Customers rate services based on the answer they get, the amount of time spent, and the ease of reaching a business. Different communication channels have different expectations and workloads, and response time is impacted.
How Communication Channels Shape the Wait
Every channel is used for a different purpose by customers. Therefore, one answer target will not fit with each channel. Often, a caller on the phone wants help in the phone call itself, and if it involves contact forms, they might be willing to wait a little while longer for a response. Goals should be based on the urgency of the request, channel's purpose, and the support hours available.
Why Delays Happen Across Channels
A company can have multiple points of contact yet be slow to answer only because contacting them via one means will not trigger responses via another. But customers are also likely to be asked for details that they may have to repeat, miss messages during peak load hours, and have requests sent to the team needed that don't go to the right people. Managers need to monitor not only typing time but also the flow of messages until a useful one is returned.
Building a Clearer Response System
Any practical response plan begins with basic rules which customers and employees can understand. It is important for managers to establish ownership of each request and when it must escalate. There are a couple of everyday practices that teams can incorporate to gain consistency:
- Keeping critical requests on a team, without "re-questioning" a customer.
- Monitoring response times, resolution rates, and customer feedback.
Measuring What Customers Actually Experience
Response time is not just about how many minutes it takes for messages received to be answered. Rather, it's about how many minutes it takes for messages from anyone in your organization to be answered. An automated message can make a customer feel better. However, it will not resolve the problem or clarify when assistance will be forthcoming. Record the first response time, time to resolution, repeat contacts, satisfaction, and determine if faster response time is helping the service or if it's simply making the dashboard appear cleaner.
Service staff members reported that 82% of their customers' expectations are greater today than they were before. A shared customer record can decrease duplicated questions and enable the staff to see previous conversations from the other channels, even if the customer switches channels. It's important for businesses to evaluate performance by channel and time of day, as an overall average may not account for the times that some customers wait longer.
In summary, the channels by which customers communicate with the service and how long it takes a channel to respond to a customer are interrelated. However, the fastest channel isn't necessarily the best channel for every problem.
A business will provide better service when they have their channel aligned with its requests, sets challenging response times, and provides the context they need to attend to the request promptly. If customers can give you some idea of where to start looking for solutions and what they can anticipate, waiting is going to seem less frustrating and trust will improve.
