers are still an integral part of any contact center, so it’s important to ensure that your numbers are always optimized to provide excellent CX. For this reason, phone number testing is essential to maintain your infrastructure and be sure that your calls are always reaching your customers, wherever they are.
When you understand exactly how your customers are experiencing your calls, you can take proactive steps to improve the interaction quality, eliminate errors ahead of customer impact, and promote long-lasting brand loyalty.
phone
Cyara’s automated phone number testing solutions empower you to deliver CX with confidence, knowing that your customer journeys are performing just as designed. And, if an issue does emerge, you’ll be a step ahead and prepared for whatever comes next.