Call Recording Featured Article

While economists say the U.S. economy is fully recovered, the rest of us are realizing that we need to become accustomed to a “new normal.” It may be recovered, but businesses still aren’t seeing out-of-this-world growth. A “good outcome” is steady (if not a little slow) growth, and pennies still need to be pinched if a company is to meet all its obligations. Still, companies can’t sit stagnant and hope for the best. Investments must be made, particularly for organizations hoping to improve their levels of customer engagement. They just need to be choosier about where they invest, finding a few key areas that, when improved, can lead directly to better customer loyalty.

In a recent research report, analyst group Forrester (News - Alert) found that “customer service technology investments are one of the top five most focused-on investments that companies are making.” Specifically, companies are looking to an emerging discipline called “Customer Engagement Optimization,” or CEO, which is an intersection of workforce optimization (WFO) and engagement management (EM).

Gartner (News - Alert) has confirmed the market shift toward the new customer engagement center workforce optimization trend.

“By the end of 2018, 70 percent of organizations with over 300 customer engagement center agents will take an integrated approach to workforce optimization with their next round of technology investments, whether on-premises or in the cloud,” wrote the analyst group.  

It’s a matter of providing customers with what they expect today, which is a broadening of digital communications technologies and a blend of them that will create the most perfect, customized customer experience for each customer, according to a recent article by Ryan Hollenbeck writing for Loyalty 360 (News - Alert).

“The rules of customer engagement are changing quickly, and the challenge will be creating service environments in which the customer interactions you deliver are more engaging, relevant, personalized and targeted than your competitors,” wrote Hollenbeck. “Expect self-service, online communities, and social customer service to gain strength as preferred pathways for customer service. The goal will be making it easier for customers—and the employees who support them—to get things done efficiently and painlessly.”

Reducing customer effort and making it easy for customers to seek help with a combination of self-service and live help should be the final goal. According to Hollenbeck, this means balancing service and personalization while also keeping an eye on privacy and data security.

“The latest research we conducted showed that people were suspicious about the use of their data,” he wrote. “While customers want information to get things done quickly, they don’t want to trade off effort for risk. Also, in the world where everything is connected (the Internet of Things), security and privacy are going to have to be part of the fabric of everything we do. Innovations in security, such as biometrics, will help deliver this balance in 2016.”

It’s not enough to deliver personalized service. (This doesn’t mean simply using the customer’s name repeatedly through the transaction.) It has to happen in the context of the customer’s existing relationship with the company, his or her past transactions, any likely purchases in the future, and any perceived needs that will allow the company to cross-sell and up-sell. The ultimate goal is to find a way to treat the customer like you know her…without getting too Big Brother and all-seeing. It’s certainly not going to be easy, but for any organization hoping to achieve the perfect level of customer engagement, it will be necessary.