5 Spooky Customer Experience Mistakes

In a recent article, Yoel Knoll discusses how contact centers need to build their customer loyalty in order to be profitable. Knolls talks about the evolution of profitability of contact centers, which was originally accomplished by utilizing offshore locations to dramatically reduce costs. However, while outsourcing to offshore locations cut costs, it can sacrifice customer service due to language and cultural barriers in addition to problems with proper experience to handle unique issues. Now the emphasis is on providing a high-quality customer experience in order to gain loyalty for companies to become profitable. A high-quality customer experience means providing service immediately (or as fast as possible) that is relevant and tailored to the individual customers. So, with that in mind, how can companies accomplish this level of customer experience?

Knoll’s suggestion for improving the customer experience is utilizing technology to adapt to the shifting preference for self-service while retaining human agents to connect emotionally with customers. In addition, customers need to have a fluid customer journey that allows them to jump from channel to channel without missing a step or losing their place. Will all of the different digital channels available to customers these days, integration is important to provide a fluid and consistent overall customer journey. The use of omni-channel services is the key to integrating all of a company’s digital and traditional channels into a unified experience.

This blog post is based on an article from CustomerThink. To read the original article, please click the link below:

Need to Get Your Contact Center’s Profitability Back? It Starts with Loyalty Building – Yoel Knoll

5 Spooky Customer Experience Mistakes

Knoll’s article provides great insight into how companies can improve the customer experience, but it got us thinking about what omni-channel contact centers could do wrong to ruin the customer experience. In the spirit of Halloween, we have compiled a list of the spookiest, most horrifying mistakes a contact center can make…Okay, so we’re being a bit dramatic. These mistakes may not be “horrifying” or “spooky”, but they can cause potentially serious long-term issues. Avoid the following five mistakes and you’ll be in a better position to provide a high-quality customer experience:

1) Keeping the customer on hold

Whether it’s standing in line or calling a company on the phone, customers absolutely hate having to wait long periods of time to be connected to a company representative. Make sure your contact center answers calls as soon as possible.

2) Being rude or defiant to the customer

The chances are pretty good that if a customer is calling you with a complaint, it’s because your company screwed up in some way. The last thing a frustrated customer needs to hear is a rude or combative contact center agent.

3) Taking forever to solve customers’ issues

Having a poor average handling time can ruin a customer’s experience. The longer a customer has to wait to get a resolution and the more they have to be transferred from representative to representative, the more likely they’ll be to have increased frustration and potentially go to other companies for future products and services. Average handling times can be improved through proper training and scripting for routine issues.

4) Not using technology to your advantage

Artificial intelligence and other technology can optimize contact center performance. One example of this is using bots as virtual assistants integrated with the CRM to aid contact center agents by providing them with valuable customer information that can help personalize the customer experience. Always be open to using technology to improve efficiency.

5) Not listening to contact center agent feedback

Agents are talking with customers all day, every day. If anyone knows and understands the pain points of your customers, it’s your contact center agents. Listen to their feedback and you could receive valuable information that can be utilized to improve your processes and the overall customer journey.