7 Probing Questions to Use to Provide Better Customer Service

If you’re wondering how outsourcing agents deliver sterling customer support, one of the fundamental reasons lies in the quality of their probing questions.

Probing questions help outsourcing agents glean insight from the concerns your customers bring up, as well as unearth the emotions, facts, and causes behind what they shared.

When an outsourcing staff asks the right probing questions, they can better understand the situation and provide helpful and proper solutions.

That said, here are seven probing questions that your outsourcing BPO partner relays to improve your customer service.

1. “When did this incident start?”

Confirming first when the incident started is crucial in determining the origin of the problem.

This question lets outsourcing specialists figure out how long your customer has endured the effects of the incident and the next steps to be made.

2. “Just to be sure I have the details right, may I ask what you were doing when this situation began?”

BPO support specialists want to help customers resolve the issue by listing all possible causes.

One of these reasons may be the customer’s doing, whether accidentally or intentionally. BPO agents nevertheless need to know that so they can arrive at the right solution.

To sound objective and not accusative, outsourcing agents expertly and carefully frame the question in this way. 

When this happens, your customers can be more open about what exactly happened.

3. “Has this ever occurred before?”

Discovering whether the concern was repeated allows BPO support staff to determine if the incident was systemic or one-off.

Outsourcing staff can glean further insight into how to best settle the problem by asking the customer how he handled this problem before.

4. “Can you please describe how it sounds (or looks)?”

Outsourcing specialists ask this probing question because they aim to understand the situation concretely.

When they’re able to visualize the incident, they can better trace the root causes, provide remedial instructions, compare it with previous encounters, and others.

5. “Have you tried fixing the situation before calling us?”

Asking this question helps BPO representatives consider any further action made in the attempt to correct the issue.

Whether the action failed to address the issue or not, knowing any other corrective steps made aids outsourcing agents to assess and resolve the situation adequately.

6. “What difficulties did you face while you tried to…?”

If the calling consumer has answered “yes” to the previous question, BPO agents can take a deeper look at the struggles faced in the remediation attempt.

As your customers elaborate on what they’ve tried to do, the outsourcing support staff can work with them in solving the problem together.

7. “You said earlier that… can you please tell me a little bit more about it?”

Customers often provide lengthy messages or responses to your initial questions.

Through active listening and this question, BPO representatives can steer the dialogue back to the main issue.

What’s Next?

At Executive Boutique, we make sure our professional outsourcing specialists excel in providing outstanding customer support for your business.

With these probing questions and more, you can be confident to entrust your customers’ concerns in our capable hands.

Contact us today for more details, and we’ll give you a free quote.