Customer call centers have traditionally focused on dealing with customer problems and concerns. Whether it’s a support issue or an after-sales question about a product, it’s been reactive. Customers are often frustrated when they call. It’s time to be proactive in your contact center approach and improve your customer experience. This can easily be done by investing in a contact center automation solution.
Go beyond problem solving and become a customer engagement center.
Offer more personalization
You can use databases and artificial intelligence to help you personalize the service you provide to customers. When customers call, you immediately know who they are, what products they own, and have a complete overview of past interactions. This can make the first conversation much more personal and action-oriented. Instead of the customer having to answer many questions, the customer service member can get started on the solution right away.
Michael Rahm of Appian discusses the importance of a personalized customer experience: “There needs to be a fundamental change, not only in the way organizations think about the contact center, but also in the technology used to put the customer experience (CX) at the center. in every facet of involvement. Forrester recently stated that “the revenue impact of a one-point improvement in CX Index scores can help a company increase revenue by $175 million annually.” That’s a big impact on any business, and that impact starts in the contact center.
Having this information readily available also helps with complex problems. If you need to escalate a ticket, you avoid transferring customers from agent to agent and having to repeat their information.
AI can also ensure that customer questions are answered faster. By connecting to a deep knowledge base, agents can quickly find the information you need by searching a few keywords. AI can suggest options and help agents frame conversations by providing optimal answers.
Manage the customer experience
The contact center should be seen not only as a problem solver, but also as a strategic resource that helps shape and manage the customer experience. Research shows that improving the customer experience translates into business results.
Maximizing the customer experience can improve satisfaction scores by 20%, increase revenue by 15% and reduce the cost of serving customers by 20%, according to a McKinsey study. To top it all off, 86 percent of customers say they are willing to pay more for a great customer experience.
In fact, today’s B2C and B2B buyers say customer experience is more important than price or product when it comes to differentiating brands. It is no longer enough to provide good customer support. You must deliver an engaging, personalized customer experience throughout the customer journey.
Less waiting time
Another way to improve the customer experience is to reduce the amount of time spent on hold or listening to multiple options. For example, when companies use technology to collect and analyze rich data about customers, problems, and products, they can identify trends and iterate on problems. You can call a special helpline for these problems and solve them quickly.
Additionally, organizations can use technology to speed up internal customer service processes as well. Companies should consider integrating real-time messaging that allows agents to get immediate responses from supervisors or specialists, without long wait times. AI can also suggest possible ways to improve your workflow, improve agent performance, and identify patterns that product development teams need to address. This enables continuous improvement in both product and customer care.
Call Routing Services
The importance of managing the entire customer experience has increased dramatically in recent years. Customers now expect near real-time answers with a personal approach.
The right customer support software provides advanced routing to connect customers and support teams wherever they are. Ticket routing allows the person with the required skill level to handle the call. Instead of having to employ specialists at each location or keep customers on hold, you can route calls to the first available specialist.
Advanced call routing software allows you to manage your call routing systems for any business phone number from a single interface. Customizable call forwarding and routing can be critical to handling multiple calls simultaneously. Recordings and playbacks of calls can help during training and ensure customers get the best possible help. Depending on the call routing system, you may also have the following features:
- Ability to set multiple numbers
- Integration with your local PBX or cloud PBX
- Reporting and statistics on call duration, number of calls and others.
These tools can help you improve your customer engagement and measure agent performance.
In addition to increased technology, there are several ways your organization can improve the customer experience and turn your contact center into a customer engagement center.
Additional sales opportunities
Your customer service team can also suggest upsell and cross-sell opportunities using data-driven tools. Call centers can connect to CRM (Customer Relationship Management) systems and marketing efforts to provide a 360° view of the customer. Your support agents can act more as a consultant and suggest additional products or services that can improve the customer experience.
AI integration can suggest cross- and upsell opportunities based on tickets and interactions.
By improving your engagement, you can improve your relationship with customers. With the ever-increasing number of choices consumers have today, customer experience can truly be a key differentiator.