New Service Reduces Call Center Hold Times, Lets Callers Hang Up the Phone
October 09, 2007
For anyone who has ever been on hold waiting for a customer service representative to come on the line, the time consumed while waiting is a common frustration that can weaken customer satisfaction.
To take this frustration away from customers, Commonwealth Edison Company (ComEd), a unit of Chicago-based Exelon Corporation, has introduced a new service to allow customers the option to hang up and be called back in the same amount of time they would have been waiting on hold.
For some, this means freeing up some time to complete a task, saving on airtime minutes for a wireless call, or just taking getting to a calm state again for when the agent calls.
Now, when callers call ComEd and there is an extended wait time to speak with a CSR, callers have the option to hang up and have the CSR call them as if they had stayed on hold.
For ComEd, the technology will aid in significantly reducing the number of times customers abandon phone calls because of hold times and further strengthen their customer relationships.
"We are always looking for ways to improve customer satisfaction," said Phyllis Batson, vice president of Customer Contact, ComEd in a statement to the press.
"We know our customers don't like to be placed on hold for long periods of time. This technology upgrade gives them the freedom to do other things while they wait for a customer service representative to call them back," Batson also said.
ComEd provides service to approximately 3.8 million customers across Northern Illinois and operates two call center facilities in the Chicago area that respond to about 13 million calls a year.
The company also announced the new service will be available for Spanish-speaking customers.
Earlier this year, ComEd
announced together with Comverge, the Load Guard Automated Price Response Service, designed for “set-and-forget” price responsive load control.
