Write Call Center Call Flows That Create a Seamless Customer Journey

Do you want to optimize your existing call flows or create new ones to streamline customer support and ensure consistency? Are you looking for templates and examples from real-world call flows to help you create structured and effective call flows for your business?

If you are in your business to win, there’s no alternative to excellent customer service. Excellent customer service is closely tied to how effectively your customer support team communicates with your customers.

A call center call flow is crucial to empowering your team to do this. Without a call flow, your teams will be stressed and confused, delivering an inconsistent customer experience and longer resolution times, resulting in potential loss of business.

So, in this article, we are going to explore call center call flows from all angles – what they are, their types, and how you can write one that works for your business.

So, let’s get started!

What is Call Center Call Flow?

A call center call flow is the series of step-by-step movements that guide a customer’s journey through your support team, from initial contact to final handling and documentation of the call.

It is the blueprint that systematizes how customers enter your call center and how agents interact with them. 

Integral parts of a call center call flow include:

• Call incoming
• IVR options
• Welcoming the customer
• Actively listening to the issue and the first response
• Verifying caller identity
• Conveying the options for resolution (after checking the knowledge base)
• Execute the chosen option
• Closing the call
• Documenting the call

When done well, a call center call flow provides a seamless customer experience, helps improve first-call resolution, boosts agent efficiency, and reduces call center costs.

Types of Call Flow

Call flows can vary depending on the type and needs of the business. Some common types of call flows are:

• Standard call flow: The most used type that includes a basic script that guides customer support teams through common user interactions.
• Call Queue with Wait Queue Call Flow: This is used when all customer support executives are busy, and includes options such as voicemail and self-service.
• IVR user menu: This call flow enables the caller to select from a list of pre-recorded options, such as the department they wish to contact, a specific language they prefer, or a service category.
• Voice bot-first call flow: As the name suggests, this call flow includes an AI-powered bot interaction as the first point of contact before narrowing down to further options.

Some other call center call flows include routing automation (based on caller input), time-based routing (based on the time of day), geographic call routing (based on the caller’s geographical location), holiday call routing (for when the business is closed for a holiday), advanced routing systems (based on very specific business needs), and feedback and escalation call flows.

Remember, these are all from the customer service perspective for incoming calls and not outbound calls, such as sales calls.

Call Flow Examples

Let me share two examples of different call flows with you, to have an idea of what they look like:

Standard call flow (for technical support)

• Welcoming the customer: “Hello, thank you for calling Document360. My name is Ranjit. How can I help you today?”
• Actively listening to the issue and first response: “I am unable to reset my password. I tried searching for a related article in the help center, but couldn’t find anything.”
• Verifying caller identity and other details if required: “May I please have your email address?”
• Conveying the options for resolution (after checking the call center knowledge base): “Can you please check your spam folder and try a different browser or device?”
• Closing the call: “Thank you for contacting Document360. Have a great day!”

IVR user menu (for technical support)

• Welcoming the customer with the IVR menu: “Thank you for calling ABC. Your satisfaction is our priority.
• If you’re calling about a technical issue with your device, press 1.
• To troubleshoot internet connectivity problems, press 2.
• If you need assistance with a recent order or want to place a new one, press 3.
• To speak directly with one of our technical support specialists, press 0 at any time.
• Please have your account or product ID number ready to help us assist you more quickly.
• Remember, many common issues can be resolved by visiting our online help center at [company website].

Once the customer selects the option, a standard call flow follows.

Write an Effective Call Flow

Identifying the purpose and goals of the call flow

Knowing where to start can be challenging when writing call flows. Therefore, identifying the purpose and the goal of each call flow is a crucial first step.

You can do this efficiently by listing specific scenarios. For example:

• The customer wants to troubleshoot a bug in the installation
• The customer wants to enquire about the security features
• The customer has a billing enquiry

Use call center data, interview your agents, and interview subject matter experts to list as many situations as possible. You must ensure there’s a relevant call flow for the issues your customers are facing or might face.

Understanding your target audience

Writing a call center call flow most efficiently is only possible once you understand your target audience. To do this, you must follow their journey on all the channels you have and understand their pain points.

See how they interact with the customer care team already, and identify the gaps and the wow moments.

Listen to calls to see what is currently working, what can be improved, and what is not working at all!

Mapping out the call flow

Once you have the necessary understanding, you start mapping the call flow. Here are a few steps on how to do it efficiently:

• List multiple possible variations for a specific scenario
• Ask subject matter experts how to handle each variation/scenario
• Interview multiple agents to reconcile your SME findings with their real-world experience.
• Go back to the SMEs for another round of reconciliation

Come up with a call flow for each variation based on a balanced approach to this feedback.

Incorporating customer feedback and data analysis

Incorporating customer feedback and the data that you have is critical to writing a call flow that has a real impact on call center quality assurance metrics, such as first-call resolution.

Use data such as:

• The most common questions you receive
• Unresolved queries
• Calls that took the most time to resolve

Getting deeper into customer feedback analysis, such as calls to cancel subscriptions, can help you create scripts to help agents address issues that are the main cause of your customers leaving you.

A deeper insight into such data can also give you pointers on what to add to your call center knowledge base software that can empower agents to handle calls better.

Tips for keeping the call flow concise and easy to follow

Writing a call flow focused on efficiency means that your primary goal should be to minimize the number of steps that the caller goes through to find a resolution.

So, once you write your call flows as concisely as possible, you must conduct mock runs to iron out any difficulties in the flow. Here are a few scenarios:

• If it takes too long to reach the right person, find a more direct route.
• If option 9 is your most pressed, consider moving that to option 1.
• If most customers are choosing the option “Something else,” you need to rethink your options

Keep the flow intuitive and options worded simply.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

Overcomplicating the flow

Removing any overcomplications is essential for the call flow to be productive, or it could leave your customers frustrated.

Streamlining your IVR menus, avoiding lingos, and ensuring optimum use of a call center knowledge base software to empower your agents are very important steps in this direction.

A few things you can do to give an enhanced customer experience are:

• Provide estimated waiting times and options to call back
• Leverage customer profiles to give personalized solutions
• Utilize customer journey maps to visualize their needs and touchpoints

Ignoring real customer feedback

While one of the main goals for increasing business efficiency is to reduce call center volume, you must not detract your customers from the human experience they expect when necessary.

Real customer feedback is irreplaceable for any business, and to ensure your customers open up to you, you must train your support team to be empathetic, positive, and create an engaging experience for your customers.

A call flow can harm your business more than good if it sounds robotic. Include open-ended conversations in your call flows and train your team on active listening.

Not updating flows regularly

First impressions are key to building a great customer experience, and if your IVRs are outdated, you will not only lose this opportunity but may also lose customers.

Any changes or updates in your business that are relevant to the customer must be tightly aligned with IVR updation.

Also, test your call flows regularly and look out for things such as out-of-date options, messages played in the wrong place, and options that could be in better order.

Conclusion

To write an effective call flow, you must identify the goal of your call flow, understand your audience, map it out, and keep it concise while incorporating data and customer feedback into it.

Ensure to keep it simple, updated, and relevant as per customer feedback. 

Call flows are crucial for a seamless customer experience and agent productivity, and I hope that with the pointers given in this article, you are ready to write one for your business.