Call avoidance

Call avoidance is a strategy businesses use to reduce inbound call volumes to contact centers in the customer service industry, particularly in the consumer market.

Basis

Businesses choose call avoidance techniques because person-to-person service calls are time-consuming^{[citation needed]} and costly^{[citation needed]} and should be accessed only when there is no viable alternative. Voice calls can then be reserved for high priority customers, complex service requests, or emergency situations where the quick response of skilled phone agents is essential.

Strategies

With the spread of the Internet and email access, contact centers are moving toward self services^{[citation needed]} via a searchable knowledgebase, Interactive Voice Response (IVR), or computer-generated emails. Password resets are the most popular^{[citation needed]} form of website self-service where clients are asked pre-established confidential questions that verify credentials before the system sends them a temporary password. Other typical areas that employ call-avoidance strategies include the following:

• Voice message indicating wait times, unusual activity, downtime, etc.
• Web forms that gather pertinent information before a call is answered
• Electronic chat via the Internet
• Online software-update notices of upgrades, to prevent security or virus breaches
• Blogs, Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ), web-site links to common problems
• Simpler, clear and concise product documentation and descriptions
• Automatic return policies and procedures
• Reports that identify key problem areas for corrective action, i.e., additional instruction/training

See also

• Telephones portal

• Call centre
• Help desk
• Helpdesk and incident reporting auditing
• Incident tracking system
• Service desk (ITSM)
• Technical support
• Customer service
• Virtual assistance Archived 2020-08-13 at the Wayback Machine (in German)