Our goal here at CI is to create the most user friendly experience for new and repeat customers to interact with your business. Call tracking not only allows you to monitor your employees’ phone skills but also ensures that a customer gains the information they are seeking in the quickest way possible.
Example 1- I call an auto dealership and am greeted with a press 1 for service, 2 for sales, 3 for parts. I press the service extension and am routed to a live person that is specific to the service department. I get my questions answered and all is well in the world.
Example 2- I call an auto dealership and hear the exact same greeting BUT when I press 1 for service I’m taken to another automated greeting asking if I would like to speak to my service advisor, check the status of my car, or schedule an apt. My car is already in the shop so I want to speak to my service advisor, I press 1. I then hear another automated greeting that asks me to enter the first four letters of my service advisor’s name. Oh shoot what was their name?!… I think its Renee but I’m not exactly sure. I decide to take my chances and key in the first three letters and get taken to yet ANOTHER automated greeting where it tells me to press 1 for Renee Jones 2 for Renee Smith and 3 for Reynolds White. Wait, SERIOUSLY?! Reynolds doesn’t even start with “R-E-N.” I don’t remember Renee’s last name, I just want to talk to someone who knows what is going on with my car. I press zero, and am now grumbling under my breath that I want to speak to an operator. I then receive the automated message, “We do not understand the digits you entered, goodbye.” CLICK. The last 5 minutes of my life have now been wasted. JOY!
Obviously you can understand that the second user experience was not a positive one. I am now annoyed, without my car and still have not reached my goal of talking to a live person to answer my questions. FAIL.
So while I understand that in many cases a more complicated automated greeting system ensures the person gets to whom they need to talk too, because say, all the status’ of cars in the shop and booking a service appointment are handled outside of the dealership by a call center, and the call center folks are clueless about specific parts or maintenance issues with a car, thus unable to field any of these type of questions. Thus not having a more complicated greeting would also present a hazard to the goal of getting the customer with the answer they are seeking in the quickest way possible.
While you may think this is a catch 22 I have a solution for you! Install a catchall! Yes you can do this! Add a zero to your “bridge” that routes to a receptionist or more generally an actual human being. This doesn’t have to be included in the actual greeting of your message but could be there just in case your customer doesn’t remember their service advisors last name or extension.
FYI- The second example is a true story, I couldn’t make that up if I tried.
PS- If you have any questions about call tracking or giving your customers the best user experience possible feel free to give me a call at 214-842-6607. Oh, and it rings directly to me!
Tags: bridge greetings, call analytics, call tracking, car dealership, customer experience, Customer Service, virtual receptionist