Kudos re Queue Comments

I had to call Goodlife Fitness the other day and got put in the proverbial queue. I heard a pleasant voice tell me that I was #8 in line. As I sighed, thinking that I could be a while, I heard the same voice tell me that I was now #7. “Hmmm,” I thought, “A company that knows how to treat its callers”.

All too often customers are left listening to sappy music (why can’t they find something good?!!), sometimes waiting in limbo for over 20 minutes. Awaiting your turn to be abused by a customer service rep can be a frustrating experience. Even if you have hands-free and can continue to work while waiting, it’s a pain. If another call comes in, you have to decide if you want to risk losing your place in line to take the call. Ditto if you need a bio break or need to leave the phone unattended for any other reason.

Not great if the person is at work. (Side note: It is estimated that 95% of workers make personal calls from work because of a) queue wait times and/ or b) the ability to do other things while on hold.)

Anyway, back to my Goodlife Fitness call. As I waited, I was told they valued my business and would answer my call just as soon as possible, was informed when I moved up on the queue and got to listen to fitness tips while on hold.

As far as having to wait, it was the best such experience I’ve encountered in a while. Even better, when the rep took the call, he was knowledgeable, helpful, polite and friendly. Kudos to Goodlife; they seem to know how to treat their telephone callers.

Why does this matter? Because research we conducted on behalf of a client in early 2010 suggests that 74% of people living in North America believe that the way customers are treated by telephone CSRs is a reflection of how the company’s employees will treat customers in person. In fact, handling in-bound calls well can have a dramatic impact on customer retention rates.

To quickly recap points from earlier posts and articles (see www.theqgroup.com/articles-a.php):

• Make it easy for a caller to get in the right queue; aim for 3 prompt levels or less.

• Minimize the number of minutes a person has to wait in a phone queue. Aim to have callers talking to a human in under 2 minutes (not always possible, but it’s a great goal).

• Let callers know where they are in the queue and how long it will take for their call to be answered.

• Provide the caller with interesting things to listen to while on hold. In order of consumer preference: Information related to your company’s service or product, news reports, upbeat middle-of-the-road music (not elevator muzak or sleepy/dull stuff).

• Give callers the option of listening without music. With this option you will need to sound a soft beep every 30 – 40 seconds, along with a message every 1 ½ minutes or so, to let the person know their call is "being held in priority sequence".

• Have the calls answered by friendly, professional staff who know the company’s product line, services offered... and who have the ability and authority to make decisions/ take action that can help the customer.

If you would like help in determining the best ways to handle your customer call queues, please feel free to drop me a note (jmc@theQgroup.com) or call me at 416.424.6644.

Either way, I wish you all excellent customer service experiences! JMC