As a nation, we’re mad for our smartphones. Nearly two-thirds of us own smartphones and most of us use them to go online. We are also using them to resolve customer issues and contact the companies with which we do business. The problem is that many companies are taking advantage of the opportunities offered by a smart phone-enabled American populace.
According to a recent blog post by VoltDelta (News - Alert), many contact centers simply aren’t taking full advantage of the convenience that this mobile channel of communication offers due to the technical limitations of their cloud contact center vendor’s infrastructure.
“Providing support for the mobile channel goes beyond building applications that include contact center access information,” the blog explained. “Cloud-base contact center technology that can capture contextual information between the mobile and other channels helps to deliver exceptional customer service.”
Exceptional customer service is, of course, what customer-facing companies need to offer today to survive, and though many organizations have moved to cloud-based multichannel contact center platforms, few companies are taking advantage of all the features they could, including mobile channel management and social media. Customers’ use of mobile data provides companies with important clues regarding how to improve the customer relationship, if only the companies knew how to use this information.
For starters, there is location information, which can be ultra-valuable to brick-and-mortar retailers. Additionally, companies are better able to see how customers are using their Web sites (some solutions even allow companies to track things like pinching, zooming, scrolling and device rotation). Companies can gain more insight into failed transactions and identify usability issues before they become big problems.
In addition, mobile apps offer a very twenty-first century way for companies to provide customers with an important self-service channel that can be linked directly with live agent support. It’s critical, however, the companies build the apps professionally and test the extensively before they launch them. A poor app can do more harm than good, and can forever kill important customer relationships.
Finally, companies can offer mobile customers something in return: more direct access to live agents, for example, or visual IVR menus that allow callers to see where they are the call queue and decide whether they want to schedule a callback.
Customers today are taking advantage of their mobile devices to become more knowledgeable and more in-control customers. If you’re not providing them with what they want, they will find it…with another company.
Edited by Alisen Downey