Today’s customer is more technology-savvy and more mobile than ever and it would be amiss for contact centres to ignore the significance of these facts.
According to research from Fujitsu into Britain’s digital habits, 63% of people are comfortable using digital services, while only 12% have never used any at all. Meanwhile, says Simon Tooley of Orange Business Services, separate research from the Altimeter Group, found that 88% of companies are digitally transforming their business now and 75% of companies expect to increase customer engagement.
To take advantage of the move to digital businesses and digital customers, companies should make use of one asset that most consumers already have – the mobile phone. Mobile apps can be a valuable tool in connecting customers in a meaningful way with businesses and their contact centres by creating a frictionless and joined-up customer experience. They can also track a customer’s activity as they access various features. Customers can select the kinds of services that they need, and set their own parameters for those services.
For example, a customer with a query about a particular bill could select that bill and even a specific line item on that bill. They could then press a ‘call me’ button in the app to be directed to a contact centre agent that already has all the relevant customer detail, including the bill or line item that the customer has highlighted so that they can be served quickly and efficiently.
Additionally, agents can follow a customer’s journey through a company’s products and services through an app in a way that helps them better understand the nature of a query once they do pick up the phone.
Indeed, it’s this kind of contextual information that makes contact centres smarter and better equipped to serve their customers in new ways, harking back to a time when customers could feel valued instead of frustrated on the phone. An omnichannel approach that incorporates all digital channels should be seen as an opportunity to do this, as opposed to further complicating the process. Anchoring this will be a robust CRM system with the appropriate integration of back-end data.
But all this is meaningless if a company doesn’t use the insight it gains to inform how it improves its business. The data can identify high performing agents and enable managers to ensure that their best practice is replicated across the team. It also feeds into employee engagement by recognising outstanding performance. The more satisfied agents are as employees, the more likely they are to offer exceptional service to customers, so using this data well is beneficial for everyone.
In the end, what matters above all is customer retention through creating a positive experience, but also maintaining a strong reputation which will in turn help to acquire new customers. There may be a science to measuring customer satisfaction, but data holds the key and the rewards can be great.
The author of this blog is Simon Tooley, CRM Specialist, Orange Business Services (above)
