Anticipate These 5 Contact Center Customer Behaviors for Greater Customer Experience
The key to successful marketing is knowing your customers and give them what they want. What customers want (and what they expect) is changing over time as emerging technologies enter the consumer market and become commonplace. Businesses must stay ahead of the trends and be able to quickly adapt to provide the best customer experience (CX) for the sake of continued loyalty. This is especially true on the front lines of customer service, the contact center.
Robust new solutions in call center software leverage new technologies to create an integrated customer service experience across all communication channels. This greatly benefits the consumer while enhancing agent productivity and gathering valuable customer data.
What Customer Behaviors Should You Anticipate in 2020 and Beyond?
Increasingly, customers are using mobile messaging, live chats and other means to contact businesses, rather than calling a contact center. They’re tired of phone trees and being shuttled between agents, having to repeat their inquiry each time. With the omnipresence of AI systems on smartphones and in home automation systems, consumers have come to expect the same level of service in every communication. It is predicted that by 2022, mobile messaging, machine learning, chatbots and other cloud-based technologies will comprise 70 percent of all customer service interactions.
Customers will want to:
- Use SMS, Twitter, Facebook Messenger and chat bots to contact customer service.Today’s digital self-service mobile applications use advanced technology like Interactive Text Response (ITR) that can respond to users’ actions, to change an appointment or pay a bill. This communication is personalized, context-aware and consistent across messaging channels and interactions. An automated service can be combined with inbound voice and omnichannel modules to integrate self-service and live assistance. Self-service enhances CX, cuts costs, streamlines the entire process and boosts first-contact resolution. Using solutions like web to text can also help further reduce costs and improve processes.
- Be matched immediately to the customer service agent that can help them with their concern, without having to get transferred around the company.An inbound voice system takes customer data throughout the organization plus real-time communications and makes it available company-wide. This ensures that agents have the information they need to provide fast-issue resolution and a better customer service experience. Business rules can be applied across all channels to dynamically prioritize calls, route them efficiently and smoothly transfer calls from an automated agent to live assistance.
- Move their communication from email to SMS to web chat or another channel, while preserving history and information.Omnichannel call center software lets customers choose how they communicate and delivers a seamless, consistent experience. They can use voice, web chat, SMS, email, mobile, social or a combination of channels. Customers are moved from a self-service channel to a live agent, if the issue is complex. All activity is preserved and follows the user between channels, providing a richer and more satisfying CX. This fully integrated service provides cost savings and a centrally located repository of customer data.
- Be able to seamlessly move from getting answers about their account to buying a product or service upgrade from their smartphone, without having to download an app.Disposable Apps are mobile web applications that don’t need to be downloaded and work on any smartphone. They integrate with messaging interfaces to allow users to take additional actions after receiving a text message. For example, they may receive a reminder about a bill, and would then be able to pay through a secure HTTPS connection. Or they can edit medical information using a temporary app that is compliant with HIPAA regulations.
- Be reminded of an appointment or a due bill in a less intrusive way than receiving multiple phone calls.Companies can use a call center outbound voice module for proactive engagement and high-touch, personalized customer care. Examples include bill payment reminders, appointment scheduling and informing of changes to service contracts. These advanced systems can manage such complexities as different time zones, state and local calling rules and the tracking and management of mobile numbers. Companies can create, modify, and start and stop campaigns dynamically through an administration portal.
Keep Customers Loyal to Your Brand by Adopting Robust Omnichannel Call Center Software
The latest call center software is completely modular and configurable to meet the needs of any business, and it’s scalable to stay ahead of the rapidly evolving customer service environment. Offering personalized service and fast-issue resolution through a wide choice of communication channels improves CX and keeps your customers loyal.