Conventional wisdom accepts that it’s cheaper to keep existing customers than to get new ones. Then why is it companies pay so little attention to creating brand loyalty? Treating your customers right and giving them what they want should be a no-brainer.
Businesses look at how to increase market share or improve functionality as a sign of growth. But, according to Colin Shaw, CX consultant and CEO of Beyond Philosophy, there’s a new imperative. The third area of business growth is customer-driven growth.
“Offering an improved experience addresses the emotional, subconscious, psychological needs customers have and look for in a customer experience,” he said.
Research shows there’s a strong correlation between good customer experience and improved levels of customer loyalty. And good CX translates to sales. According to Qualtrics, happy customers are more likely to:
- Buy more.
- Recommend a company.
- Forgive a bad experience.
- Trust a company.
- Try new offerings.
But how do you surprise and delight your customers when their journey is so complex? There must be a better way to deliver on their expectations.
There is.
It’s called intelligent self-service.
The customer journey is a moving target. If reducing friction is your goal, then it’s time to consider using guided interactions.
Automation enables you to connect with customers on any device, anytime and anywhere. Self-service should be effortless. It provides the right answers on all your channels. A seamless experience can cut 50% of customer effort for assisted requests.
Here’s an example of visual IVR in action.
How to Personalize the Customer Experience
In an always-connected world, customers want their needs met now. We know from Qualtrics’ research that customers reward companies that meet their needs. There’s also research that shows what happens when customers have bad experiences.
If customers are hyper-alert to miscues in service, then hyper-automate the experience. How? Establish personalized customer experience through end-to-end automation.
One Telecom did just that.
UK-based Telefónica O2 established its Transformation Team to turn chaos into a competitive advantage. A key driver to CX success was installing a unified agent desktop experience. By using smart assistants, agents were able to focus on the customer’s needs.
In a short time, they achieved their core objectives:
- Improved first-call resolution by 5%.
- Eliminated 30% of callbacks. Data settings happen in real-time.
- Drove down average handle time by 50 seconds—a decrease of 12%.
“Getting value delivered quickly to the business was paramount to demonstrating the value of a unified desktop solution. The whole point of our strategic desktop initiative is to bring agility and flexibility to our contact center operation,” said Susan O’Dea, IS Major Programmes & Project Delivery Manager
Better yet, call center agents feel empowered and customers are happy.
How to Overcome Self-Service Fail
Technology alone won’t solve all your customer service problems. With built-in intelligence and guidance, your customers will adopt various digital channels. Like:
- Voice bots. Free your customers from IVR jail.
- Chat and messenger bots. Engage customers anywhere.
- Visual IVRs and multimodal bots. Follow your customers where they live digitally.
The goal of automation should be to make data intelligence actionable. When a customer asks, Where is my order? Why is it late?, a virtual assistant is one of the best ways to understand the voice of the customer.
When a logistics company launched intelligent self-service, their goal was to reduce agent activity by 80%. They used a virtual and visual assistant to cut down consumer calls/emails to the contact center.
Since customers were able to self-serve—on their channel of choice—satisfaction levels improved. Remember, most people prefer to solve their problems without talking to someone.
They were also able to deflect low-value interactions. This allowed agents to be more responsive to customers whose issues were more complex.
How to Elevate the Enterprise CRM Experience
Your contact center agents are the front line to your customers. When companies improve the work environment, agents deliver better customer experiences.
You can automate functions to distinct digital exchanges with “in-call intelligence.” Whether they tap, text or talk, your customers will reward you with fewer calls.
Your call center can now offer an even higher level of customer care.