It's no secret that customers have high expectations when it comes to customer service. If you don't meet those expectations, many will simply go somewhere else. Or, even worse, they will spread the word on social media so that their family, friends, and acquaintances get a negative impression of your brand. With so much at stake, offering great customer service is paramount.
Providing exceptional customer service
It starts with understanding that you have to offer a more human experience anchored in empathy and responsiveness. Within this framework there are seven main types of experiences that customers value most when engaging with your company. Let's look at each type of experience along with the contact center technology you need to meet your expectations.
Get to know your customers and give them a good experience
A key component to delivering a more human experience is knowing your customers and their history when they contact you. In fact, today's customers demand it. They don't want to have to identify themselves and repeat when and why they have contacted you in the past. Just like you recognize your friends and remember your history with them, recognizing your customers and their previous interactions makes them feel known and valued.
Your contact center should include pre-configured CRM integrations and pop-ups to enable this. This will allow agents to spend more time listening and being empathetic rather than putting the customer on hold while they search for information. AI-powered “agent support” prompts and suggestions for next actions, as well as scripts, can help agents focus on engaging the customer and making them feel known.
Approach your customers through different channels
According to Nemertes Research, contact centers that offer eight or more channels improve customer satisfaction by 92%, while those that offer between one and four channels only improve by 50%. Whether it's voice, email, SMS/text, chat, video, or social messaging apps, customers want to be served where they are, regardless of which channel they choose.
Although contact centers that adopt omnichannel achieve better results, we have found that the telephone is still the preferred channel for customers. However, customers want options so they can choose the best way to connect with your company as their needs, situations, and preferences change.
Empower your customers
Many customers prefer to find answers on their own without having to speak to an agent, so it's important to offer self-service options through visual IVRs and knowledge centers. When this need is met, it provides a more human experience by respecting their time and preferences as individuals. Giving customers self-service options also increases call diversion and reduces your contact center costs.
Remember them
Customers expect their channels to be connected so they can easily leave an interaction and return through another channel, without the experience being interrupted or having to be repeated. This goes back to their desire for you to know them. Your contact center should easily connect across the entire omnichannel customer experience journey and enable seamless switching from one channel to another.
Respect your customers to improve their experience
Clients want to feel that you respect their time. The best way to do this is to save them time by not keeping them waiting and solving their problem the first time. Your cloud contact center should offer a comprehensive workforce management system that automatically and accurately forecasts call volume. This ensures that you have the appropriate number of agents available to handle calls at all times.
Resolving issues the first time is possible with intelligent omnichannel routing that gets calls to the right agents at the right time. Pre-configured UC integrations improve first contact resolution by giving agents easy access to subject matter experts using UC capabilities. Agents can connect with them during customer contact and bring them directly into the conversation if necessary.
Support your clients in a more human way
Offering a more human experience also means anticipating customer needs. Proactively sending appointment reminders, follow-ups, shipping notifications, product availability, backorder/out-of-stock updates, and service interruption notifications are examples of ways to proactively communicate with customers before they have to contact you. The more you can proactively communicate and even resolve a potential issue before it becomes one, the more customers will feel supported.
Offer security to your clients
Customers need to be assured that you will be there when they need you. They also want to know that you are providing them with a safe and reliable experience – with data privacy and cybersecurity firmly in place, as well as what you are doing to keep them safe. Your contact center should meet the latest security certifications and give you the confidence you need to reassure customers that you're keeping their data secure.
Original https://www.five9.com/blog/7-experiences-your-customers-value-most-when-they-need-assistance