Call Center Software Featured Article

Virtual Queuing Technology Bridges Divide Between Customer and Company

By Mini Swamy
TMCnet Contributor

What can be more frustrating for a customer than to have to hold the line seemingly endlessly, get disconnected and then have to repeat all the information already provided previously? Well, with the virtual queuing technology solutions being implemented by Virtual Hold Technology (News - Alert) of Akron, Ohio, those could be things of the past.

When callers are put on hold, the company loses on more than one count. It has to pay increased toll costs, and also finds that labor efficiency decreases and customer satisfaction decreases.

According to the fifth annual "Customer Experience Report North America", commissioned by RightNow and conducted by Harris Interactive (News - Alert), 82 percent of consumers have stopped doing business with a company as a result of a negative experience.

Virtual queuing technology allows customers to keep their place in line without being on hold, intimates callers about the approximate wait times and also offers a call back option.

In a press release, Chris Swansiger, vice president of Business Intelligence and Analytics for Virtual Hold Technology, said that inbound callers to its cable operator clients were saved the equivalent of 38 years of hold time but the companies saved money, too.

In addition, abandons were significantly reduced, monetary value in streamlined labor use increased and customer satisfaction improved dramatically.

Swansiger claimed that leading companies had implemented the virtual Hold systems to their benefit. Several operators of cable systems across the country claimed that the virtual queuing technology saved nearly $600,000 in 2010 in reduced toll costs alone.

He pointed out the negative impact that phone-holds would have on the company and said that customers expected both high -Touch and high-Tech. Being put on hold or being transferred and having to repeat information was frustrating, and this frustration would find its way to friends through their social networks or verbal transfer. The damage to the reputation of the company could prove costly.

In related news, Virtual Hold Technology entered into a partnership with GM Voices (News - Alert), the largest producer of professionally recorded voice prompts and greetings for telecom applications worldwide. GM Voices now produces high-quality audio files for VHT’s virtual queuing solutions for the contact center.