Why Customers calling Call Center?

[iceberg]

I’m working on a large electronics company who just released a new product to replace the old ones.
Problem Statement:
There’s a gap for a few weeks from the time the product was announced to the public until it was actually being shipped to the customer. Because of this, the numbers of customers that calling to our call center were skyrocketing. My task is to perform a comprehensive analysis, especially the ones that related to customer contacts (why customers calling our call center) and give recommendation for improvement.

My approach is to analyze all the customers contacts related to customers orders that contain this new product.
Based on my drill down analysis, I found out that the biggest call drivers are:
- Order Status (customers asking where their orders are/ estimated delivery date)
- Logistics Management
- Change Order (customers change products for any reasons)
- Cancellation
- Documentation request

My questions:
- Am I following the right steps to approach this or am I jumping to quickly to address this issue? What other steps would you recommend to analyze these customers contacts, aside from just a plain reason of why they called based on this new product only? Perhaps from different angles that I’m not aware.
i.e. aging of the calls, reasons that produce other reasons, etc

- Knowing the reasons above of why customers call, what are the things that I should do in order to better manage this customer contacts in the future? Especially if this situation happens again in the future (long delay between launching and shipping).
This could be an improvement in the current system, people, or tools.

I really appreciate your inputs.

[n_meghanath]

I may not be able to give you a solution to the issues but would want to share my thoughts. The call volume is driven by the customer based on the failures of their expectations (rather inquisitiveness about why their product has not arrived) of receiving their new products. The solution is to match up their expectations or give prior detail information on the expected arrival date when the announcement was made (one of the best).

There would still be calls for the same subject even if you manage to set expectations for your customer in terms of a dateline. The best suggestion would be to readdress the staffing while you put strategies to prevent such calls. It may be a good idea to look at an IVR solution to divert the calls to some automated response, which could satisfy the need of the calls (if the cost affected by the volume is above implementing such a system).

If you maintain the same staffing then you may expect a high recall rate for those who continue to attempt calling till they connect. You have 2 solutions at your level, either you don’t service the customer call by diverting using an IVR menu for alternative solution or you increase your staffing.

Thanks
Meghanath Nongmaithem

[garryw]

really the only solution is to bring onboard a third party provider until the orders start catching up with the sales. Most customers do not like IVR's and or long wait times, customers want to talk with real people who understand their problems and can provide a reasonable solution.
Garry Williamson
www.carolinacallcenter.com

[RoLleRKoaSTeR]

Some times customers have nothing else to do. I had a customer that was obviously wasted yesterday -- New Years day.

Where is that Japanese voice recognition software that tells if a person was upset, drunk, crazy, etc., based on how their voice sounds....


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