How to Prevent Agents From Saying the Wrong Words When Things Change at a Financial Institution

Yesterday, call agents were supposed to say, "Unfortunately, we cannot give you a refund. We can only book you for the exact same time next year."

But...pushback from customers made management rethink that policy.  

So today, your call agents are supposed to say, "While we cannot give you a refund, we can give you credit towards any service you'd like to purchase in the future."

Here's the big question: How can you ensure that your agents share that updated information correctly (and consistently) the moment the new policy goes into effect?

Ditch Messaging Apps When Communicating Policy/Procedure Changes

Thousands of teams are WFH (working from home) right now and many have turned to using Zoom, Slack, email, and a bunch of other messaging applications to communicate changes to policies, procedures, and processes.

Now, those messaging apps are great for keeping in touch and coaching – but they are terrible for communicating changes around your policies, procedures, and processes. Messaging apps are especially ineffective when updating call agents who need to handle calls perfectly every time.

Your agents cannot consistently remember what the last email said or what was discussed over a web conference call. It's humanly impossible. And expecting call agents to locate the latest policies and procedures by searching through emails and chat messages results in longer handle times and higher call abandonment rates. 

Use Interactive Conversation Flows Instead

A better way to communicate changes is by using what ScreenSteps calls Interactive Conversation Flows – a tool that guides agents through any caller scenario.

For example, let's pretend that an agent working at a financial institution gets a call about a new program. Well, before April 3, 2020 the agent is supposed to take names and email addresses to notify callers when the program is available.

Below is an Interactive Conversation Flow that does just that. Pretend that you are a call agent and the person on the other end of the phone just said, "Yes, I'd like to fill out an application."

Just click the option below to see how you should respond.

Well, it's now after Friday, April 3, 2020 and the policy changed, which means that the process call agents must follow has also changed.

Before reading this blog article, you would have sent out an email or run a web meeting explaining what to do. But now you are enlightened and you know that's not very effective. Now you know that all you need to do is simply modify the existing Interactive Conversation Flow.

Next time your agents answer a call with that question, they won't have to remember anything or shuffle through old emails. They'll just follow the step-by-step instructions (click "YES - Fill out application" below to see).

More Changes? No Problem

When you update your Interactive Conversation Flows, your agents are immediately ready to follow the prompts and answer every call perfectly. If you have a Zoom meeting or send out an email, it will be to check in and see if your agents have any questions about the changes, NOT to explain how to implement all of the changes.

And next week, when another policy or process changes, you can do the same thing. Update your Interactive Conversation Flows and your agents will immediately begin implementing the right changes.