First Response Time

Train Agents effectively

• Training your agents is important. They should have knowledge of the company policies. When your agents are familiar with the service and products your company offers they won’t need to spend time looking for answers. They can respond faster to the customers. 
• Additionally, managers should monitor and analyze the response time of every agent. The managers can also create an SLA. This way they can track if the target is being met by the agents. 

Provide Omnichannel Communication

• The best way to prevent jamming the call queue is to provide other channels to the customers for interaction. Every query has a different level of complexities; some can be solved via live chat and some with an FAQ page.
• Live chats and messaging are the channels that allow fast reply time. Agents can handle multiple chats at a single time and provide fast service. 
• Moreover, with the Omnichannel Platform you can track the entire customer journey. You can monitor when a query was submitted and when it was solved. This can give you an idea of what changes can improve the service. You can enhance the customer service and lower the First Response Time. 

Create an extensive Knowledge Base

• Having a knowledge base one click away that can provide the agents with any information they need, can make the process of response smooth and response time faster. 
• Fill the knowledge base with manuals, instructions, guidelines, etc. that can be used by an agent as a guide to help the customer. This way, when agents search for any information the relevant articles can show up for the agent to use. 

Provide Self-service to your Customers

• 90% of customers prefer to look for solutions on a knowledge base if it is resourceful. Customers don’t always want to talk to Call Center agents. For most customers, it is the last resort. 
• The feature of Self-service plays a vital role in reducing your First Response Time. Customers can look for the solutions themselves without needing to contact the agents. This way the Call queue can relax and agents can focus on more complex matters.
• Ensure that your self-service options are easily accessible to your customers. Also, they should be equipped to be optimal, in order to guide a customer through their issue and lead to a solution. Some common tools used by Call Centers to provide Self-service are FAQs, Community Forums, Videos, AI chats, etc. 

Use Canned Responses

• Figure out the frequently asked queries to come up with Canned Responses. Canned Responses are predefined answers for commonly asked questions by customers. 
• You can also customize your Canned Response Templates to reduce steps when resolving a query. You can customize it so that your Canned Response can ask for the customer’s order number and query. This way your query is ready to be solved by the agent it is routed to. 

Prioritize Queries based on complexities

• Every customer query is important, but not all of them are urgent. Categorize the queries you receive based on complexity, time sensitivity, and required follow-ups. 
• This will give your agents the choice to manage queries based on difficulty level and subject matter. Your agent can find solutions easily if the queries are categorized in clean order. As a result, their productivity will also increase and First Response Time will decrease.