The way we contact each other has changed dramatically because of the pandemic. So has how organizations interact with their customers. Research by Gartner (2020) shows that the pandemic has increased consumer interest in contacting customer service digitally, it is expected that by 2023 60% of contact moments with service teams will be digital. According to a survey by Epsilon, 80% of consumers worldwide prefer to spend their money with brands that can be accessed through their favorite messaging apps. Alternatively, Covid-19 has highlighted the need to invest in new technologies to meet massive changes in customer service expectations.
From customer contact to customer experience
Today, customers expect the best service and they are willing to spend more to get it. In fact, it seems that more than 33% of customers would consider switching to competitors after just one incident.
This means ensuring optimal customer contact during the contact between your organization and your customers, or optimal customer experience (CX), customer experience. At that point, customer service is one of the most important links in facilitating customer experience, because they are, among other things, the ones who speak to and help your customers. But how do you ensure the optimal customer experience between customer contact and customer service?
Do you recognize these situations in your customer service staff?
Generating optimal customer experiences is not that easy yet. Especially with the emerging trends around customer contact, such as that the customer no longer likes to wait before getting an answer to his or her question or problem. The increase in the number of contact channels through which the customer can contact the organization and that customers strive for real personal contact. There are also the trends that customer contact is becoming increasingly digital and that organizations are opting for hybrid working.
How can your customer service employees facilitate all this and at the same time remain accessible to everyone without losing the overview? Do your employees ever run into this?
Your colleague who knows the answer to that one customer’s question is working at home. Transferring the phone connection to his home office is not possible. But you do want to help the customer as quickly as possible without having to call back and wait in the queue again, with the result that the customer may become irritated.
You try to solve it yourself and look up the customer data. But soon you find out that the customer data is not collectively in one place. You open different systems and try to make sense out of this. What turns out? The data is not up to date. They are probably still on your colleague’s computer. This means you have to ask the customer all the same questions, and you can already start to hear the irritation in his voice.
In addition, messages pour in via Whatsapp, Facebook, mail and the live chat. The phones of the empty desks next to you are red hot, because these colleagues are also working from home or on vacation. Consequence? Queues get longer, customers get more irritated and messages go unanswered. In the longer term, this affects your reachability and customer satisfaction. But it also creates a high workload for your employees.
3 tips to improve your customer contact and reachability
Of course, you want to avoid these consequences. As an organization, how do you ensure that you generate an optimal customer experience in the customer service department that keeps up with customer service expectations? But also working more efficiently with less manpower in the same or less time? With these 3 tips, it’s a snap.
Tip #1: Integrate mobile devices into the landline environment.
Hybrid working is here to stay despite everyone getting to go back to the office. 9 out of 10 employees want to continue working from home even after the corona crisis. And that means your employees need to be accessible not only in the office, but also at home, or wherever they are working. Solution? Fixed mobile integration. Simply making your mobile part of the corporate switchboard. So not only transfer calls to your mobile, but also the functionalities. So transfer calls from your mobile? No problem! Set up or attend a conference call? Is all possible.
”9 out of 10 employees want to continue working from home even after the corona crisis.”
For this purpose, we have the app Cloud Softphone. Through the app, the company number is integrated into your cell phone. (Forwarded) calls come in on your smartphone and you can dial out using the company number. So your personal number remains private. And if you want to transfer a customer to a colleague, you can simply see in the app whether he or she can be reached.
The customer can be left to that one colleague who knows the answer to the question. Office phones are less red-hot, queues are shorter and customers are helped faster.
Tip #2: Decide what happens when a customer calls your organization.
It continues to happen that customer service employees are on vacation. Sometimes that can create a high workload for the person who does work. And it can cause long queues on the phone. Even then, you want to remain accessible and help your customers quickly and carefully. In addition, customers want to be able to contact your organization 24/7, while your employees are not always at work.
”Customers want to be able to contact your organization 24/7.”
The solution is our Pegamento Phone System. The cloud telephony (voip) solution. It allows you to regulate incoming calls through a variety of functionalities. For example, selection menus, queues, voicemails, call recording and call forwarding. Softphone is another such functionality. Phone System offers you the convenience of automatic or manual time switches. For example, having phone traffic come in at a different location during certain periods. Or, based on the caller’s location, inform the caller in the appropriate language.
Tip 3: Communicate with your customers from one platform
43% of millennials use their smartphones when contacting customer service, according to the customer contact trend report from Steam Connect. And they are looking to contact companies on more and more (digital) channels. Or rather, there are multiple ways to Rome to contact your organization. If you offer them, of course. Sometimes it can be difficult to keep track of messages coming in through all the separate contact channels. There is a good chance that your customer service representative will overlook that one message. The customer may not feel he or she is being helped.
”43% of millennials use their smartphones when contacting customer service.”
To avoid that, our Pegamento Contact Center is the application. The multichannel to set up communication with your customers properly and efficiently. With this you communicate with customers and organize customer contact from one platform.
In addition, you get better insight into the calling behavior of your customer and employee through comprehensive reports. And all (customer) data are together. This allows you to help customers faster, more efficiently and more personally. You can skip the question round.
How do I ensure optimal customer experience in the customer service department?
As an organization, you provide an optimal customer experience by ensuring your customer service efficient, organized and hybrid-proof with the right tools. Integrating fixed number on your mobile, regulating incoming calls and communicating and organizing customer contact and (customer) data from one platform.
In addition, applications such as chatbots, voice recognition and artificial intelligence are applicable technologies that the customer service agent can apply. This gives an extra lick of paint to the customer contact to further enhance the customer experience.
Would you like to optimize your customer service and/or improve the accessibility of your organization? Contact us without obligation. We will be happy to help you on your way.
You might also find this article interesting: 5 customer contact trends within the contact center.
