Providing excellent customer service is not a walk in the park. For front liners, attending to a difficult customer requires great skill and a lot of patience. With the continuing proliferation of online sales platforms, have those challenges multiplied as well?
Undoubtedly, digital transformation has democratized the delivery of services around the world. It has allowed small companies and one-person businesses to provide end-to-end customer service, and even after-sales, at the least cost possible.
However, can businesses truly provide the same levels of satisfaction across all their channels?
If you are tasked with looking after customer experience, here are some common issues and solutions that might interest you:
1. Consistency across all channels – Unlimited options lead to unlimited mistakes. Select the preferred tools that your staff can learn quickly. There’s no point in being everywhere at the same time if communication and service delivery suffer. Better yet, ask customers where they prefer to reach you and create your strategies from there.
2. Data analytics – For larger companies, it makes sense to invest in Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software, which can integrate data from different sources.
If that does not apply to you, the best way to organize data is to rank them by priority. Find out what value-added activities are important to you and your customers. Filter and simplify.
Remember: Some data is better than no data. But also keep in mind that you most definitely don’t need to use all data at once.
3. Managing customer expectations – Faster and more reliable Internet connections, as well as better technology, have created the expectation of real-time results and immediate issue resolution. But, in many scenarios, it isn’t always possible.
This is where training and experience will matter the most because different types of customers will require different approaches. Tenured front liners should be considered subject-matter experts who can prepare responses for anticipated scenarios.
The omnichannel is here to stay and the customer has evolved. Nevertheless, an organization that learns and adapts quickly will embrace these changes because it wants to thrive in the digital landscape.
