When customers contact your service team again about the same unresolved issue, it’s tempting to put more coaching in the diary. Sometimes that will help. But reducing repeat calls starts with understanding why the customer needed to come back.
Imagine someone calling for the third time about a refund. The agent checks the details, explains the situation and apologises for the wait. They handle the conversation well. The refund still hasn’t arrived. What would you ask that agent to do differently?
Find out what is keeping the customer waiting
Suppose the refund is stuck in an approval queue. The agent can’t release it, and the system gives them no reliable date to share. They want to help. The customer wants their money. Neither has what they need to move forward.
Coaching might help the agent explain that uncertainty more clearly. It won’t move the refund out of the queue. Someone needs to investigate the approval process.
That distinction changes where you put your effort. You can support the agent while giving the underlying problem to the team that can fix it.
The same repeat call can have different causes
The refund example could also play out differently. At Guidnce, we look at four possible sources of a problem:
People. The process works, but an agent regularly forgets to explain when the refund should arrive. Customers call to check. Coaching on setting expectations could help.
Process. The refund is stuck waiting for approval. The process owner needs to investigate the delay and what agents can tell customers about it.
Knowledge. The guidance says three days, but the current processing time is ten. The agent follows the instructions and still gives the wrong expectation. The information needs updating.
Automation. The bot confirms that the request has been submitted, but never passes it on. The automation team needs to repair the handover.
These are possible explanations, not conclusions you can draw from one frustrated customer. More than one may apply. The job is to find out which ones are contributing.
A practical way to investigate repeat calls
Start with one recurring issue, such as customers chasing refunds. Look across relevant conversations and listen for why people came back. What were they expecting? What was still missing?
Compare what you hear with the process and guidance the agent had available. Look for a pattern across agents as well as within one person’s conversations. A problem shared by several agents is a reason to investigate the wider setup.
Agree who will act and what they’ll change. Record when it happens, then revisit the same issue in later conversations. Where you can reliably link contacts about the same issue, check the repeat contact rate too. Compare similar periods and account for other changes before crediting one fix.
Use Compass to explore what is behind the calls
In Compass, Guidnce’s AI workspace, you can investigate recurring issues and explore whether the evidence points to people, process, knowledge or automation. Open the conversations behind an answer and bring your team’s context to what you find.
That gives you a starting point for deciding what to do next. Sometimes it will be a coaching conversation. Sometimes it will be a discussion with the person who owns the refund process.
Either way, the aim is to help the next customer get further, and give the agent a better answer when they ask what happens next.
Customers coming back with the same problem? Book a Guidnce demo and let’s explore how to investigate it.
CEO & co-founder
