The way some performance metrics work, you would think companies would prefer for their staff to talk to the same customer 4 times on the same topic for 8 minutes each rather than talking to them once for 10 minutes. Many management metrics are too focused on average length of call rather than reducing the number of callbacks or increasing first call resolution. It’s a transactional mindset from management that can trickle down to a transactional mindset from staff – where representatives become more focused on getting off the phone quickly than trying to avoid the even more inefficient follow-up call.
But we want to be smarter than that. We want to be willing to extend a call by 1-2 minutes if it means avoiding 1-2 future calls on the same topic. So, if there’s One Question you could ask to prevent a follow-up call, what would it be? Well, I’m going to give you several examples of that “One Question” to ask:
- Did you get your question answered?
- Is there anything else I can help you with while we’re talking?
- Did you get your need fully addressed?
- What else can I do for you today?
- Is there anything else you want to know about before we wrap up our call?
There’s nothing magical about these questions. They’re all variations of the same theme. Even though you think you have fully addressed their need, before you wrap up, convey a little patience. Uncover whether there’s anything else related to your response that would be good to cover while you have them on the phone.
This One Question could avoid them having to figure out who to call when that other need pops in their mind. It avoids them having to wade through your call queue and wait to get on the phone with one of your co-workers (or YOU!) again. It could avoid your teammate having to open the call and close the call and ask all the discovery questions in the middle; it would avoid having the customer repeat themselves to refresh your co-worker on prior discussions. This One Question could avoid your co-worker having to read through all the detailed notes on the prior call for them to get up-to-speed.
Convey patience before the close. Ask one more question to prevent the follow-up call.
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A recent article in The Charlotte Observer got me thinking about a concept, a premise that is suggested all too often in society. First, the article: The story was about lawn care, and some of the people quoted in the article talked about what customers want today. They noted how customers want to be good stewards of the environment, they want sustainable solutions, they want to protect pollinators like bees, and they want pesticides used with discretion.
