Accelerate Resolve Rate and improve customer loyalty by addressing Cascading Repeatss

Speaking to Customer Service Executives in the UK, we see Resolve Rates (i.e. First Call Resolution and First Time Resolution) between 60% and 80%. This implies repeat call rates between 20% and 40% - until you consider cascading repeat calls.

Customers who have to call back once are actually more likely to call again but lets assume a consistent repeat call rate for the moment. If your Resolve Rate is 60%, 16% of your customers will call back twice, and 6% three times. In call centres with high volumes of calls, some customers will call back eight or more times.

Call centres have different approaches for measuring repeat calls. Our analysis excludes dropped calls and only considers repeat calls within a 7 to 9 day window. The customer’s perception of repeat calls is not limited to 9 days but this is a subject for another blog.

Adding up these repeats on repeats shows 16% of all calls are actually customers calling for a third time or more. Intercepting customers who ring back for a second time and stopping them calling back again removes one in seven calls, reduces agent effort and costs by 10% and significantly improves customer satisfaction. When you consider that a customer who has called 3 to 4 times is liable to churn, intensive intervention at 1st or 2nd repeat call adds considerable value.

Have you analysed your cascading repeats and instigated early intervention programmes? Do you have procedures in place to identify and intervene on same day repeats? We are interested in your thoughts on Cascading Repeats.

Article published by: Geoff Tennant and Keith Stagner of T-Impact Ltd. Website www.futurecallcentre.com