There is little doubt about the importance of the customer experience.  As various reports, articles and blogs have trumpeted for the last several years, along with ensuring the security of data at rest and on the move, right at the top of the priority lists of C-levels in enterprises around the world is improving the customer experience. This entails using technology to improve operations and workflows and to gain “actionable insights” that enable a more intimate and productive customer engagement. 

In fact, the importance of enhancing the customer experience can be seen in the explosive growth of new C-level titles that have “customer” in them such as “Chief Customer Relations Officer,” “Chief Customer Experience Officer,” etc.  In short, becoming customer-centric is now something that can no longer be a marketing promise but has to become a reality and part of a company’s DNA if it wants to succeed in the increasingly digital and online world.

What this has translated into is the transformation of contact centers into hubs for “frontline” interactions with customers. They have become places for resolving customer issues and hopefully keeping them satisfied. They also now are core information aggregation and dissemination centers across the enterprise for tracking the customer journey. As a result, information gained from real-time interactions are being combined with data from integrated CRM and other critical sales and marketing resources  and then being evaluated using big data and sophisticated analytics, to assure customer profiles are as comprehensive as possible. This in turn gives executives the ability to fix identifiable pain points and respond quickly to new opportunities.

The challenge is that transforming the contact center to one that has omnichannel interaction capabilities 24/7/365 and properly uses all of the information that results is itself a journey. It is a journey with some speed bumps. For example, a recent survey found that 72 percent of customers are frustrated with inconsistent service across channels. What this means is that there is a disconnect in many cases between the contact center experience and the overall customer digital experience which typically can start on the Internet before being escalated into a call. 

What this needs to translate into is giving those frontline agents in the contact center, and their administrators, the visibility and tools they need into the entire customer journey so those experiences are optimized.  And, one tool that has become increasingly important is using customer callback as the glue for assuring all channel interactions are tracked enabling shorter queuing times and better responsiveness for resolving customers issues and inquiries. 

Using callback as an integral part of enhancing the customer journey will be the topic of a forthcoming webinar, Callback: Connecting the Digital Experience.  You are invited to join myself and Jeremy Starcher, VP of Business Development, VHT on Tuesday, July 14, 2015 12:00 PM EDT / 9:00 AM PDT as we discuss in depth the following:

• Current trends in customer experiences: Businesses and customers seem to be aligned in terms of intent. Why is there such a different perspective in terms of experience?
• Blinders to the customer’s experience: How what we don't know about the customer’s entire experience hinders us from delivering on great experiences.
• How to conduct a reality check on the customer’s actual experience: three questions contact centers should be asking.
• How callback connects emerging channels with the contact center to create a WOW experience for your customers, your employees and your business.

The second item above may be one of the most important ones in terms of ending customer frustration. Reality is you cannot fix what you don’t know. Having omnichannel capabilities and complete visibility of the customer experience over all channels is becoming table stakes for creating context-rich customer profiles that can be used for improving the customer experience. However, having technology and information and then having your people use it to get the desired results is the goal.  And, interestingly what research continues to show is that voice interactions with skilled people remain the best way to satisfy customers. 

This is why not just real-time help via video conferencing and chat are proliferating. It is also why callback, not just to resolve problems but also to get feedback via voice rather than just a form, is so important.