We’re always talking about callbacks, and for good reason: hold times — of any shape and size — are possibly the most detrimental ingredient in call center efficiency and, just as important, customer satisfaction.

Giving customers the option to skip hold times and receive a callback is table stakes for today’s brands. Without it, you’ll frustrate your customers and fall behind your competitors. Two major red flags.

But just having a callback solution in your tech stack won’t necessarily solve anything. The real game changer is how you actually use callback and present it to your customers.

So I spoke with some of our callback experts to figure out the secret sauce behind the perfect callback recipe. And that’s what I’m serving up in this Snack.

Intro

Welcome to Snackable CX, where we break down our best resources into bite-sized guidance on how to stand out and be known for your customer experience. I’m Sam Salerno, here from Mindful, the best-in-class, total-experience solution that aims to add kindness to your tech stack.

In last week’s Snack, we talked about the key elements of a premium callback solution—the things that any callback solution worth its salt absolutely needs to have. If we’re thinking in terms of building blocks, that episode is the foundation of what we’re going to talk about today, so you really want to make sure you go back and give it a listen if you haven’t already.

Otherwise, let’s dive into the perfect callback recipe. I’ve got six steps that’ll bake your callback to perfection.

First up, make sure your IVR is in tip top shape.

Your IVR is the gateway to your caller’s interaction with your contact center. If it’s clunky, difficult to navigate, or just all-around unhelpful, it doesn’t matter what menu options you have or how you offer your callback—your caller has already become frustrated, negating some of callback’s benefits.

To optimize your IVR for callback, think through these two things.

First, navigation. Now, there are plenty of IVR experts out there with tons of tips on how to optimize your IVR navigation, so I won’t go too deep here. My two cents would be to look at your IVR as a means to get callers where they want to go as quick as possible, whether that’s a self-service option or getting in touch with an agent.

Second, consistency. IVR phone trees and callback solutions are two separate pieces of tech, and you’ll increase the likelihood to take the callback if callers can’t tell the difference between the two systems. So take extra care to present consistently across the board — especially when it comes to volume, tonality, and the voice prompts (whether that’s voice acted or automated).

When your IVR is performing smoothly, you pave the way for a stronger callback presentation and a higher take rate.

Second step: dial in your offer placement.

When and where a callback offer shows up in your customer’s journey can drastically increase the take rate.

At first glance, it might be tempting to offer a callback right up front to move callers out of the IVR. But at the end of the day, you actually want your callers to navigate through your IVR for authentication, segmentation, and self-service options.

But what should you do if a caller skips the first callback offer and chooses to wait on hold? The answer is simple: offer them a second chance through an automated prompt.

Haste and consistency are key here. Early on-hold callback offers lead callers to believe that taking a callback is their best option for getting in touch with an agent, so get it in early. You should also set your callback to correspond with your service level timeframe. So, if your SLA states that you answer 80% of calls within 90 seconds, then you’ll want to offer a callback when a caller’s expected wait time is 90-seconds or more.

That might seem like a low threshold, but our stats show that callers will take a callback regardless of how short the wait time is. And ultimately, that translates into more service level wins for your contact center.

Third, make the callback offer compelling.

This is a big one. We’ve tested different callback prompt formats for decades and we’ve found that how you state the estimated callback time is the most influential factor in callback take rates.

Here’s the trick: place the good news (that the caller can skip waiting on hold) before the estimated callback time.

That’ll sound something like

“Rather than wait on hold, we can call you back when it’s your turn in three to five minutes.”

This helps callers immediately see that there’s a way to skip the hold queue while also setting clear expectations. Plus, stating a range rather than a specific number sets you up for meeting caller expectations and receiving positive feedback in follow-up surveys.

Number four: Follow up with helpful notifications.

SMS notifications assure callers that they weren’t just hung out to dry when they gave up their place in the traditional hold queue, building trust in your brand and care team.

The first notification you send should be a callback confirmation so they know their callback was registered and help is on the way. That can be something as simple as

“Your callback is confirmed! We’ll call you from this number when it’s your turn, or you can reply ‘cancel’ at any time.”

Side note: sending these notifications from the same number your callback is going to dial from gives a huge boost to trust and your chances of reconnecting.

Okay, then you’ll want to send another SMS message as their callback time gets closer. This’ll take a bit of tech wizardry — or at least require a premium callback solution. You’ll need near pinpoint call pacing accuracy and an ACD that can fully integrate with your callback solution to pull this off. These reminders could say something like:

“Your callback is coming soon. You can reply ‘cancel’ if you don’t need to speak with us anymore.”

And just another point to make here: Notice that both SMS messages — the confirmation and the reminder — provide easy avenues for callers to cancel or reschedule their callback using simple text inputs. For some clients, we’ve seen upwards of 10% of callbacks get canceled through messaging because they’ve resolved their issue before the call.

Fifth step: use customer-first dialing.

Thinking back to last week’s episode on key elements of a callback, the right callback solution should give you two dialing options: agent-first and customer-first. Again, neither are wrong options, but if you’re looking to truly maximize your efficiency, you’ll want to side with customer-first dialing to make sure a callback customer is already on the phone before the agent connects. This eliminates agent idle time and facilitates faster callback queues.

Now, you might be thinking, “Wait, doesn’t customer-first dialing create a second hold-time for callers?” Well, we’ve found that this only happens when a contact center hasn’t tuned its callback pacing to its ACD, and vice versa. After looking at our own client data, we actually see that customer-first callbacks usually connect within 10-20 seconds — which is really just the amount of time it takes for the voice prompt to tell the caller that it’s time for their callback.

And finally, send a post-callback survey

If you don’t know how customers feel about their callback experience, you won’t know what it takes to improve it. To finish off the perfect callback recipe, you’ll want to send a follow-up CSAT and NPS survey immediately after the agent disconnects.

We recommend surveying via IVR immediately after the call — our clients have found the best completions with that method. But if a caller doesn’t complete in the IVR, follow up with a survey link in text or email the next day.

Last thoughts

You’ve made it to the end, and now you’re on your way to cooking up some great callback experiences. But like any recipe, it’s nice to have a copy to read — so check out the show notes and head over to our website to read more in our Ultimate Guide to Customer Callback.

And listen, I almost say it every week, but when it comes to callback and contact center efficiency, know that you can reach out to our team at any time for help and clarity in turning your contact center into an efficient customer satisfaction and revenue generating machine. Just hit us up.

Nutritional Facts

This episode has been adapted from chapter 3 of our guide, “The Ultimate Guide to Customer Callback,” which you can find in the Mindful CX library at getmindful.com.

We publish new, Snackable CX episodes every week, so be sure to subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts. See ya next time.

Written and hosted by Sam Salerno.

Produced and engineered by Jared Evers.

Edited, mixed, and mastered by Adam Griffith.

Artwork designed by Rob Beckham.