What drives customer satisfaction? Depending on the type of organization, the answer can vary. Some customers might say providing a high-quality product that makes their lives easier; others might say performing a valuable, time-saving service.

Regardless of an enterprise’s industry, size, or geographic location, however, most customers would probably agree that three things make them happy:

• Having their transactions handled quickly and efficiently

• Spending less time waiting for help

• Feeling secure that the confidential information they provide is protected.

Many call centers try to address the third point above by putting callers through an automated interactive voice response (IVR) system during calls. While this type of system does secure private data, it also comes at a steep cost: longer transaction times, confusion, frustration and, as a result, lower customer satisfaction.

Fortunately, all three of these customer demands can be met by using DTMF (Dual-Tone Multi-Frequency) technology, which offers an efficient method for securing customers’ information. DTMF technology allows customers to directly input (via a keypad) or speak their sensitive data during a call, while blocking the data from the customer service representative (CSR). The CSR remains on the call with the customer throughout the payment collection process and, in less time than a traditional interaction, can verify and submit the payment to the back-end system – all without ever seeing the data.

Among the benefits of DTMF technology, it provides:

• Shorter transaction times and lower average handle time (AHT), since the CSR does not have the repeat numbers back to the customer after they are spoken aloud or make changes if the information is entered incorrectly.

• Higher accuracy of data entry by the agent, resulting in a reduction in AHT. Because sensitive data is handled by technology and not by CSRs, the likelihood of human error is greatly reduced.

• Greater chance of first-call resolution, since the original agent stays on the line with the customer while he or she enters their data.

Just how big of a difference does having shorter transaction times make? For one agent, perhaps, not a lot, but multiply that by tens, hundreds, and even thousands of agents every month and you’ll find that shorter transaction times can make a huge difference in terms of the number of customers who are happy and the number of agents who can handle more calls.

Happy customers and more efficient agents: better for everyone, all around.