{"id":33330,"date":"2019-08-30T15:03:32","date_gmt":"2019-08-30T14:03:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/eu\/?p=33330"},"modified":"2019-08-30T15:03:35","modified_gmt":"2019-08-30T14:03:35","slug":"defining-good-customer-service-in-the-demanding-digital-age","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/eu\/2019\/08\/30\/defining-good-customer-service-in-the-demanding-digital-age\/","title":{"rendered":"Defining good customer service in the demanding digital age"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Providing a great customer experience should be seen as an investment rather than as an expense. Neil Hammerton, CEO and Co-founder, Natterbox, discusses how businesses should work to gain customers\u2019 loyalty and stay ahead of the competition to provide them with a personalised and seamless customer journey. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Technology\nis becoming more accessible to businesses every day, thanks, in part, to\nreduced costs resulting from multiple technology start-ups fighting for market\nshare. And as it becomes more integrated into our everyday lives, keeping up\nwith the speed of digital innovation is more vital than ever for organisations that\nwant to remain competitive. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When\nit comes to customer service, the rising use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and\nthe likes of chatbots threatens to cut out the human connection entirely. But\nis relying on technology for every customer interaction a risky business? We\nall know that a single negative encounter could potentially lead to the loss of\na loyal and lucrative client. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Poor customer service has a long-term impact on buying decisions and some customers avoid companies for years after an initial negative interaction. And with the rise of social media as a communication tool for brands, unhappy customers can amplify their voices. One bad review can spread like wildfire, deterring hundreds of customers from doing business with a brand. In fact, studies show that 80% of customers won\u2019t buy from companies with negative reviews. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Social media is one of the many digital assets that organisations are investing in, in order to improve their customer communication. But organisations that want to enjoy long-term success must find the right balance between automated customer service and human connection. While the former can help increase productivity and enable faster customer transactions, the other is indispensable when it comes to creating a personalised and pleasant customer experience that will gain long-term loyalty and trust.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The human touch is ultimately the superpower that will differentiate customer service-orientated businesses from their competitors. These businesses should certainly be focusing their investments on digital innovations, but they must ensure the technology and tools they invest in enable customer service agents to enhance their performance and build a business\u2019 reputation for offering exceptional customer experience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The speed\npriority<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

One crucial\naspect that organisations should prioritise if they want to keep their\ncustomers happy is reducing waiting time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We\u2019re living in an era where consumers want immediate gratification and if they don\u2019t get it, they\u2019ll simply look elsewhere. A recent study from Gartner revealed that almost one-third of people believe that waiting on hold for more than two minutes is too long. In reality, consumers will actually wait on hold for an average of 11 minutes before hanging up. However, one in three customers will never call back if they don\u2019t get an agent on the line on their first attempt.\u00a0 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

These stats aren\u2019t just frustrating for\nconsumers, they can also have a significant impact on a company\u2019s bottom line\nand overall performance. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As such, keeping wait and hold times low is a vital component of providing a satisfactory customer service – so businesses should be investing in technology that can help monitor and improve them. Innovations, such as automatic call backs for instance, ensure that when lines are busy and waiting times are likely to be long, the customer does not have to hold the line for a seemingly infinite amount of time and can request a call back later \u2013 without losing their place in the queue. This type of technology is just one of many that enhances customer experience: once the customer gets a call back, the interaction is free of stress and frustration, which leads to a happy, satisfied customer. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Super\nstrength <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Constant technological innovations have altered customers\u2019\nexpectations and nowadays, customers\ndon\u2019t invest much time or effort into resolving any potential issues that they\nmight have with the products or services they purchase. Instead, they contact\ncustomer services. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

While service agents are more equipped than ever to deal with demanding customers, some contact centres still use outdated, legacy technology that has a significant negative impact on the customer journey. Indeed, studies show that 42%\u00a0of service agents are unable to efficiently resolve customer issues due to disconnected systems, archaic user interfaces and multiple applications.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Businesses that want to gain customers\u2019 loyalty and stay\nahead of the competition need to shift gears and adopt smarter solutions that\ncan easily integrate with their existing digital infrastructure and provide a\npersonalised and seamless customer journey.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For example, one of the major pet-peeves many clients\ncomplain about when it comes to customer service is having to explain their\nproblem to multiple people and departments. But by\nimplementing a smart telephony platform that safely records and keeps customer\ninteraction data, businesses can provide their customer service staff with a 360-degree\nview into any customers\u2019 previous interactions with the brand \u2013 everything from\npurchases to previous calls and complaints. With this information, agents can address\na customer\u2019s issue faster, without having to put them through several\nconversations and various departments. This allows them to take the burden off the customer,\nlighten their load and make the whole experience with the company more pleasant\nand dynamic. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nmultilingual advantage<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another major challenge many customer service operators deal with today is interacting with clients that don\u2019t speak their language. This can make communication slow and frustrating for both sides. Language barriers can be a huge problem for many organisations, especially when an increasing number of companies are expanding their global reach at a fast pace, and multi-national contact centres are on the rise. To address this challenge, technology is being developed that leverages Machine Learning and AI to deliver real-time translation, helping contact centre staff to understand customers more easily and establish better connections with them. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

By using\ntechnology to remove the language barrier, clients and customer service agents\ncan focus on the real issues at hand, improving efficiency and ensuring happy customers and more focused\nstaff. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nprice of positive customer experience<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

For\nmany companies, the contact centre and customer service departments are still\ntreated as an afterthought. Unfortunately, the reality is that this attitude\ncould come at a very high price for them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A recent study conducted by the Northridge Group highlights the risks businesses face when investing in automation thinking it will be the panacea for customer service, without considering the customer need for efficient human-to-human interaction. The study shows that:<\/p>\n\n\n\n