Are your customers on a journey to nowhere?
How to turbo charge the CX journey from the inside out to put the customer on the path to delight – with a technology helping hand
As consumers become more demanding and less willing to experience poor customer service, it’s time for businesses to rethink their contact center operations to ensure a positive and fulfilled customer journey. But in such a complex journey, where should businesses start? For Arjan van den Berg, Senior Partner Director at ContactCenter4ALL, it’s clear that leaders must look in the rear view mirror, and begin with boosting back-end operations to achieve and exceed customer expectations on the journey to customer satisfaction.
One thing made clear by today’s consumers is that mediocre experiences and interactions won’t make the cut when it comes to satisfying demands. Recent research by Broadridge found that over two in three consumers (68%) have lost trust in a company after a poor experience or communication. The reality of achieving great customer delight and customer contact enablement is that there is much more than what is seen above ground – even the most basic of principles require additional thought and actions that sit below the surface of what today’s customers see.
Businesses really can’t afford to slack on offering great customer contact enablement – and it’s where the right contact center software, ensures that they don’t have to. Integrated software an provides businesses with the technology foundation to solve customer issues first time, improve their customer relationship management, while simultaneously empowering employees behind the scenes.
1. A great customer journey is a short one – keep it efficient, not rushed
When it comes to great customer delight, friction must be kept to a minimum. Customers want choices, whether its to contact via live chat, research the website Q&A, or pick up the phone and speak to an agent, today’s consumers expect to be able to use every channel possible with the confidence their issue is being dealt with. Research has found that over 82% of customers will likely trust a brand and remain loyal to a business that offers first-rate customer service.
But remember, the customer journey begins way before the first point of physical contact – for most consumers, it starts at the website.
A great customer journey is a short customer journey, not rushed but efficient – and it’s why a quick answer or first-time fix are so crucial when it comes to resolving customer issues. Time to resolution matters, and it matters both ways – the quicker the resolution, the happier the customer and the quicker agents can turn to other consumers and help resolve their issues.
Real-time insights and historical reporting provide the springboard to contact center efficiency
Achieving first-rate customer delight is no easy feat, but it’s certainly where technology can play a huge supporting role – and in one area, it can help keep wait times to a minimum. Being left on hold, or transferred to the wrong department is one of the biggest friction areas for consumers within the contact center. The path to fixing this friction begins with intelligent call routing, a workflow management tool linking multiple disparate contact centers and agents together in one unified system to ensure customers are directed to the agent best placed to deal with their issue.
Using CC4Teams real-time dashboards for example paired with historical reporting ensures all contact center activity is readily available. Service level metrics, including average waiting times, number of customers currently in calls, average call durations, and number of agents available, can be accessed in real time to map employee competencies, find the best available agent and manage call traffic.
The benefits are two-fold. Agents are well-positioned with the confidence to help customers in situations that are best suited to their expertise and skill sets, subsequently boosting morale and motivation. On the customer side, it’s all about reducing customer wait times, while improving first-rate fixes – it might sound like the basic principles of achieving customer delight, but many contact centers are failing to efficiently route their customers to the right agent, at the right time.
2. Get personal with customers, and don’t ignore the data
Of course, first-time fixes in customer experience are not always possible – perhaps an issue needs further investigation, or the correct agent to deal with the query is unavailable. No matter what, this should not detract from a positive customer journey. Customers still want to be heard, and they expect a response that understands their needs.
A good customer relationship is essential for timely fixes
Perhaps most importantly, customers want a personalised experience, tailored to previous service or buyer history. Gone are the days of driving blind into customer service and hoping for the best. They want call and contact centers to know their names, information about their recent interactions with the company, and they don’t want to repeat information they have already provided. This is where contact enter software integration into Customer Relationship Management (CRM) solutions, provide the benefit from full visibility into logged calls and customer data/history – from the last question asked by that customer, the last time they called in, and their personal information. The more data that the contact center agent has access to, the better the experience – and increased chance of achieving a timely fix.
CC4Teams powers contact centers to have all the intel needed from supporting business solutions in one place. It enables supervisors and agents to see precisely what has happened without having to manually investigate or ask other agents – serving up the required data right in front of them.
3. A new era of CX and EX – enter artificial intelligence
To create the ideal customer journey, customer experiences (CX) and employee experiences (EX) must work in tandem with one another. Agents need the correct tools, technology, and guidance to act in real-time, respond to customer questions and queries, all in a timely and well-informed manner. It’s where artificial intelligence (AI) mechanisms within the supporting contact center software, such as CC4Teams can assist. Powered by Copilot, conversations and suggested responses are automated to provide agents with real-time support.
CC4Teams harnesses the advanced data analytics and visualisation capabilities of Power BI to help provide real-time analysis of the conversation to offer dialogue suggestion, while analysing all interactions to improve performance in the future. Unambiguous data models within the solution help contact centers to predict future customer behaviour to offer targeted interactions, and continuously improve on higher levels of customer experience.
Safety and security are paramount – don’t cut corners
Whenever customer data and new technologies are around, security is paramount. But for contact centers, particularly for those dealing with sensitive customer information, putting all information, call recordings and personal data in a safe and secure environment, provides the ultimate peace of mind that all correct guidelines and regulations are adhered to.
Research found that over 42% of customers have stopped doing business with a company because of a hack that exposed customer data. At CC4ALL, putting security at the top of the priority list has been an ongoing priority. And it’s why all recordings are managed by CallCabinet and stored safely in Azure Communications.
The two-step process to customer delight
It common for organisations to think of customer experience at only surface level – but the real key lies in boosting those back-end operations to drive new efficiencies and improve customer relationships.
With an advanced contact center solution, it is now easier than ever to empower employees to handle customer communication confidently, and with the knowledge that they can lead them on the path to customer delight.
Jesse Pitts has been with the Global Banking & Finance Review since 2016, serving in various capacities, including Graphic Designer, Content Publisher, and Editorial Assistant. As the sole graphic designer for the company, Jesse plays a crucial role in shaping the visual identity of Global Banking & Finance Review. Additionally, Jesse manages the publishing of content across multiple platforms, including Global Banking & Finance Review, Asset Digest, Biz Dispatch, Blockchain Tribune, Business Express, Brands Journal, Companies Digest, Economy Standard, Entrepreneur Tribune, Finance Digest, Fintech Herald, Global Islamic Finance Magazine, International Releases, Online World News, Luxury Adviser, Palmbay Herald, Startup Observer, Technology Dispatch, Trading Herald, and Wealth Tribune.