Last Called Agent Function

[Jerico et al]

Dear all,
I have heard that Genesys is pushing its product through the use of "Last Called Agent" function, where Genesys attempts to connect a caller to the agent he talked to earlier.

How effective is it at increasing customer satisfaction?
What are some of the conditions for this to be successful?
What is your overall opinion about this functionality?

Thank you very much for your response!

JERRY

[Jimm]

We're doing a variation of this for emails. If we get an email from the same customer, within a specified time limit, we route to the original handler. We've found that usually when you get emails within a short time of each other, the subsequent email(s) are typically clarifications to what the sender first queried about.

I could see doing the same the thing for phone calls, but applying a time check. That way if a customer called back within a given time period, the call would be routed to the original agent. Outside of that time limit, the call would be routed normally.

In discussing this with my contact center management, they felt that always routing to the first agent could have some negative effects, so we're holding off for phone calls. Here are some of the objections:
1) The customer could reach an agent they didn't like. It would be frustating to the customer to always get that same agent all the time after that.

2) A customer could get someone that was overly friendly, and then dominate that agent's time by doing repeated callbacks.

3) A customer may feel that you're a small operation because they get the same agent whenever they call.

[Phil]

I used this functionality & found it good if the agents are available. If there are queing calls it try's to find another agent with the skill.

The last caller feature worked well when a customer disputes a conversation as the agent normally remembers speaking with the customer.

There is great satisfaction when a screamer calls stating the last operator they spoke to did not do as they asked The agent smiles as they inform the customer they remember the conversation. This immediately calms the customer.

Phil