Engage Magazine November 2014 | Page 26

As the customer experience moves up the pecking order of board level priorities the contact centre is well positioned to fulfil a central role in an organisation’s customer engagement strategies says Dave Paulding In a world where product and price differentiation are playing a lesser role, it is the customer experience that is becoming the shining star of competitive advantage and can ultimately determine an organisation’s success or failure. Ensuring that this strategy covers all aspects of the customer experience and meets the demands of savvy consumers, however, can be quite a challenging task for contact centre operators and organisations as there is a great deal to consider, especially in a multi-channel environment. So what exactly should be included in a customer service strategy? ISSUE SEVENTEEN • NOVEMBER 2014 The customer experience Customers are looking for convenience and ease of use. They want to make contact with an organisation in the way that suits them – be it email, telephone, web chat or social media, and they want their query or complaint solved as quickly as possible. In recent research conducted by Censuswide it was found that the preferred method of contact was email (54 per cent) followed by telephone (37 per cent). A sample of 2000 UK consumers was surveyed and it was further found that 79 per cent of t