According to the 2016 [24]7 Customer Engagement Index, almost half (47%) of customers would take their business to a competitor within a day of experiencing poor customer service if price and products are of equal value, and four out of five (79%) would do so within a week.
Additional findings include:
- 95% of customers use three or more channels and devices to resolve a single customer service issue
- 20% of customers who ended a business relationship from poor customer service did so because they waited too long to talk to someone on the phone
- 86% of customers describe a great customer service experience as one of the following: the company anticipates their needs, the self-service is optimal and they’re able to contact the company any way they want
- 35% of millennials report that optimal self-service is what they look for in a great customer service experience
So what is great customer experience?
The focus on customer experience has grown dramatically over recent years. Customer experience is crucial for the future of businesses. It always has been, but in an era of “empowered” customers with higher expectations, it is even more so.
In the connected, digital, world we live in customer experience with businesses is increasing. We used to only look at face to face contacts, customer service, products and solutions, all in or close to the business, as being crucial elements of the customer experience, measured as the sum of all experiences. The end to end customer experience is defined by much more than that including numerous factors that are outside the control of the business. Think about word of mouth, social media and other factors that will never be inside the control of the business. Customers are individuals and the core element in the customer experience equation is highly emotional, personal, contextual and diverse.
At the same time customers don’t always want a “wow” experience. Sometimes they just want to select their product, pay and get out ASAP. They may want ease over delight.
What is customer experience management?
Customer experience management, or CEM, is not about managing customer experiences as such. It is about a methodology that:
- Designs customer interactions with the aim to meet customer expectations and exceed them, when it makes sense
- Takes into account the end to end customer experience
- Optimises the mutual value of interactions to customer and the business
- Looks at the customer as an individual, not as an email address or a series of often disjointed interaction contacts
This should be done in a continuous loop of interaction design, monitoring, measurement, continuous improvement and optimising satisfaction to go beyond “good enough”
Customer experience optimisation is a holistic task, involving not just the contact centre, but the whole organisation.
Omni-Channel not Multi-Channel
Companies today often support multi-channel customer engagement, voice, email, chat. But they typically cannot support multiple channels simultaneously with a single customer about a single objective. They cannot link the multi-channel interactions to help the customer complete a single task, i.e. buy a product, resolve a question, understand a bill. It often requires multiple and disconnected interactions. Combining these multi-channel interactions to achieve a single outcome is Omni-Channel customer engagement.
In the digital world, customers are preferring self-service, at least with the initial contact. This becomes increasingly important when a customer needs assisted service to supplement self-service. This now goes wider than the contact centre with the business’s internet/intranet site being the customer’s first port of call for answers. Historically the customer typically must start over when using a new channel. In the case of voice, it’s calling a contact centre, using an IVR, and explaining their issue. In the case of chat, it’s starting a dialog with an agent without context. These time consuming and disconnected experiences are one of the leading causes of missed sales opportunities and high operating expense for companies – and frustration for customers.
As customer expectations rise, a poor experience can result in losing clients. Done well it can engender loyalty and even increase sales through social media and word of mouth.
Your contact centre?
The contact centre is where you sell, provide service, gather information and build customer relationships. You’ve put time, money and resources into making it work. How do you know if your contact centre is, or will:
- Make the most of every customer contact
- Provide a high quality, appropriate customer experience
- Use appropriate measures to monitor performance
- Meet your business objectives
If you are looking at these challenges, TeleConsultants is keen to share our knowledge and experience.
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