Call Center Management Featured Article
Call Center Managers: It's Time to Focus on Consumer Needs
Consumers today are more demanding than ever. They want what they want- now, and with a smile. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Contact centers just need to take heed. What once plagued managers might have been agent turnover or poor morale in the call center. Today that focus needs to shift to how the consumers are feeling and how they perceive the company, if success is desired.
A new study from BoldChat, LogMeIn (News - Alert) and Ovum shows that without this change, we’re seeing customer experience that’s getting worse instead of better and contact centers that are totally out of touch with reality.
After surveying call center managers and consumers across the globe, the study uncovered that while consumers feel it will take up to six interactions to resolve an issue, call center managers think it’s being done in just one or two interactions.
What’s worse about this disconnect is not only that consumers are losing their loyalty with companies, but up to 82 percent even said they will just flat out stop doing business with a company if they have a bad experience.
Frustration from things like automated phone systems and limited access to live agents are what’s worsening customer experiences and threatening sustainability and revenue growth.
At the end of the day, it’s not so much that people want to get on the phone with a live agent as it is the need to get faster resolution. Whether that means through voice, social or live chat.
Seventy-eight percent of respondents said they would be fine using a channel other than voice for customer care if they knew a resolution would come out of it upon the first attempt.
According to the study, consumers are even open to newer channels like IoT-connected products and using mobile apps for customer care, so long as they deliver the required resolution upon use.
“Because customers will stop doing business with a company following a bad experience, it is critical that brands identify friction points in the customer journey and offer their reps the tools and technology to help improve the overall customer experience from pre-purchase through post-purchase support.” Ken Landoline, Principal Analyst, Customer Engagement at Ovum (News - Alert).
The problem with the current situation is just that. Call center managers are not on the same page as consumers and, with the level of importance being placed on every interaction today, the need to align views has never been greater.
David Campbell, Vice President, Customer Engagement & Support Solutions, at LogMeIn also noted, “Most contact centers struggle to meet these expectations because they are limited by disjointed, legacy systems. We see many forward-thinking businesses overcome these challenges by prioritizing investments in solutions that unify their engagement strategies across traditional and digital channels.”
Edited by Alicia Young