Which Channels Provide the Fastest Resolution for Customers in the Contact Center?

One of the benefits of working in the Contact Center industry is that we become highly trained in tracking and analyzing data and then putting the results to work for us. There are countless metrics to analyze in a contact center.  However, the metrics that we primarily focus on are the ones that tell us about the customer experience. Here at Centris, the customer experience is central to everything we do; this being the case, we provide various channels for the customer to reach us in order for them to have the fastest resolution possible. Given that there are many channels for reaching our contact center, we thought it would be interesting to take a closer look at which channels provide the fastest resolution for our contact center customers.

CHANNELS FOR CUSTOMER RESOLUTION

Below is a list popular channels of communication for customers reaching out to the contact center.

• Phone
• Live Chat
• Email
• Text Message
• Mobile app self-service

Each of these methods offers advantages but let’s break this list into two different categories of customer contact channels:  Synchronous customer communication and Asynchronous customer communication.

ASYNCHRONOUS COMMUNICATION

Asynchronous refers to communication where the customer does not require or expect an immediate response. Email is a form of Asynchronous communication. A customer choosing to use Email to communicate can sit down at their convenience and take the time to write their communication to the contact center. This can be helpful with a more complex issue that involves greater detail that would be pertinent to the customer’s issue.

The advantage that email offers the contact center is that emails can be answered during slower work periods and it does not require additional staffing to handle the responses. Since the customer is not expecting a fast reply, agents can sift through each email and reply to the customer’s need.

Text messaging is another form of asynchronous communication. While the nature of text is a bit more immediate than email, it is a quick and convenient way to communicate with the contact center even if an immediate response is not needed.

Mobile app self-service is also asynchronous communication and is becoming a common offering for banks, insurance agencies and airlines. Take insurance, for example.  An individual gets into an auto accident and uses the mobile app on their phone to begin the claims process with their insurance agency. They take a picture of the damage, upload it via the mobile site and begin the process, knowing that they will continue the process later.

Each of these channels offers convenience for the customer but does not necessarily offer a fast resolution to the customer’s need.

SYNCHRONOUS COMMUNICATION

As we stated earlier, synchronous communication channels allows the customer to reach out to the contact center with the expectation that they will be quickly connected with an agent and their issue will be resolved within the first call. Two examples of synchronous communication are via live chat and phone.

Live Chat is a very effective channel for communicating because it does offer immediate communication regarding the customer’s issue. Live Chat can take a bit more time than other channels because it requires the customer take the time to sit down and type their question to the agent, however, the agent has the opportunity to resolve the customer’s issue on the first contact.

Finally, the telephone has been the primary channel of synchronous communication and is still typically the preferred channel for the majority of customers, as the graph below indicates. The phone offers an immediacy that no other channel does because a phone call will always cause us to stop what we are doing and answer. The same is true in the contact center, despite the fact that there are other means of communication.

Both phone and live chat offer fast response times, which is a top priority for the customer followed by resolution of their inquiry.

Which of the following channels provides the fastest resolution from customer service?

Source: Statista

Here at Centris, we make each of these channels available to our customers. While we agree that phone and live chat offer the fastest resolution, we work hard to ensure that our customers always have an excellent customer experience regardless of their channel of communication.

If you’d like more information on how you can partner with Centris to bring your customers excellent service through all channels of communication, contact us; we’d love to customize a solution for you.