Repeat Callers:

The concept behind knowing that a customer is a repeat caller is simple: to let him
know that we care and are bothered that he needs to call us again and again. And in
case the call is for the same purpose then assuring the customer that his case is well
documented and he would not need to repeat himself.

Call opening: begin as usual.

While pulling up the a/c information you would notice the pop up clearly mentioning
that the cmr is a repeat caller. This is when you can make the impact.

Mr Smith, I can see here that you had called us up a couple of days ago with a
broadband issue. If you give me a moment I can go ahead and read through the a/c
notes so as to help you better, Would that be ok?
How can I help you?…….(if the customer says they called a few days ago acknowledge
that they’ve had to call again) sorry that you’ve had to call back/get in touch with us
again…Let’s get this sorted for you !

Once you have gone through the a/c notes, come back and tell him what you have
found out:

Mr Smith, I see that we were having trouble with browsing the last time you had
called. We had done __________ (action taken) / You were advised
_______________. Is this call regarding the same issue?
How can I help you?…….(if the customer says they called a few days ago acknowledge
that they’ve had to call again) sorry that you’ve had to call back/get in touch with us
again…Let’s get this sorted for you !

If the cmr says no: carry on with the call as usual but DO NOT ask him for standard
information again- windows version, enet/usb etc cos all that info should be there on
the previous ISE.

If the cmr says Yes: Please proceed with the case.

Apologies Mr Smith that you had to call us again for the same issue. Rather than ask
you to repeat the information, I’ll just go ahead and ask you to confirm some vital
information. Please correct me in case I go wrong. Would that be ok?
I’m sorry you’ve had to call us again, I need to ask you a couple of questions is this
ok?

Rather than asking him to repeat the story, paraphrase your understanding of the
issue and ask him to confirm:

As I gather, we are working on a Windows XP and are connected to the modem

through an Ethernet cable. Am I correct?
So you’re using XP and connected to the modem using an Ethenet cable, is that right?

The last time you had called the rdy/sync lights were flashing. Could you let me know
of their status as of right now?
What are the lights doing on the modem?

We had recommended that you run a logical reboot the next time you face this
situation. Were you able to do so before calling us up?
Have you rebooted the PC?
(rather than blindly telling him to do the logical reboot- a process that your
predecessor or the cmr himself may have done innumerable times).

Remember: the cmr maybe pissed that he has to call us again for a resolution, but
what really bugs him the way he is interrogated and asked the same ‘stupid’ questions
again and again. The more you ask him to repeat the more you force him to relive his
entire bad experience.

Appreciating Customers

The joy one feels on getting an appreciation call is immense. Add a mail from the
other T.Ls and the floor, and sky is the limit. As humans we crave for recognition and
‘a pat on the back’. We don’t say that appreciate everything and everytime, but
definitely appreciate the event that I do not specialise in or have excelled in.

Well that is exactly what the cmr is feeling – cos he is human too. Computers may not
be his forte or running all those quizzical tests; but when he sees that he is able to
carry out your instructions to the T, he feels a sense of pride. If this pride is not
complimented, you would have lost out a golden opportunity to build a rapport with
your customer. Telling him to click ‘start’ post this achievement is bound to dampen
the cmr’s mood.

Some of the situations where you can genuinely appreciate your customer are:

When the customer has given the required details to open the account/pass DPA.
Thank you for all the required information Mr Smith.
Thanks for that / That’s great

When you save on AHT because of the customer’s efficiency.

Thank you so much Mr Smith. Your prompt actions helped us get to the root
cause in no time.
Thanks, that’s a big help

When the customer is very patient even though you took longer to provide them a
resolution.
Sorry that this is taking so long john and thanks for your patience.
Sorry that this is taking so long
First of all my apologies Mr Smith that it is taking much longer than I
anticipated. And secondly, thank you so much for your patience.
Sorry that this is taking so long

When customer has helped us in identification of the issue.

Thank you so much Mr Smith. Your help just made my life a lot simpler.
Thanks Mr.Smith, you’ve been a big help

When cmr has expressed their long relationship/their positive experience with VM./
When cmr. appreciates the agent’s efficiency & patience.
 Thank you so much Mr Smith. Let me assure you sir that it is
customers like you who make it worth our while.

Engineer Request – possible Outage

A lot of times we find that we get customers who were waiting for an engineer, who
just didn’t show up. One look at the call records and you find that there is not
Engineer booking. Ever wondered why?

One look at the fault profiler and you would find that since Network Outage was
identified in the area, all Engineer booking were cancelled- Automatically. Or better
still, that even before the eng shows up, the cmr’s services are up and running – of
course since the fault has been rectified. The cmr in turn feels that he was talking to a
nincompoop who knew nothing about what he/she should know thereby impacting the
agent’s credibility and in turn - NPS.

But here is something that you can try when booking the technician:

Mr. / Ms ___________; based on my finding I am going ahead and booking an

engineer/ technician for you who can come over and look at your cable
modem/ STB/ Telephone and the connection. But there could also be a chance
that you maybe the first cmr who is getting impacted by an area fault that has
not been updated on our database till now. In such a case you would receive
an sms on your mobile phone informing you of a cancelled Eng appointment
and we would be rectifying the issue at our end.
I’ve booked an engineer to call out to you, but if it turns out to be an area
fault, you’ll receive a text message informing you that the engineer wont be
calling out and we’ll be getting this fixed from our end.

You could also restart your STB/Modem in a couple of hours and see if
the issue is resolved. This would mean that the fault was identified and
rectified in time.

In case a cmr calls up for an Engineer Chase:

Check both the account notes for Engineer booking and the Faults. Proactively tell the
cmr about possible faults:

John, while I check the account details to find out why the Engineer didn’t show up, I’ll
also be checking our faults/outage database. Some times we find out that there is an
area fault but by then we have already booked the technician to visit your place. In
such a case, the system automatically cancels the Engineer appointments for the
effected area.
John, let me look into this for you, are you ok to hold the line for 2 minutes?
Customer Cannot Understand You

Regardless of how good we are and how well we speak, there is always this one
customer who says that he/she can’t understand us.

And what do we do in these situations??

Ok, so what I was saying is…?

What Sir?
Not repeat at all and move to the next step?

All of them a BIG NO NO!!!

Here is what you can do:

Step 1:
First the apology. It is our deliverable to sound comprehensible for ALL our
customers.

I do apologise for that Sir/ Maam?

Sorry about that.

Step 2:
So how are you planning to rectify the situation? Just the apology is NOT
good enough.

“Is it better now?”

Make sure that you

 increase the volume (and remember not the TONE- higher volume does not
mean Sharper Tone),
 check your Pace (cut down your rate of speech by half but ensuring that
are not speaking that slow that the cmr feels you are mocking him)
 and Sit straight.

Make sure that you get his buy in that your voice is better now. This is EXTREMELY
important as this will directly impact your NPS.

Step 3
Build Rapport and ensure on going co-operation

“Going forward Sir/Maam, if at anytime you are unable to understand

me, please do let me know and I will be glad to repeat the same.
Would that be OK?”

Step 4
Now repeat whatever that you were saying.

This ensures that the customer realises that even though there maybe a difference in
Accents, our intention is still to make this call – a good experience – for him.

Try it!!!
You Cannot understand the Cmr

There are a lot of situations, where we find it difficult to understand the customer. This
could be due to a bad connection, difficult accent, or environmental noises at the
customer’s end. And what do we do in these situations??

Sir/Maam, can please repeat?

I beg your pardon?
Pardon me please?
What Sir?

All of them a BIG NO NO!!!

Here is what you can do:

Step 1:
Take some of the heat

“There seems to be some problem with the connection. Sir/Maam, are

you able to hear me properly/ Hope I am clear for you?”

Step 2:
Build the rapport

If at anytime you are unable to understand me, please do let me know

and I will be glad to repeat the same. Would that be OK?

Step 3
Now ask for his co-operation

May I also request if you could speak a bit louder and slower for me.
The connection is making it slightly difficult for me. Appreciate your
co-operation.

This ensures that the customer is an in open frame of mind and is willing to
make the effort cos in Step 2, you offered him the same courtesy!!!

Try it!!!
Long Hold to get connected:

Even though they have an issue, and maybe dying to talk to you, no customer in this
world likes IVR, the hold music and the wait before getting connected to an agent.
We know that cos we know that we are someone’s customer and that’s what we feel
as well when we call up Airtel/ Vodafone/ Citibank..Based on the call flow you can
easily identify that this customer may have been waiting for a long time, or based on
your experience with the day/time slot you know that it takes time for people to get
through. Use this (sore) point for building rapport.
It’s been a busy day here, I hope it didn’t take you too long to get connected
to us.
A lot of calls in queue, I hope we didn’t make you wait for too long.
Sorry for the wait…(never admit it’s a busy day, because that means a lot of
unhappy customers)

There are only 2 things that can happen:

The customer is ok with the wait / not ok with the wait but is calm/
appreciates your asking him this/ is non committal:

Yeah it was ok.

No problem, I know you guys have a lot on you platter.
No I was ok.
Yeah it took longer than usual

Here is your golden customer, - a rare breed that doesn’t come easy. You and I both
know, that had it been us as the customer we would’ve had some choicest words to
say… So appreciate – make this customer feel that we care.

Oh that’s great. As a bonus I’ll make sure that I help you with the issue as
soon as possible.
That’s great, now let’s get this working for you

We try to make sure that our cmr’s don’t have too wait too long to get
connected to us. I am happy we were able to deliver.

Sometimes it is a busy day, but let’s go ahead and get the issue sorted
out. I’ll try to make it as quick as possible

And of course: The customer who is not OK and clearly states it. So listen to
the TONE to decipher the level of gloves that you would need. Do not shy
away and disregard these comments cos at least you have a chance to thaw
this out now – on the NPS survey no explanations would be seened by the
Cmr.

It’s a normal thing with you guys.

So not only I have to pay for this call, I have to wait as well
I am calling from my mobile and it is costing me a bomb.

Well, don’t just sit there, and don’t be scared. Apologise, give reason and
then give the bonus information.
Sorry to hear that Mr Smith. Noon time is quite busy for us. I usually ask my
customers if they can call closer to 8 in the morning or after 10 at night. We
don’t get many calls at that time and most of our customer’s get connected
instantly. You could try that the next time. Meanwhile I’ll go ahead and resolve
the issue as soon as possible so that I don’t take too much of your time.

Will this be a convenient time for the customer to call us back?

Let’s get this sorted out for you.
I’ll get this sorted for you straight away.