The Surprising AI Hack That Will Eliminate A Repeat Call for Good

Madhuri Gourav
October 18, 2024

Last modified on

The Surprising AI Hack That Will Eliminate A Repeat Call for Good

Every call center agent faces the frustration of handling repeat calls, where unresolved issues force customers to call multiple times. Addressing the root cause of a repeat call can significantly enhance customer satisfaction and reduce operational costs. Entreprises can leverage AI-powered solutions to help them identify and mitigate the problem of repeat calls. 

Imagine this: A consumer calls customer service to report a subscription error, but the issue persists even after the call. The customer called again, speaking with different agents each time, but there was no resolution. 

This is the typical scenario that highlights the inefficiency caused by repeat calls.

A Gartner study found that improving First Call Resolution (FCR) can increase customer satisfaction by 30% and significantly reduce operational costs.

This blog will explore how contact centers can use advanced tools like Convin to analyze and reduce repeat calls. From real-time agent guidance to conversation intelligence, Convin has proven strategies to stop the cycle of repetitive issues and enhance call center performance.

Boost your FCR and effortlessly minimize repeat calls with Convin’s AI-driven insights.

What Is a Repeat Call?

A repeat call sounds exactly like when a customer repeatedly contacts a call center for the same unresolved issue.

\For example, if a customer calls to fix a billing issue but has to call again because the problem wasn’t fully resolved, this is categorized as a call repeat. 

Repeated calls for the same issue reflect operational inefficiencies, leading to frustrated customers and wasted resources.

What do you call a repeat customer?

In call center terms, repeat customers regularly engage with your company because they are loyal or because their issues require multiple calls to resolve. For support teams, handling repeat customers due to unresolved issues negatively affects key performance indicators (KPIs) like First Call Resolution (FCR) and customer satisfaction.

Repeat Call Example 

Customer: “Hi, I’m calling again about my billing issue. I spoke to an agent yesterday, and the problem hasn’t been resolved. My account is still showing an incorrect charge.”

Agent: “I’m sorry to hear that. Let me check the notes from your last call... I see the issue was logged but wasn’t escalated. I’ll escalate it now and ensure the correct department handles it.”

This is a typical repeat call example, where the customer's issue wasn’t addressed fully, resulting in a follow-up call.

Why Are Repeat Calls a Problem?

High repeat call rates often signal deeper inefficiencies in handling customer queries, such as miscommunication between agents or inadequate problem resolution on the first contact. Call centers that experience high repeat call volumes suffer from increased operational costs, lower agent productivity, and reduced customer satisfaction. Additionally, repeat calls strain resources, as agents must spend time revisiting unresolved problems instead of addressing new customer issues.

Reference

Repeat call analysis helps identify the root causes of call repetition by tracking patterns in customer interactions. By studying frequent repeat calls, call centers can uncover recurring issues and take proactive measures. 

For example, if many repeat calls are related to billing problems, this signals the need for better resolution protocols or more transparent communication.

Calculate Repeat Calls in a Call Center

To calculate the repeat call rate, use the following formula:

How to calculate repeat calls in a call center

This metric helps call centers monitor the effectiveness of their customer service efforts, ensuring they identify and address inefficiencies in the resolution process. Reducing repeat calls is critical to improving customer experience and agent productivity. 

Common Causes of Repeat Calls in Call Centers

Unresolved issues in first contact, lack of agent training, and inconsistent follow-ups are common causes of repeat calls. 

Typical reasons for call repeat in a call center

1. Unresolved Issues in First Contact

One of the main drivers of repeat calls is a failure to resolve customer issues in the first interaction. Agents may need access to complete information or the authority to make decisions, forcing customers to call back. 

2. Lack of Proper Agent Training

Poorly trained agents often tend to provide incomplete or incorrect information. This leads to customers seeking clarification or follow-up, increasing the repeat call rate. 

3. System or Process Errors

Technological issues like slow systems or inadequate customer data can lead to unresolved problems. Customers may feel frustrated if they are transferred multiple times or asked to repeat information. 

4. Inconsistent Follow-Ups

In some cases, agents need to follow up on ongoing issues. Implementing better follow-up protocols can help reduce these repeat call examples. 

For example, a customer may be told that their case is being escalated, but they may not receive an update, prompting them to call again. 

How to Reduce Repeat Calls in Call Centers

Reducing repeat calls in call centers is essential to enhancing customer satisfaction and operational efficiency. By focusing on proactive measures, call centers can significantly lower the number of repeat interactions. 

  • Invest in Agent Training: Ensure agents are trained on problem-solving techniques and product knowledge to handle queries efficiently during first contact.
  • Improve Systems: Optimize your CRM and call-handling tools to avoid miscommunication and reduce technical delays.
  • Proactive Follow-Ups: Encourage agents to follow up with customers on unresolved issues, reducing the need for customers to call again.
  • Use Repeat Call Analysis: Implement tools to perform repeat call analysis in the call center, identifying trends and problem areas that can be addressed before issues escalate.

Addressing these common causes and improving repeat call analysis can enhance customer satisfaction and reduce call center operational costs.

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What Is Repeat Call Analysis?

Repeat call analysis is a systematic approach call centers use to monitor, track, and evaluate instances where customers contact support multiple times for the same issue. 

The analysis aims to identify the root causes behind repeat calls and implement strategies to prevent them from recurring. It helps businesses pinpoint areas needing improvement, whether in agent training, issue resolution processes, or system functionality.

Why Is Repeat Call Analysis Important?

Analyzing repeat calls is crucial because it allows call centers to focus on resolving issues more effectively. Such analysis is necessary to address customer concerns, leading to repeated calls, increased operational costs, and lowered customer satisfaction

By performing repeat call analysis in a call center, businesses can understand what causes customers to follow up on unresolved issues and take corrective measures. With contact center repetitive call analysis, you can track, evaluate, and reduce repeat callers while greatly increasing first-contact resolution.

Without addressing these underlying issues, the volume of repeat calls will continue to rise, causing customer frustration and straining resources.

How to Perform Repeat Call Analysis?

To perform repeat call analysis, call centers can begin by categorizing calls based on their reasons for repeat contact. This could include technical difficulties, lack of information, or slow resolution times. The analysis focuses on tracking:

  • Frequency of repeat calls: Identifying how often repeat calls occur helps assess the problem's scale.
  • Types of issues: Categorizing problems that trigger repeat calls (e.g., billing issues, technical support, or account inquiries).
  • Agent performance: Assessing how well agents resolve issues in the first call and whether they need additional training or support.

Performing repeat call analysis helps call centers identify the root causes of repeated customer inquiries. Businesses can optimize processes, reduce call volumes, and improve first-call resolution by categorizing call issues and tracking metrics like repeat call rates. 

Benefits of Repeat Call Analysis

Repeat call analysis helps businesses:

  1. Improve First Call Resolution: By identifying the root causes of repeat calls, businesses can focus on improving FCR, ensuring issues are resolved in the first contact.
  2. Enhance Agent Training: The analysis highlights areas where agents may need additional coaching or support, such as product knowledge or customer interaction skills.
  3. Reduce Operational Costs: Fewer repeat calls lead to shorter average handle times (AHT) and lower costs for managing repeated interactions.
  4. Boost Customer Satisfaction: When customers don’t have to call repeatedly for the same issue, their satisfaction levels increase, promoting loyalty and retention.

Incorporating repeat call analysis into a call center’s strategy is vital to understanding and fixing inefficiencies. By reducing the need for customers to make multiple calls, businesses can save time and resources and improve the overall customer experience. 

How Voicebots and Automation Can Reduce Repeat Calls and Improve Customer Support

A fintech company faced a surge in repeat calls due to customers needing timely and accurate resolutions. High call volumes and inefficient processes meant agents couldn’t resolve issues in the first interaction, causing frustration and multiple follow-up calls

The repeat calls increased operational costs, as the fintech company had to hire more agents to deal with the high frequency of calls, which extended average handling times and reduced customer satisfaction, severely impacting renewal rates.

By integrating voicebots, the company could automate responses for everyday inquiries, such as billing issues or renewal queries. Voicebots offer 24/7 support, providing immediate, consistent answers for simple requests around the clock. 

Automation reduces call volumes and gives agents time to focus on more complex issues. As a result, first-call resolution improves, and the repeat call rate decreases, leading to higher efficiency and customer satisfaction.

How Convin’s AI Phone Call Can Reduce Repeat Calls

Convin’s AI-powered solutions analyze and address the root causes of repeat calls in call centers. By leveraging advanced conversation intelligence and real-time agent support, Convin helps call centers improve first-call resolution and reduce the frequency of repeat customer inquiries.

AI Phone Call from Convin helps reduce repeat calls
  1. Immediate Response for Routine Queries: AI Phone Call can handle repetitive questions like account balance checks, renewal reminders, or troubleshooting simple issues, removing the need for customers to call back multiple times.
  2. Consistent Customer Experience: With voicebots, customers receive accurate and uniform answers every time, reducing the chances of satisfaction from consistent agent responses.
  3. Improved First Call Resolution: Automating first interactions helps solve customer issues on the first attempt, lowering the number of repeat calls related to unresolved concerns.
  4. Efficient Call Routing: Suppose the AI Phone Call detects a more complex issue. In that case, it can efficiently transfer the customer to a live agent with the necessary background, speeding up issue resolution and reducing the need for additional calls.
  5. Conversation Intelligence for Root Cause Analysis: Convin’s AI-driven analysis monitors and evaluates customer interactions to identify trends in repeat calls. It automates the detection of recurring issues, highlighting common problems like technical glitches, billing errors, or miscommunication.
  6. Identifying Patterns: Convin’s repeat call analysis uses AI to uncover patterns in call data, allowing businesses to understand why customers are calling back. 
  7. Automating Issue Detection: The system provides insights into the root causes of repeat calls, helping agents resolve issues faster.

By leveraging voicebots and analyzing the repeat call data provided by Convin, the fintech company reduced repeat call rates, improved overall customer satisfaction, and achieved a 4% increase in first-month renewal rates.

Cut operational costs by 60% with Convin’s AI-powered phone Call—Book a demo now!

Real-Time Assistance with Convin Agent Assist

Convin’s Agent Assist tool offers real-time suggestions during live calls. It guides agents in resolving customer issues more efficiently, reducing the chances of repeat calls.

  • Preventing Call Repeats: As agents handle live calls, Agent Assist offers proactive suggestions to resolve the issue during the first interaction, enhancing FCR.

Example: If a customer calls regarding a recurring billing issue, Agent Assist can pull up relevant data and guide the agent to the right solution, preventing the customer from having to call back.

Convin Virtual Agent

Convin Virtual Agent automates the early stages of lead engagement by handling tasks like lead qualification, scheduling demos, and booking follow-ups. This ensures efficient management and reduces the need for repetitive interactions.

The virtual agent allows sales teams to focus only on high-potential prospects by filtering out low-quality leads. This optimization minimizes unnecessary repeat calls and ensures that customer interactions are productive.With automated lead engagement, contact centers improve productivity and maximize conversion rates, reducing agents' workloads and enhancing overall sales efficiency.Convin’s technology helps reduce repeat call rates by providing data-driven insights and real-time agent support, leading to faster resolutions and improved customer satisfaction.

Case Study: Reducing Repeat Calls with Convin’s Conversation Intelligence

In industries like fintech and telecommunications, repeat calls are a common challenge, often caused by unresolved issues. Through Convin’s conversation intelligence, several businesses have pinpointed the underlying reasons for call repeats, significantly improving customer service efficiency.

Repeat call challenges in fintech industry

Customer-Related Issues

  1. Delayed Transaction Updates: Customers often made multiple calls when agents advised waiting 5-7 days for transaction updates instead of offering immediate insights.
  2. Inaccessible Account Information: Repeated inquiries about account balances highlighted the need for more accessible and timely information.

Technical Issues

  1. Frequent Disconnections: Callers faced disconnections due to technical problems, forcing them to call back multiple times.
  2. Communication Challenges: Technical difficulties hindered effective communication, causing customers to misunderstand or miss vital information.

Solutions with Convin’s Technology

Convin identified these trends through analysis of repeat calls, providing businesses with data-driven solutions to reduce repeat calls in call centers. 

By addressing these pain points through AI-driven conversation intelligence, agents were able to resolve more issues during the first interaction, reducing the repeat call rate and improving First Call Resolution (FCR).

  1. Enhanced Agent Training: With insights from repeat call analysis, agents were trained to provide immediate solutions rather than asking customers to call back after days. This minimized follow-up calls, especially for transaction status inquiries.
  2. Improved Communication: Convin helped businesses eliminate communication challenges by ensuring agents received real-time guidance to deliver precise and consistent information, reducing the need for callbacks.

With Convin’s solutions, businesses have successfully reduced repeat calls by addressing the core reasons behind these repeated interactions. Leveraging AI for repeat call analysis increased efficiency and significantly boosted customer satisfaction.

Measuring Impact: Tracking Repeat Call Reduction

Reducing repeat calls is essential for improving call center efficiency. To measure the success of these efforts, key performance indicators (KPIs) must be tracked consistently using tools like Convin's dashboard.

Metrics for measuring agent success

Metrics for Measuring Success: Call centers should focus on specific KPIs directly related to call and repeat issues to measure improvements effectively.

Important KPIs:

  • Repeat Call Rate: The percentage of calls where customers call back for the same issue. This metric helps gauge the effectiveness of repeat call reduction strategies.
  • First Call Resolution (FCR): Measures the percentage of customer issues resolved on the first call, indicating whether agents can handle inquiries efficiently.
  • Average Handle Time (AHT): This measures the average time it takes to resolve a customer query, with a lower AHT indicating better performance.
  • Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT): Customer feedback on their interaction shows their overall satisfaction and experience with the call center’s service.

Convin’s Dashboard for Tracking Progress: Convin’s dashboard provides real-time metrics on these KPIs, offering detailed insights through repeat call analysis. The tool helps managers monitor changes in repeat call rates and identify areas for further improvement.

Tracking these KPIs allows call centers to fine-tune their processes, ensuring sustained reduction in call repeats and improved service quality. By leveraging Convin’s tools, call centers can reduce repeat calls and continuously monitor performance, resulting in long-term operational efficiency.

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Streamline Support by Reducing Repeat Calls

Reducing repeat calls is vital for improving call center efficiency and customer satisfaction. Businesses can significantly lower their repeat call rate by addressing root causes like repeat call analysis, skill-based routing, and real-time agent support

The key takeaway is that understanding and fixing these recurring issues will lead to fewer follow-up calls, faster resolutions, and better overall service quality.

Request a personalized demo today if you’re ready to see how Convin’s AI-powered tools can help streamline your call center operations.

Frequently Asked Questions

  1. What is conversation intelligence, and how does it reduce repeat calls?
    Conversation intelligence analyzes call data to identify patterns, enabling proactive issue resolution and reducing repeat calls.
  2. How does real-time agent assistance work?
    Real-time assistance offers AI-driven suggestions during live calls, helping agents resolve issues efficiently and lowering repeat calls.
  3. What role does automated call auditing play in improving FCR?
    Automated audits highlight unresolved issues and guide agents to improve First Call Resolution (FCR).
  4. How does skill-based routing enhance problem resolution?
    It directs calls to agents with specialized expertise, resolving issues faster and reducing the likelihood of follow-up calls.
  5. What is sentiment analysis in call centers?
    Sentiment analysis uses AI to detect customer emotions during calls, helping agents adjust their responses to better resolve issues in real-time.   

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