5 Customer Experience Facts to Remember 

Driving the Customer Experience

“The service was terrible; I can’t wait to go back,” said no one, ever.  The customer experience has a huge impact on your business, and an even bigger impact on your bottom line.  In the U.S., it’s all about productivity; and although this is true for B2B’s, this blog focuses on B2C.  In fact, a PwC survey discovered 73 percent of buyers believe their experience is a big part of the entire process when doing business. Also, 65 percent of U.S. consumers suggest that a pleasant experience means more to them than advertising when it comes to decision making.

Consumers are busy (no surprise) and driven to get more done in less time wherever possible.  From a transaction standpoint, self-checkout, online banking, and mobile retail satisfy many of those needs and aid in moving transactions along more quickly without compromising quality of service.   When it comes to communications, however, it gets a little more complicated without the right tools. That’s where technology and the benefits of unified communications become essential.

Enhancing the Journey through Communications

Today’s customer journey is omni-channel.  We're using email, phone, web and social media along with in-person communications to make and execute informed buying decisions. With the focus on improving service to the customer, organizations are making a push to invest in infrastructure and solutions which will allow them to integrate existing systems with today’s telecommunication technology.  This technology assists in increasing the capacity to serve, improves response time to customers, and enables transactional freedom.

For customers, here are a few of their “service excellence” priorities (based on the PwC survey):

• Speed of transaction; long wait times are a source of frustration
• Convenience; ability to easily obtain information and make a purchase
• Knowledge of employees; have questions or issues resolved quickly and successfully 

For businesses, choosing the right technology can make all the difference in perception and reality when it comes to providing the best possible service experience.  Analyzing call data, for example, can uncover bottlenecks or gaps in the process; and call routing can help achieve shorter wait times and fewer call transfers to get answers to customers more quickly.

When you’re armed with the right strategy, improving the customer experience can improve all aspects of your business.  

Here are 5 facts to help get you on the right path:

1. Digital media is how the majority of your customers communicate today. Text, web chat, and social media are the growing interaction channels.
2. Although digital use is on the rise, phone-based support is a critical component.
3. The availability of digital mediums means the questions customers are asking are also evolving. An effective staff is only as good as the tools they have available to them.
4. For managers, scheduling and monitoring is more complicated with the addition of digital mediums, requiring more sophisticated solutions than a traditional spreadsheet.
5. Establishing a digital plan helps to build a path to success and must be a company-wide effort in order to be truly successful.

The more information your representatives have at their fingertips can mean the difference between a frustrated customer and a satisfied one.  Providing well-rounded training for contact center employees in all areas of communication (social media, website, chat and email, for example) enables them to more swiftly obtain the information they need to satisfy customer issues. 

If you’re looking to optimize the customer experience and would like to integrate the right tools into your communications technology, CNP can help.  Contact us today for a free consultation.