Customers are under enormous stress due to the COVID-19 virus and this is hurting call center interactions. According to a recent study published in the Harvard Business Review, the percentage of callers that have “difficult interactions” with call center agents has doubled since the start on the pandemic, which dampens cross- and up-sell opportunities and predicts churn. It doesn’t help that agents often greet callers with 30-90 seconds of challenge questions, which implies mistrust and delays the resolution of a caller’s issue.
To improve the customer experience, companies should look to authenticate callers without agent intervention. The faster they can authenticate the person on the other end of the line—even during unprecedented spikes in inbound call volume—the more efficiently call centers can deliver excellent service. Please join Neustar and guest speaker Shirley Inscoe from Aite Group for a discussion of how contact centers are handling high volumes of inbound calls without sacrificing customer experience or operational efficiency.
