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frustrating for consumers, they can also
have a significant impact on a company’s
bottom line and overall performance. As
such, keeping wait and hold times low is a
vital component of providing a satisfactory
customer service – so businesses should
be investing in technology that can help
monitor and improve them. Innovations,
such as automatic call backs for instance,
ensure that when lines are busy and
waiting times are likely to be long, the
customer does not have to hold the line
for a seemingly infinite amount of time
and can request a call back later – without
losing their place in the queue. This type
of technology is just one of many that
enhances customer experience: once the
customer gets a call back, the interaction is
free of stress and frustration, which leads to
a happy, satisfied customer.
Super strength
Constant technological innovations have
altered customers’ expectations and
nowadays, customers don’t invest much
time or effort into resolving any potential
issues that they might have with the
products or services they purchase. Instead,
they contact customer services.
While service agents are more equipped than
ever to deal with demanding customers, some
contact centres still use outdated, legacy
technology that has a significant negative
impact on the customer journey. Indeed,
studies show that 42% of service agents are
unable to efficiently resolve customer issues
due to disconnected systems, archaic user
interfaces and multiple applications.
Businesses that want to gain customers’
loyalty and stay ahead of the competition
need to shift gears and adopt smarter
solutions that can easily integrate with their
existing digital infrastructure and provide a
personalised and seamless customer journey.
For example, one of the major pet-peeves
many clients complain about when it comes
to customer service is having to explain
their problem to multiple people and
departments. But by implementing a smart
telephony platform that safely records and
keeps customer interaction data, businesses
can provide their customer service staff
with a 360-degree view into any customers’
previous interactions with the brand –
40
INTELLIGENTCIO
“
STUDIES SHOW THAT 80%
OF CUSTOMERS WON’T BUY FROM
COMPANIES WITH NEGATIVE REVIEWS.
everything from purchases to previous calls
and complaints. With this information,
agents can address a customer’s issue faster,
without having to put them through several
conversations and various departments.
This allows them to take the burden off the
customer, lighten their load and make the
whole experience with the company more
pleasant and dynamic.
The multilingual advantage
Another major challenge many customer
service operators deal with today is
interacting with clients that don’t speak their
language. This can make communication
slow and frustrating for both sides. Language
barriers can be a huge problem for many
organisations, especially when an increasing
number of companies are expanding their
global reach at a fast pace and multinational
contact centres are on the rise. To address
this challenge, technology is being
developed that leverages Machine Learning
and AI to deliver real-time translation,
helping contact centre staff to understand
customers more easily and establish better
connections with them.
By using technology to remove the language
barrier, clients and customer service agents
can focus on the real issues at hand,
improving efficiency and ensuring happy
customers and more focused staff.
The price of positive
customer experience
For many companies, the contact centre
and customer service departments are still
treated as an afterthought. Unfortunately,
the reality is that this attitude could come at
a very high price for them.
A recent study conducted by the Northridge
Group highlights the risks businesses face
when investing in automation thinking it will
be the panacea for customer service, without
considering the customer need for efficient
human-to-human interaction. The study
shows that:
• 69% of customers have difficulty
navigating automated systems
• 65% of customers have trouble
using websites
• Fewer than 50% of customers find any
channel easy to use
• 62% of consumers reported needing to
make multiple contacts to resolve their
most recent customer service need
• Only 46% of consumers reported
resolution of their customer service
need within an hour. Almost one in 10
customers indicated their problem was
never resolved
These statistics show that it’s high time
for companies to stop seeing the contact
centre as an afterthought of their customer
experience strategy and acknowledge it as
a goldmine for creating positive customer
interactions. It is, after all, the first port of
call for customers trying to get in touch with
the company – their first experience cannot
be sub-par and disappointing.
Waiting until a problem arises, or pretending
it doesn’t exist, increases the time and cost
of recovery. Therefore, providing a great
customer experience should be viewed as an
investment rather than an expense. Every
call taken presents an opportunity for service
providers to emerge as a hero for their
customers and save the day.
Organisations that want to thrive in the
long term must ensure that their contact
centres have the human and technological
resources they need to do an outstanding
job. They must realise that being average
in the customer contact world does not
lead to business success. By using business
tools to enhance their contact centre’s
customer service capabilities, businesses
can significantly improve their customers’
experiences, putting them back at the heart
of the business.
And at a time when customer expectations
are so rapidly fluctuating, offering a
personalised and exceptional service could
be the key to maintaining brand loyalty. n
www.intelligentcio.com