And who would deny that encountering sudden client issues is just an everyday story of a call center business?
Not only call centers but almost every business has encountered instances of customer frustrations or escalations at some point. No matter how smooth the services a business provides, there will still be some notorious guys who are always up for complaining.
But what’s the solution? How to handle escalated calls in call center?
Well, no worries, as today’s blog post has got your back on that. We’ll be shedding light on some tested and tried strategies that you can use for escalation management. So keep reading the blog post right till the end to know more.
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What Is A Call Escalation?
Call escalation or escalation calls are the ones when a customer shows up with an issue and asks for senior assistance with a state of urgency.
Escalation calls mainly show up when the first interaction with the support team fails to handle the customer’s complaint.
It is often considered a challenge for the agents because tackling call escalation is somewhat similar to handling negative customer sentiment. Not only this, but call escalations can also have a direct effect on call metrics like FCR, average handle time, etc.
Types Of Escalated Calls
Now that we know what is an escalated call in a call center, let’s find out what are some of the common types of call escalations:
- Customer complaint calls
- Billing issue calls
- Technical support calls
- Calls that need to get Management approval
- Complex issue calls
- Specialized calls
7 Reasons Why Customers Escalate Calls
There can be a lot of reasons that can trigger a customer to make an escalated call. After researching the experiences of prominent call center businesses, we have found some common reasons that can lead to call escalations. The reasons are as follows:
- Dissatisfaction with the products or services
- Waiting for a long time in queue for customer support
- The customers’ technical glitch might be too complex to handle at the first interaction
- When Customers feel they aren’t being valued or feel unheard
- When customers feel disrespected
- Unresolved problems
- Agents having lack of management skills
But yes, with this, we would like to acknowledge the fact that whatever the reason might be behind escalation, the way your agents handle it can either fix the situation or worsen it even more.
How To Handle Escalation Calls?
So, how do we deal with a call escalation? Well, no worries, as our next section talks about some of the tested practices that can help you overcome the situation:
7 Ways To Handle Call Escalations
1. Understanding The Situation
The first thing you would likely do after you get an escalation call is to find out the root cause and gather as much information as you can to solve the problem.
This is because you will only get a better customer satisfaction rate when you quickly give them a satisfactory solution.
Ensure you are saving all the information so that if you need it in your later interactions, you can readily get access to it. Also, you can note down potential triggers so that if you get similar escalations in the future, you can provide faster support service.
2. Active Listening
Listen actively to what your customer is complaining about. Give them a platform to vent their frustration and anger.
This is because when customers get really overwhelmed with their complaints, you need to deal with their feelings rather than just being a professional who deals with reality.
Don’t rush them with your formal investigations. Instead, slow down and let them stop gradually. Give them audible acknowledgment that you take responsibility for the issue.
Give them verbal signals like a positive smile. Show them signs that you’re actually paying attention to them. Later, when they have finished speaking, start your approach by giving some qualitative questions so that you get a clear idea about the customer issue.
3. Showing Empathy
Each and every human on earth loves being heard, understood, and getting attention. And that’s what you need to utilize when dealing with a call escalation.
Show them empathy.
Make them understand that you do feel sad about their experience.
Once you have successfully lit off the fire of their anger, try to offer them a solution through positive word-of-mouth. Make them believe that you are sincerely apologizing for the inconsistent product performance.
You can use the following phrases that can help you calm down your customer’s anger:
- I realize how upsetting this must be for you, and I appreciate your patience.
- I am truly sorry to hear about your experience.
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4. Keeping Your Calm
This one, I would say, is one of the most important steps that you need to watch out for.
No matter how harshly your clients express their anger, do not take them as personal attacks. Rather, think of it as a part of your business and try to put yourself in the customer’s shoes.
Try to find out what has been building up the anger on them. Rather, charging them back for their behavior. Keep your calm at every cost, and try making an escalation handling plan with a script that can help you in different situations.
5. Updating Internal Knowledge Base For Agents
This is extremely important because escalations can show up at a glance.
Your agents need a strong knowledge base, which they can access readily to retrieve relevant information about your services so that they can provide better assistance to customers.
Having updated information about your products will surely help in handling escalations.
6. Finding An Approach For Every Issue
You need to train your agents so that even if customers come up with complex issues that are worse than bad batteries, they still have a unique solution to them.
And to ensure they are grasping this skill, you need to train them to acquire soft skills. Ask them to make a note of some common issues with corresponding unique solutions.
This will help reduce escalations.
7. Optimizing The Use Of Decision Trees
Falling into a dilemma while making crucial decisions is a very common thing among agents. That’s where the interactive decision trees help you to construct better decisions.
In fact, there are also choices for making decision trees that can help you reduce the number of mistakes while making a crucial decision.
When you have got a grasp on making better decisions, you’ll be able to cooperate more with your clients and handle escalation calls better.
FAQs
How Do You Handle Escalation In A Call Center?
You can de-escalate an angry client by following the steps below:
Right after you understand that your customer is frustrated or voicing their concerns in an overwhelming manner:
- Try showing empathy towards them. This can help the customer to be calm.
- Actively listen to their frustration and try to understand their issues.
- Use positive vocabulary to calm them down.
How Do You Reduce Escalation?
The following steps can be taken to reduce customer escalations:
- Start by showing empathy
- Learn about their expectations and try serving them accordingly
- Optimize the use of communication best practices
- Document each time you get escalation calls. So, if you get something similar like that, you get an instant solution.
- Plan certain strategies that can cool down the heated situation.
Final Thoughts: How To Handle Escalated Calls In The Call Center
Finally, we have reached the end of our today’s blog post on how to handle escalated calls in the call center.
We hope we have provided you with enough context and now you can confidently resolve your call escalations.
Handling escalated calls is nothing but an art.
Just by following some simple strategies and keeping your calm, you are sure to win the hearts of your angry clients. So, the next time you face issues with escalated calls, don’t forget to check out our blog post.
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