How To Work Your FAQs Harder, Not Your Agents

This E-WRITE article originally appeared in the October 2004 issue of Contact Professional magazine.

"You've hired more customer service agents; they are working overtime. Despite this, callers in queue are waiting twice as long as the service agreement specifies, and the volume of e-mail is growing exponentially. Regardless of how you staff, you can't keep up.  What's the solution?  Hire more agents? Outsource?

How about working your FAQs harder?  To reduce contact center volume, most companies have already provided customers with FAQs and other self-service options: searchable knowledgebases, order tracking, and more.  The idea is clear:  the easier you make it for customers to serve themselves, the fewer agents you’ll need to provide customer service..."

To read the complete article from Contact Professional, download "How To Work Your FAQs Harder, Not Your Agents."

In Brief

Your customer service agents are working harder than ever, but you are still inundated with e-mail. The solution: well-written FAQs that allow customers to self-serve can dramatically reduce e-mail volume. Here are six tips for writing FAQs that help web visitors help themselves.