Question:

We’re considering the addition of a retention team. Is that a best practice or should all agents be equipped to handle cancellation requests?

Answer:

Companies that are serious about retention must prioritize their customers’ convenience, not their own. It is a best practice to train all agents with customer retention skills that facilitate first contact resolution (FCR). FCR is the name of the game in today’s contact centers, regardless of the nature of the customer’s request or issue. Well-trained and empowered agents can retain most customers when the enterprise provides them with the support, information and flexibility they need to get the job done during the initial contact.

However, there are times when there are so many agents that it is not cost effective to train everyone. In this case, a well-implemented retention team may be necessary. If a separate function is required, it is imperative that enough agents are trained as retention specialists to ensure that warm transfers initiated by the agent who received the call (and it has to be a warm transfer) experience no wait time.

Whether cancellation requests are handled by all contact center agents or through a retention department, it is important to institute a process to capture and identify the reasons why customers want to defect. Once the causes of dissatisfaction are known, it is up to the organization as a whole to take steps to resolve these customer pain points.