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Aug 19, 2021 Thomas Cannon

The Best Call Deflection Strategies to Improve Call Resolution

Call Deflection Strategies

Reducing call center volume is key to successful customer service. Not only does it free up customer service agents to work on higher-value tasks, it presents an opportunity for your brand to provide customers with a more seamless way to connect with your organization.

To optimize customer service outcomes, call deflection is an important strategy that contact centers use to reduce call center volume and improve the customer experience (CX).

In this blog, Advantage Communications takes a look at some of the best call deflections strategies used by call centers. 

What is call deflection in a call center?

Call deflection is the process of routing a customer inquiry away from your call center, towards an alternative service channel. The aim is to improve the customer experience by providing them with a more convenient solution, all while minimizing the load on customer service agents.

Alternative ways to help your customers before they phone into your call center include chat bots, live chat with an agent, a knowledge base or FAQ page on your website, in-app guides or community forms. 

The aim of call deflection isn’t to force your customer away from your call center. It’s to provide them with a more convenient channel of communication that reduces customer effort and improves customer satisfaction. 

How call deflection benefits your call center

Don’t get us wrong, your call center is still a hugely important aspect of your customer service, but if it’s your only channel of communication it could be holding your business back significantly.

That’s because today’s customers expect an omnichannel experience with the brands they interact with. They want to communicate with brands on their favourite devices, through their preferred channels and at the times that work best for them.

Your call center simply can’t support those demands. That’s why a call deflection strategy can bring huge benefits to your customer service strategy.

The benefits of call center deflection

✔️ Lower call center costs.

✔️ Improve internal customer service efficiencies.

✔️ The ability to provide customers with a more convenient service.

✔️ Reduce the number of phone calls to your call center in favor of digital channels. 

✔️ Free up your customer service representatives to focus on high-value tasks.

The top call deflection strategies to drive forward customer care

With the above in mind, we’ve listed a few of the top call deflection strategies that can significantly reduce strain on your customer service representatives (CSRs) and improve customer satisfaction at the same time.

1 - Build a knowledge base

Self-service in today’s world is king. Customers have more control than ever before when it comes to proactively looking to the answers for their own questions. A strong knowledge base on your brand’s website can help here. 

By analyzing what your customers are calling about, you can gain the insights you need to answer those questions on your website. Build a thorough knowledge base that covers all of the most common reasons that customers phone into your call center for assistance. 

2 - Use bots to automate human conversation

Contact center artificial intelligence (AI) can be used to automate conversations and seamlessly deflect calls. Customers don’t necessarily always want to speak with a human, they just want the answer to their query in the most efficient and effective way possible. 

Deflecting customers towards a chatbot can free up time for your customer service agents and provide customers with the answers they need, while intelligent virtual assistants (IVAs) can automate customer calls and properly route them to where they can find the answer to their query or the appropriate agent to help them.

3 - Focus on proactive customer communication

There’s no better way to deflect calls to your call center than by preventing them altogether. Take the initiative in your customer support strategy by identifying and resolving customer issues before the customer even knows they are a problem. 

For example, software companies can flag technical issues and ensure customers that they are being fixed, whil service providers can warn customers when there is going to be downtime. This prevents customers from calling in to your customer service team to ask what’s happening. 

4 - Create a community where your customers can support each other

One unique way to both deflect calls to your call center and improve brand loyalty is to build a community for your customers where they can get peer-to-peer support. A community forum can provide a space for your customers to answer each other's queries, reducing the need for them to reach out to your agents.

Not only that, but creating a brand community can enhance consumer advocacy of your business. 

Interested in other ways your brand can improve its customer service program through call deflection? Get in touch with Advantage Communications today. We're ready to help you reduce agent effort and improve customer service outcomes.

Operational Efficiency Guide

Published by Thomas Cannon August 19, 2021