Do you know that acquiring a new customer may cost up to 25x more than holding onto an existing one? The exorbitant cost associated with new customer acquisition makes it more important than ever to have a rock-solid “customer retention strategy” in place. This will not only help cut-off customer churn but also drive increased revenues. In fact, according to research by Frederick Reichheld of Bain & Company, “increasing customer rates by 5% increases profits by 25% to 95%.”
In the journey towards achieving improved customer satisfaction, contact centers play a pivotal role. They are the touchpoints that customers leverage to build connectivity with your brand and therefore, every interaction is an opportunity to impress and delight. And studies suggest that improved customer experience drives customer loyalty.
However, most contact centers still operate conventionally, using IVRs that only provide keys-based inputs and voice-based options. The entire process is not only time-consuming but complex too, leading to customer misery and dissatisfaction. According to a survey, 75% of customers believe that the traditional IVR system used in contact centers consumes more time to reach a live agent.
Additionally, there are other challenges plaguing an organization’s customer service operations. These include dispersed data, delayed diagnosis of problems, poor security, need for multilingual customer support agents, etc. Therefore, modern businesses need to re-imagine their contact center service to deliver enhanced customer experience through all touchpoints.
Discussed here are five effective ways you can improve customer experience in contact centers:
1. Provide an Omnichannel Customer Experience
Today’s customers expect to communicate with brands through the same channels that they use in their day-to-day lives – voice, text message, chat, video, or social media. Most modern customers may not be comfortable with the conventional IVR method and providing them with an omnichannel experience may put your business a step ahead of your competitors.
Use a contact center system that can seamlessly integrate any communication channel and render a consistent customer experience.
2. Take Your Customers Right Where They Want to be
Customers hate waiting for minutes to talk to a live agent. It is even more frustrating when they are routed to the wrong agent and again have to wait for several minutes to get to the right one who can resolve their problems. Integrating Artificial Intelligence into your contact center system can streamline the process and reduce wait time.
Artificial Intelligence has natural language capabilities that enable identifying a caller from his voice biometrics. AI will then analyze the context and intention of the inquiry and then route the customer to the best-qualified support team. This ensures the problem is resolved at the earliest.
3. Drive Customer Engagement with a Human Touch
Boost customer engagement with your contact center and drive business growth by integrating emotion detection capabilities and agent shadowing behind Artificial Intelligence. Customers tend to engage better with a brand when a caller knows it isn’t just AI, but there is also a person involved in a chatbot or other forms of communication. AI can detect stress in a customer’s voice or chat and can instantly hand over the conversation to a human.
Creating great customer experiences is all about nurturing them and providing an improved brand experience. Hopefully, the above tips will help enhance your contact center experience and drive customer loyalty.
