“Please hold while I transfer you to someone who can help.”
That’s the last thing anyone wants to hear when calling to fix an issue with their internet service—or anything else. Customers hate being shuffled from one department or agent to another. Misrouted calls that lead to agent transfers are the ultimate contradiction of the fast, efficient service customers expect. Waiting on hold and re-explaining the problem wastes time, frustrates customers, and may lead to churn. Businesses need an intelligent solution to call routing problems. Intelligent routing boosts efficiency and customer satisfaction while decreasing costs.
Contact Center Interactions: Dissatisfying for Customers and Agents
Customers expect every interaction with a business to be fast and effortless. Unfortunately, many contact center experiences miss the mark. Contact centers are often understaffed and rely on inefficient Interactive Voice Response (IVR) systems. Confusing, inefficient IVRs lead to:
Long hold times.
Call misrouting.
Repeat calls.
Lacking access to call context and the right information to assist customers quickly and accurately, agents find it harder to do their job. Frustrated customers and stressed-out agents may leave your business, decreasing revenue and increasing costs associated with agent attrition and new customer acquisition.
Three Contact Center Metrics That Influence Customer Satisfaction
In customer service, speed and simplicity matter. Customers want their calls to be handled quickly by the first agent they speak to, without having to call back to resolve their issue. Customer satisfaction depends on:
Call handle time. Call handle time refers to the length of a customer interaction from the moment the call begins to its conclusion. It includes call hold times and call transfers, so more transfers mean longer handle times. One survey of consumers who recently contacted customer service found that customer satisfaction was the highest ( 79 out of 100) when the call was handled in six to 10 minutes. Satisfaction decreased significantly for calls longer than 10 minutes, plummeting to a 51 when they lasted more than 30 minutes. Longer calls are also more expensive, increasing operational costs.
First-agent resolution. As the name suggests, first-agent resolution occurs when a customer’s issue is solved by the first agent who takes the call. In other words, the call isn’t transferred to another agent. First-agent resolution is important for customer satisfaction. The Contact Center Satisfaction Index score is (out of 100) for callers whose issue is resolved by the first agent. Satisfaction declines as the number of agents needed to resolve the issue increases: 64 for two agents and 45 for three or more agents.
First call resolution. As the name suggests, first call resolution refers to resolving customers’ problems, questions or needs the first time they call, with no follow-up required. The survey of consumers who recently contacted customer service found that only 47% of callers had their issue resolved during the first call. Customer satisfaction was 82 (out of 100) for those callers but declined as issues required multiple contacts: 68 for two calls, and a dismal 53 for four calls.
J.D. Power found that overall satisfaction with wireless provider call centers increased slightly from 2023 to 2024. “This increase in satisfaction is driven by a decrease in transfers, time taken to resolve problems and answer questions and an increase in first contact resolution.”
Misrouted Calls: The Customer Service Disconnect that May Cause Churn
Calls that are misrouted from the IVR system negatively impact all three contact center metrics. Misrouted calls often lead to agent transfers, extending call handle time and hindering first agent resolution. When sales agents, who aren’t trained to address technical support issues, attempt to assist customers instead of transferring the call, their efforts may be ineffective. In that case, customers wind up calling again when the problem persists, preventing first call resolution.
Customers who are dissatisfied with a company’s customer service often stop buying or using its products and services. According to a survey of U.S. telecom customers, three top customer service friction points that caused customers to churn are:
Having to call more than once ( 47% of customers who churned).
Having to repeat themselves multiple times when speaking with multiple representatives (44%).
Being transferred between departments (37%).
All three friction points are related to call misrouting.
Confusing, Inefficient IVR Systems Are to Blame
Poorly designed IVR systems
Cause customers to be misrouted to incorrect agents or self-service options. IVR systems that cannot understand intent (i.e., what the customer is trying to accomplish) are more likely to misdirect calls.
Lead to zero-through behavior. Customers who don’t hear the right IVR option (or just get tired of pressing buttons) press zero to be connected with a representative who may not transfer their call to the correct agent, resulting in further transfers.
Cause agents to have to route misdirected calls to other agents, decreasing efficiency and wasting agent (and customer) time.
How can you improve your IVR system to reduce call misrouting? You need intelligent routing.
What is Intelligent Routing?
Intelligent routing, also known as intent-based call routing, directs callers to the correct self-service solution or agent group to meet their needs. Intelligent routing uses a conversational artificial intelligence (AI)-powered virtual agent to greet the customer using an open-ended IVR prompt (e.g., what can I help you with today?). The virtual agent
Converts the customer’s speech to text and analyzes it using natural language processing (NLP). NLP identifies the customer’s underlying intent and needs.
Directs customers to a digital self-service solution first (to assist callers without engaging a live agent)
Connects callers with the correct live agent if they can’t resolve their issue through self-service.
Intelligent routing determines the most appropriate agent group for the customer based on:
The customer’s intent.
Dynamic business rules/logic.
Customer account information.
Identified customer patterns/trends based on interaction history.
The caller is then automatically routed to the correct agent group the first time. The system provides a call transcript describing the problem to the agent during handoff, so customers don’t have to repeat themselves.
What Are the Benefits of Intelligent Routing?
Customers using CSG’s intent-based call routing solution experience
35% reduction in misrouted calls by predicting the caller’s intent, leveraging the customer profile and interaction history.
45% reduction in average cost per call by automatically understanding customer intent and context to streamline interactions.
50% reduction in agent handle times and faster time to resolution by directing customers to digital knowledge guides.
Better customer experience by reducing agent transfers , preventing customers from having to repeatedly explain the problem.
Global Tech Company Boosts Contact Center CX and Savings Through Intelligent Routing
One of the world’s largest technology companies struggled to deliver exceptional experiences for customers calling their contact center. Because its IVR system couldn’t detect customer intent, 60% of inbound tech support calls were routed to the wrong agent group, usually sales agents. The sales agents then transferred the calls or spent their expensive minutes trying to assist callers.
To improve call routing and customer and agent experience, the tech company implemented CSG’s intelligent routing solution . The conversational AI-powered IVR system includes a virtual voice agent to greet inbound callers, provide self-help, and route customer inquiries regarding order status, sales, billing, account management and tech support to the correct live agent.
Intelligent routing immediately reduced misrouted calls from 60% to less than 30%, a figure that continues to shrink as CSG optimizes the company’s system. The smarter IVR also helped the company improve live agent metrics. Average call handle time decreased by two minutes per call, reducing operational costs and resolving customer issues more quickly.
