The Call Center Management Review (August 2000) cited a La Trobe University study that found "callers rank the following highest as causing feelings of frustration and irritation (1) lack of service personnel; (2) waiting on the phone; (3) uncaring communication; (4) getting the runaround; (5) phone system too complex; and (6) receiving unreliable information and service."

Although virtual queuing systems cannot add more service personnel, they help contact centers use the existing personnel more effectively while significantly reducing the time callers are waiting on the phone. Improving the agent's effectiveness provides the same benefit as adding agents. Additionally, these systems demonstrate that you care about the caller's time and provide a more positive experience for both the caller and the agent.

Virtual queuing systems help significantly improve the caller's perception of how a center handles the top three items that cause "frustration and irritation" in their customers.

There are two basic types of virtual queuing systems: voice mail and automatic. Voice mail systems are older technology and have been deployed for several years, but the automatic systems are quickly taking the lead in market share and new sales. A virtual queuing system should allow your caller to either 1) remain on hold; 2) choose to be called back; or 3) schedule a callback for a later time.

The best systems allow the caller to receive their callback in approximately the same time as if they chose to remain on hold. This capability is called FIFO (First In, First Out) callback and its availability significantly increases the percentage of callers choosing a callback. Once the estimated wait time (EWT) exceeds four minutes, over 50% of the callers choose a callback, on average. The benefits described below are greater when more callers choose the callback option.

The primary benefit of automatic virtual queuing systems is that they reduce the hold time experienced by callers who choose the callback option. When they are called back and have signaled that they are on line, the caller is placed in queue at a priority higher than that of the callers who chose to remain on hold. Because they are the next call to be delivered to an agent, the callers who were called back often see hold times of under 20 seconds. The Average Speed of Answer (ASA) reduction experienced by most contact centers installing a virtual queuing system is 45%.

The second major benefit of virtual queuing systems is that they make it easier for callers to get through to an agent because they make the agents more effective and more efficient. Virtual queuing systems help your agents be more effective by reducing talk time. Reports provided by the contact center show how callers are handled in the current process.

One contact center had an Average Talk Time (ATT) of four minutes when the EWT was below two minutes. Once the EWT exceeded five minutes, the ATT went to six minutes. This represents a 50% increase in ATT for only three minutes increase in EWT! Once the virtual queuing system was installed, the ATT was four minutes when the EWT was two minutes or less. The ATT was four minutes, fifteen seconds when the EWT was five minutes. Having the choice of receiving a callback or remaining on hold reduced the caller's frustration and significantly reduced the average talk time during periods of high EWT. An increase in ATT during peak traffic time makes the agent less efficient and provides worse customer service. Obviously, reducing the ATT means that the same number of agents can handle more calls and that provides the same effect as if the contact center added more agents.

Virtual queuing systems help your agents be more efficient by improving occupancy. In many contact centers, traffic spikes for a short period of time followed by a period of time where some agents are available. Later on, another spike occurs. Many callers abandon during the first spike and don't call back when agents are available; instead, they are often unlucky enough to call back during the second spike. Virtual queuing systems allow contact centers to operate with longer hold times but, since the hold time is "virtual" for many callers, the callers do not abandon.

As a result, more callers are available to be distributed to agents and that means that agents spend less time in an idle state. Unless occupancy rates are already very high (over 80%), occupancy improvements of 10% or more are very common after installing a virtual queuing system. Automatic virtual queuing systems provide additional customer service benefits not seen in voice mail based systems. Voice mail based systems have the agent listen to the voice mail, manually dial the telephone number, and handle the call (if it wasn't a "busy" or "no answer" type of call). Additionally, in most voice mail based systems the agent has the ability to "skip" handling that call. If the recorded message is from a potentially hostile customer, many agents choose to skip the call and the caller never receives a return call. Automatic systems use an automatic dialer to place the callback so that no agent intervention or training is required. These systems are capable of detecting when a caller answers and transferring that caller into queue so that the next available agent answers the call. The agent doesn't know that the call is a callback because to the agent this is just another incoming call.

Automatic systems are capable of detecting "ring-no answer," "busy," or "network error tones" and can place the call back into queue for a later retry. Because there is no agent involvement in placing the callback, automatic systems do not reduce agent occupancy nor do they require agent training. Most importantly, every caller receives a callback. They may not be contacted on the first try due to a busy signal or no answer but every caller does get called back.

Finally, all virtual queuing systems use fewer incoming voice trunks for the same volume of call traffic. As a result, callers are less likely to experience a "network" busy and that means they don't have to call back multiple times just to experience long hold times; another customer service improvement. Very few things in life are good on both sides of the balance sheet but virtual queuing systems are the exception. They allow you to offer better customer service while saving money and making life better for your agents. All of us in the contact center business have experienced the angry customer who had to wait on hold for a long time. With a virtual queuing system in place, your agents won't be receiving these angry calls. Putting callers in a virtual queue can significantly improve service and help your customers maintain a more positive impression of your business by reducing "frustration and irritation."

Copyright 2004 | Virtual Hold Technology LLC® | Virtual queue callback technology protected under U.S. Patents 5,627,884; 6,563,921 and other patents pending.