Customer care is convoluted at the best of times. While the customer can use your product or service wrong once, your customer care system has to be right every time. Of course, this is a fool’s dream because of Murphy’s law. In other words, whatever could go wrong, will go wrong, except when they don’t.
A few years ago, a Khoros customer found truly stunning success while using the Care platform, even when the odds were stacked against them. This customer had to juggle a massive merger, adoption of the Khoros system, and dealing with a vast influx of volume during a nationwide event and promotion.
Previously used Care models suggest that these factors would cause this customer to crash and burn. However, they found nothing but success in their first year of using Khoros. Over the course of a year, this customer successfully handled over 15,000 customer messages per quarter and saw a 13% agent efficiency improvement. During that nationwide event, with hundreds of thousands of people watching, this Khoros customer handled over 25 customer contacts a second.
So, how did they do it? Was it the stars aligning? Some kind of holiday miracle? According to Ockham’s razor, the simplest answer is often the most correct one. In this case, the most correct answer is that this specific Khoros customer implemented two incredible and simple tactics to boost their Care efficiency. The first was queue configuration, or how to organize the flow of your customer requests in the most efficient way possible. The second was enabling Push Next into their system. Put simply, Push Next removes extra clicks that need to be made by a care agent by having the platform give the agent the subsequent customer request rather than the agent having to choose which ticket or request to address.
Let’s dive a little deeper into how queue configuration and push next can help solve high volume and low agent efficiency by first looking at a care team who has chosen not to implement both ideas into their care system.
Queue Configuration
How a team routes their customer requests will depend heavily on the type of company setting up their care configuration. For this example, we’ll use a monthly subscription streaming service that recently had a server go down, resulting in the loss of service for thousands across several regions.
This streaming service’s customer care channels have exploded with requests and tickets. To add to the problems, a group on social media is fanning the flames of the public reaction. Because of the social media reaction, this team will have to tackle both real customers trying to get answers to why their service is down or cancel their subscription and non-customers and internet “trolls” calling with fake or nonsense issues.
This streaming service didn’t use customer sentiment detection to configure its queue in a way to maximize its efficiency and is now stuck with a tidal wave of unorganized customer requests. Not configuring their queue to adds stress and pressure to the care agents and the customers' patience, and unfortunately, adds to operation costs and lowers your total revenue. After all, no one wants to spend money with a frustrating company.
Push Next
After the streaming service barely navigated their service outage challenge, they decided to change their care system to the Khoros platform. After some time and product coaching, they have their automation and queue configuration set up in a way that works wonderfully.
While most customers promptly get the help they need, the front-line agent’s TAR (time to agent response) is far lower than the executive team imagined.
Again, the question is, why is this happening? It could be because of several things: agents having to choose which ticket to handle next, wasted time figuring out what the customer needs before contact is started, or at worst, a care agent choosing to not take on a stressful ticket or a customer that is clearly upset.
When everything is working out fine, it can seem like having a lower TAR is an acceptable concession. However, let’s take a look at the numbers.
Low TAR Team
- 500 customers helped a day, 5 days a week for a year = 130,000 customers helped in one Year
High TAR Team With a 13% Efficiency gain using Push Next
- 560 customers helped a day, 5 days a week for a year = 145,600 customers helped in one year.
Being able to help an extra 15,000 customers a year for the exact cost of using the Khoros care platform can mean only one thing, higher ROI. Suppose, in our streaming service example, they still refused to turn on Push Next and never had their agents trained on the feature. In that case, they could lose hundreds of thousands of dollars in lost revenue, wasted labor costs, and potentially a severe hit to their brand’s reputation through bad press.
A higher TAR is only one piece of the puzzle, but in many ways, it could be seen as a keystone to crafting and maintaining an exceptional level of customer care. Khoros can be and has been used to craft that exceptional level of service and care across all manners of industries. Before you decide that your current level of service is simply adequate, ask yourself and your team if your existing customer care system is truly the best you have.
For product coaching, a deeper understanding of how Khoros care increases your ROI, and to hear some real-world stories, please visit the links below!
- Creating Highly Efficient Teams with Push Next
- Agent Queue Configuration | Video
- [Podcast] Stop Worrying About the Channel, Start Thinking About the Customer
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