Making Your Call Center Humane

There are multiple channels through which customers can contact your business. You have multiple channels so that the customers get to choose the channel through which they want to reach you. Some prefer to contact through social, some go to your portal and access the self-service feature, some use the chatbot, some just write an email and so on and so forth.

There is a still a bunch of people who want to speak to a human being – they prefer to talk to an agent on the other side of the telephone. This is what we are going to talk about in this blog.

How Human Is Your Experience of Talking to an Agent?

I recently booked an appointment to meet with a Doctor. I literally had to wait three weeks for this appointment. Unfortunately, something more pressing came up and I had to cancel this appointment. I called up to cancel the appointment so that they can confirm the slot to someone in the wait list. The person on the phone was very polite and professional.

However, there was no personal touch. He didn’t inquire about my health, no personal comment about my illness, no wishing well or no ‘I am sorry to hear about that.’ I was another task for them to be completed and they completed it and moved on.

Let us flip this conversation a bit.

Me: Hello, my name is Krishnan and I would like to speak with the person at the appointment desk

Agent: Hello Sir. You have reached the appointment desk and how are you doing today?

Me: I am doing great.

Agent: How may I help you sir?

Me: I have an appointment for this Friday with your ENT specialist. I would like to cancel my appointment

Agent: I hope everything is fine with your health Sir. I would be happy to address your request. Any specific reason that you are canceling the appointment Sir?

Me: Well… something urgent has come up that I cannot miss this Friday. Hence, I had to cancel it.

Agent: I’m sorry to hear that. Would you like to reschedule the appointment for some other day Sir?

Me: I would certainly like to. Can you suggest the earliest available date?

Agent: One moment Sir. I am really happy to state that a slot for this Thursday is available, which is a day earlier than your appointment that you are canceling. Can I confirm Thursday 8 PM?

Me: Absolutely! I am thrilled and thank you so much

Agent: I hope you recover soon. We look forward to seeing you on Thursday at 8 Pm. Thank you for calling ABC Hospitals

Me: Thank You and I hang up

What an experience the caller or the patient must have had. He wouldn’t think of any other place for his healthcare needs.

Most often than not, call centers are so lost in details like keeping the information accurate and being polite and professional – they tend to forget the fact that the caller on the other side is another human being. A little bit of personality and conversation would pep your customer experience up.

The next time you receive a call, make sure that you ask “How are you doing?”