4 Reasons Why Summarization Improves the Customer Experience

Why Summarization?

As any strong call center agent knows, there are many things that can be done in order to improve the caller experience. You can minimize hold times. You can ensure that you give the caller the answers they’re calling about. You can provide the friendliest of services. All of these have proven effective when it comes to creating happy customers. However, we have found that there is one additional tactic that should be utilized in order to improve the customer experience: summarization.

What is Summarization?

Summarization takes place any time that a customer service or contact center repeats information that has been shared throughout the call. Traditionally, this would take place at the end of the call, once a solution has been reached and next steps have been identified. These brief summary statements ensure the information stays fresh in the caller’s mind and also makes certain that they are aware of any information that has been exchanged.

While it may sound simple, summarization can be very important when it comes to improving the customer experience.

Who Should Utilize Summarization in the Contact Center?

There are several different industries and types of customer service or contact centers that should utilize summarization in call scripts. Not every call will require an order summary or legal disclosures, but others may. Consider whether or not your call scripts require any of the following types of information. If they do, summarization might be a good step to ensure that your customers get all of the information they need and understand what will happen next.

• Legal disclosures.
Perhaps your agents need to provide lengthy legal disclosures at the end of every call so that callers are aware of the legal ramifications. Summarization provides a safe and effective way to do this.
• Order summaries.
Complicated purchase ordering should generally be followed up with a summary to ensure that all information was captured correctly.
• Complicated interactions.
When calls are complicated or long, it becomes more important to provide summary statements at the end so that the caller can make sure all of the information is accurate.
• Reservation details.
Similar to order summaries, if the caller has made a reservation for a service and will need a confirmation number (especially important in the travel industry), a summarizing statement at the end of the call is a safe way to relay booking information. If the information that your agents provide falls into any number of those categories, it might be worth checking in on the quality of your summarization statements. Without repeating information back to the caller, your organization runs the risk of lower customer satisfaction (CSAT) and repeated interactions due to a lack of effectiveness during the initial call.

4 Ways That Summarization Improves the Customer Experience

So why is it that summarization can so greatly improve the customer experience? Consider these four reasons as you are evaluating whether or not to include summaries in your call scripts:

1. It slows the experience down. No customer wants to feel to as it they are just a number being put through the pipeline. Summarization demonstrates that your agents want to take the time to handle their case effectively.
2. It helps the caller remember next steps. If the call requires any follow-up action on behalf of the caller, summarization allows your agents to reinforce these next steps as the caller will be more likely to commit them to memory.
3. It allows agents to catch errors. By repeating information back to the caller, agents will get a final chance to catch any errors that might have come up about during the call, acting as a quality control tool.
4. It demonstrates your team’s effectiveness. Repeating information back to the caller (when it is correct) demonstrates that your agents were listening effectively and responding in real time to the caller’s situation. This builds trust and confidence in your organization.

Utilizing KomBea as a Summarization Tool

KomBea has helped many customer service and contact centers improve their summarization strategies using our ExactCall solution. ExactCall uses your existing CRM or phone system to deliver pre-recorded, customizable summary statements, legal disclosures, order summaries and more. This helps ensure that the information is always 100 percent correct and being delivered effectively to every customer, every time.

If you would like to improve summarization and the customer experience in your customer service or contact center, contact us to schedule a demo of our ExactCall solution.