It is well known in business that the better the customer service, the greater the customer loyalty and the healthier the bottom line.
A massive 91% of customers claim they would buy again based on a good experience, according to a survey by Salesforce last year. And since 75% of new customers have been trying out different brands during the pandemic, according to McKinsey, companies have to pull out all the stops to secure their loyalty.
At a time when customers have been glued to devices of every shape and form, making sure they are getting the most from their technology is paramount.
In many cases, the pandemic has been the catalyst companies needed to make the leap towards a more tech-driven customer support framework. But the pressure to make this change has been there for some time.
“Fundamentally, the cost of serving customers is going up. Consumer technology is now more complicated and there is a lot of pressure on channels. The pandemic simply accelerated that transition,” insists Matt Dyson, general manager of LucidCX, a Likewize company.
While many companies have implemented chatbots and added ‘how to’ videos to their websites, the approach to truly great customer support must be more deeply integrated and is more complicated than simply adding another tool. It begins with a strategic shift that happens from the point of sale.
“A lot of companies assume customer care has to be reactive, but there’s a huge opportunity to create higher customer satisfaction through proactive education when they first buy a product. The vast majority of issues – 76% – are down to education rather than physical issues with their device,” Dyson says.
Fundamentally, you have to understand the voice of the customer. Once you do that the effects are profound
With customer onboarding the first line of defence, companies must strike a balance. “When a customer buys a device, they’re not going to have a 45-minute call about it. That’s terminally sad,” Dyson admits. However, interactive videos where users can skip the more obvious – to them – parts and proactive emails that flag certain functionalities immediately improve the customer’s relationship with their new device and head problems off at the pass.
Customer education certainly has the potential to remove a great deal of initial frustration. But when there is a real issue, it is vital it’s dealt with swiftly, capably and effectively.
In many instances, this can still be achieved through a technology-only solution. Critical to maintaining the customer relationship is helping them find a solution via one of the brand’s own channels, rather than forcing them to resort to searching elsewhere. But this is something that is often easier said than done.
Dyson says: “The ability to execute a digital-first strategy is so important but it’s so much more than putting the knowledge base online. It needs to have an effective, natural language-based search engine. Every problem should be dealt with in one interaction and the best solution offered first time.”
Should customers end up with a call centre representative, it should still be a one call, one agent interaction, whatever the problem. Using technology such as Likewize WizeView to create ‘instant experts’, putting a single source of truth at their fingertips - from device diagnostics and problem-solving guidelines to customer data - there is no more need for the customer to be passed from pillar to post in search of a solution.
With the potential to train an agent from scratch in as little as nine minutes, agents can now handle queries that would almost always require a second line of support. In some cases, this has meant companies have been able to halve their call centre volumes.
The numbers certainly speak for themselves. With first-call resolution as a result of instant experts and digital call deflection, companies can take large volumes of customer support calls and move them into self-service, in many cases migrating 40% of a hugely complicated triage journey online.
Technology may be the enabler, but at its heart it is a customer experience philosophy that drives success. “Fundamentally, you have to understand the voice of the customer,” Dyson concludes. “Once you do that the effects are profound.”
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