Dispatches from the frontline

I am not a comfy extrovert, so I don’t take pleasure from talking on the phone. Making calls, especially cold calls, is not high on my list of fun ways to spend a Friday, or any other day of the week. This is probably the legacy of Covid and the rise of the mobile device.

The situation becomes harder when the frontline staff is not functional. You know the scene. Call, get no answer, call again, the switchboard operator can’t understand you, call again and the person is out of office, until you give up.

That experience affects the brand with moments of desperation.

Frontline staff are those people who deal directly with customers, suppliers, or other publics in an organization: call center agents, shop workers. customer complaint and dispute resolution agents, and so forth.

The frontline has evolved with the implementation of online mechanisms. The dubious benefit of the online mechanism is that it offers greater economy once the initial investment is recouped through replacement of employees.

Chief among these are chatbots that provide answers to questions, and international call centers that provide solutions either by voice or type chat. Bots are relatively inflexible, providing information on a limited range of prompts (keywords). The range and responsiveness for bots will depend on construction of metadata.

Human agents are more flexible and nuanced. As it stands now, the ability of online frontline mechanisms depends on the energy and empathy of human operators. In general, however, the quality of the human system will be variable.

AI will probably bring a greater level of quality to the frontline. It is already being used for chatbots. The next iteration of AI will bring greater flexibility in response-handling. Current systems in development will be characterized by improved judgement and discrimination, enabling them to handle nuanced requests to a greater degree, rather than just reporting from the existing data set.

Until such time as AI improves and becomes feasible in Namibia, there are five guidelines that should be implemented.

Firstly, the old rule was that the phone should be answered within three rings. This still applies. The current system of giving a series of choices is not entirely optimal, particularly after the choices have run through their script. The script delays the wanted response. A further delay is cruelty. Once the script has played out, the phone needs to be answered in three rings. The adverts that serve to fill the response gap are rarely edifying, especially if you have heard them before.

Secondly, have enough staff to handle the call volume. Sometimes staff need to go to the restroom. When that happens someone competent needs to answer the phones. Economizing on staff to answer the phones is penny wise, pound foolish.

Thirdly, people who answer the phones must have a certain degree of understanding of the scenarios and structures to deal with issues. If they can be trained to competently deal with queries, this itself will be a form of useful economy.

Fourth, in an age of email and online contact, there will still be a requirement for voice contact. If reception or the switchboard puts a call through, pick it up.

Finally, develop response etiquette. Someone who is interested enough to make a call or contact needs to know when a response can be expected, even if you don’t have enough information to immediately give an answer.

There is no great mystery to handling the frontline. The best place to begin is to audit the customer journey and script all the necessary measures and responses.