Future of the - DMA · Future of the Future of the Contact Centre Contact Centre 2019 Customer...

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Future of the Contact Centre

Contents

Roundtable Attendees � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � 03

Introduction � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � 04

The Omnichannel World � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � 05What Channels are Best Suited for Different Needs? � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � 06Your Customers are Omnichannel � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � 07

The Changing Customer Journey � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � 08Conversations with Brands: More Than Just a Service � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � �08The Influence of Consumer Motivation and Behaviour� � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � �08Keeping Up with Consumer Expectations � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � 10

Contact Centres and Automation � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � 11Consumer Attitudes Towards Automation � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � 11The Future of Automation � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � 11What Impact can Automation have on the Contact Centre Environment? � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � 12

The ‘Me’conomy � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � 14Creating Personalised Customer Experiences with Data � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � 14A More Strategic Contact Centre � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � 15Integrating the Contact Centre within the Wider Business � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � 15

The New Customer Experience � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � 17The Right Person at the Right Time � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � 17Connecting the Dots � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � 18Give the Customer What They Want � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � 18

Conclusion � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � 20

References� � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � 21

About the Customer Engagement Campaign � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � �22

About the DMA � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � 23

Copyright and Disclaimer � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � �24



We would like to thank all attendees who contributed their expertise to the roundtable discussion and helped make this paper possible.

Lisa Chambers, Operations Manager, KMB

Tom Davies, Technical Director, Ultracomms

Giuseppe Iantosca, Client Development Director, Confero

Clare Joof, Head of Supporter Care, The Guide Dogs for the Blind

Ben Lappin, Chair of DMA Contact Centre Council and Head of Retention & Customer Experience, The Guardian

Dr Nicola J. Millard, Head of Customer Insight & Futures, BT

Steve Sullivan, Deputy Chair of DMA Contact Centre Council and Founder, Channel Doctors

Alex Timlin, VP eCommerce and Retail, Emarsys

Roundtable Attendees



The contact centre is the key to long-term customer engagement. Use it well, and you can breed brand loyalty, increase customer retention, and create an invaluable sales tool.

Changing technology. Multiple contact channels. Disconnected employee knowledge. Are you making the right business decisions for your contact centre and providing your consumers with the best customer experience?

Following this year’s Future of the Contact Centre Roundtable, we’ll take you on a journey to explore how the changing landscape of technology, consumer behaviour, and business goals impact contact centres today. You’ll see how to adapt your contact centre to benefit the wider organisation and better meet your customers’ needs, while also remaining cost effective.

Customers today have higher expectations of companies than ever before. In this increasingly omnichannel world, consumers now have more ways to get in touch with you. Should you embrace new technology – such as live chat and chat bots? What channels do your customers want to use? Does their goal or intention impact the channel they choose? These are all areas to think about so you can provide a seamless customer experience. First, you need to truly understand your customer;

• Who are they?

• Where are they encountering your company?

• When in their customer journey are they getting in touch?

• Why they are contacting you?

• What are their needs and preferences?

• How are they choosing to contact you?

Digital provides access to large amounts of customer data. You can use this data to fuel your consumer knowledge and anticipate your customers’ needs – sometimes before they even know what they want. This lets you proactively solve their problems and personalise their experience. Big data can also feed algorithms to automate parts of the customer experience and contact centre. This helps streamline processes for both your team and your customers.

Rethinking where your contact centre sits within your business opens the door to improving your customer experience and building stronger consumer relationships. The contact centre can act as a central hub that contains customer, product, and service knowledge. You can use this information across your entire organisation to gain a better understanding of who your customers are and how to effectively engage with them.

This creates a new customer experience that lets your customers communicate with you in ways that suit them and receive the best information from the right people at the right time.

Introduction



How can you use an omnichannel customer experience to improve satisfaction and meet your customers’ changing needs and preferences?

An omnichannel experience is essential in order to meet customer expectations. Whether your customers want to find out more information, resolve an issue, or complete a routine task, they now expect to be able to get in touch with you anytime, anywhere, and by using their preferred contact channel.

If you have only one or two contact channels available, you risk your customers becoming frustrated if they’re not among their most preferred.

This could mean you lose customers.

What are current trends for contact channels?

It’s important to understand why your customers choose the channels they do to get in touch.

Different audiences prefer different methods. Some channels are also better suited to specific customer needs.

The rise of self-service tools has led to overall contact from customers going down across nearly every channel. Some routine queries can now be handled through these self-service tools. This makes the customers’ lives easier by letting them quickly find answers or resolve issues themselves, without needing to explain a situation in detail to someone. However, for complex issues, customers still need to get in touch and speak to a person.

So what channels are customers using? BT research1 shows the only channels with an increase in use are live chat and apps.

Apps keep growing in popularity due to how commonplace smartphones are, offering easy access for customers to reach out to companies on-the-go.

Social media has seen a dip in use as a contact channel. The public ‘name and shame’ nature of social media created an expectation that companies would respond quicker to customer complaints and queries. However, social media is now often used more to divert customers towards other – more traditional – channels, such as phone or email.

The phone is used less, but call times have increased by 40%. The decrease in phone calls is partly down to other more convenient options becoming readily available.

One attendee at the Roundtable explains the preference for live chat instead of phone as, ‘It’s like having a phone call but I can do it at work’.

The Omnichannel World

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What Channels are Best Suited for Different Needs?

Your customers use contact channels in a variety of ways.

Some channels are more popular among specific demographics, whereas other channels are chosen due to the nature of the issue a customer is enquiring about.

Phone

As a channel, the phone is suited to complex and emotive issues, rather than as a quick fix.

Despite the common myth to the contrary, millennials do in fact use the phone – but often as a last-resort escalation point or when digital fails them.

This stands in contrast to the over 50s, whose first choice of contact channel is the phone.

When people are in trouble, they pick up the phone; when they get lost online, they pick up the phone2. The phone lets customers speak to your company directly for an instant resolution. Some consumers also find it reassuring to hear someone’s voice, as it feels like they’re receiving a personal service and they are reassured that they are being heard.

Email

Email is a popular channel among customers; however, from a corporate angle, it can be an expensive channel to run and maintain.

Emails are often passed around different agents, each needing to re-read the email chain, which makes the process a lot slower than many other channels.

BT trialled turning off email within their corporate division for three months.

They soon switched email back on after seeing their customers liked it as a channel of communication.

Email lets people get in touch on their own time and throw the problem to the business to deal with – with minimal involvement needed from the customer to resolve it.

Live Chat

Live chat can be much cheaper to run than email, and is an option which has really caught on with customers.



It gives consumers flexibility, as they can speak to an agent while at work or doing something else, and means the time spent enquiring isn’t necessarily wasted as they can do something else while carrying on the live chat conversation.

Live chat also adds a layer of privacy, as no strangers will overhear your conversation or, more importantly, overhear any personal details that are shared with the agent.

Many agents prefer live chat too. Agents are given the breathing space to resolve customer queries in a satisfactory way, without having to put customers on hold. They also have the freedom to ask their colleagues to help them solve problems, and have time to think about their responses.

One Roundtable attendee also sees live chat as an opportunity to help customers more effectively by pointing them in the right direction to other services and products that may be useful too.

Another Roundtable attendee says that, for a lot of industries, it can be hard to show the ROI and quality of the conversions through live chat as positive customer service outcomes often aren’t as quantifiable as sales. This can make it hard to get executives to buy-in to the use of the channel in contact centres.

Video

The rise of video conference calls and video messaging has helped consumers be more open to the idea of video as a contact channel.

However, many consumers are still reluctant to be on camera. Video only works well as a contact channel if it’s two-way, otherwise the agent misses a lot of the customer’s body language, which can be one of the most useful and informative aspects of this channel.

Your Customers are Omnichannel

Omnichannel isn’t a term customers use, or even really know. But they do very much embrace the concept.

Customers want to be able to speak to organisations in a way that suits them, at the time they want. The channel they choose depends on why they’re getting in touch, as well as the method most convenient at that point in time.

When you give your customers more choices, how can you be sure they make the right choice?

If they don’t pick the best method of contact for their needs, you must understand their customer journey to funnel them back to the appropriate channel.



How can you meet customer expectations, when they’re used to having everything they need at their fingertips, as well as having so many different access points?

Consumers have grown used to convenience, thanks to our increased reliance on digital. They can access whatever they need at any time.

That means it’s down to you to meet your consumers’ expectations and give them the customer experience they’re looking for.

Conversations with Brands: More Than Just a Service

An emergence of new contact channels – social media, messaging apps, live chat – have made organisations more accessible to consumers.

The instant gratification nature of these newer channels turns contact into a conversation rather than traditional customer service. Consumers no longer need to wait on hold with the phone glued to their ear or send an email and wait days for a response. Communication is available at any time, from any place, often using a mix of text, images, and video.

Blending together marketing and customer service creates an environment where customers can seek out the information they’re looking for when they need it – in the most straightforward way possible. To consumers, the brand is a sole entity, which is why you need to present a consistent voice and interactions across all channels. As one Roundtable attendee points out, customers expect consistency and for you to know what conversations they’ve had with your company on different channels.

The Influence of Consumer Motivation and Behaviour

Why do consumers get in touch with your company?

Understanding what drives their contact, and what they hope to achieve lets you to put in place ways to meet your customers’ preferences and expectations.

Research from BT2 shows consumers buy more from companies who make their lives easier. To do this, you must understand the journey your customers take and the behaviours they show along the way.

This sort of exploration will help you see the different points where customers are likely to encounter your brand and what they’ll be looking for when they do.

The Changing Customer Journey



The goal of the customer matters, as does the intention behind it, as this influences their behaviour.

Whether a customer is in a positive, neutral, or negative mindset impacts how they behave, the channels they choose, and how receptive they are to the communication.

Customer motivations can be broken down into three main categories; visionaries, utilitarians, and customers in crisis.

Visionaries

These customers are positively motivated and are usually searching for answers related to a purchase they want to make – often one they’re excited about. They are willing to put in the time, energy, and effort to find the right solution.

Visionaries are invested in their goal and might want extra advice or reassurance, which means talking directly to a person.

However, these customers may use a variety of channels to get in touch with you.

Utilitarians

Utilitarian customers are more neutral, often doing a task they don’t really want to or one that’s routine.

They want quick and easy so they can get the task ticked off their list.

Email is a more utilitarian channel due to fact that it has a casual and impersonal element that lets the customer fire off an email and simply wait for the response as it’s less pressing.

It’s important to bear in mind what one consumer considers a utilitarian issue could be another person’s crisis issue.

Customers in Crisis

When customers are in crisis, they get in touch for negative, urgent reasons (or urgent in the customer’s mind at least).

Anger and frustration cause real physiological responses; these emotions can reduce short term memory by half. This is something to consider in your contact channel. For instance, automation on a phone line can be infuriating for a customer when they need to remember which number options to press.

For channels customers use in crisis, keep the process as simple and straightforward as possible for them.



Keeping Up with Consumer Expectations

The amount of ways consumers can get in touch is increasing; technology is constantly evolving; and your customers’ expectations are growing.

Customers want connected, consistent communication with a company – particularly with digital channels as your audience wants things to be easy and straightforward, and they get frustrated when it’s not.

It’s more important than ever for companies to be accessible to customers 24/7.

Consumers favour companies who provide easy, quick, and personal customer service. Research from Edelman Digital3 finds more than half of all consumers expect a response from customer service within an hour – on weekends, as well as during the week.

Eight out of ten consumers say large companies should always provide different channels to meet their needs, as one path will not suit everyone2.

You need to consider whether you’re providing your customers with a suitable variety of contact channels to use.

If you’re a smaller organisation, more channels might not be cost effective or beneficial to the customer experience.

When you diversify your channels beyond your resource capabilities, it can be detrimental to your customers, as your agents can be spread too thin and unable to provide good support on any channel. So, consider, do you have enough agents to run live chat? Or the manpower to triage issues from a chatbot?

When you understand your customers, you can put a strategy in place that’s cost effective and meets all of your audiences’ expectations – meeting them on the channels they want to use.



New technology has made automation a more viable option for customer service and contact.

But does automation make life easier for the customer, or does it complicate tasks for them?

While automation is becoming more common, one Roundtable attendee says some businesses use technology as a novelty and for acclaim, instead of using it to make their business better or be genuinely helpful for their customers.

One thing that should always be kept front of mind: just because a new technology is available, that doesn’t mean it will meet the needs of your specific audience.

Consumer Attitudes Towards Automation

Chatbots are one of the most popular uses of automation in the customer experience. These provide a self-service where customers queries are answered without needing to speak to a physical agent.

The growth of chatbots is largely fuelled by the popularity of chat as a communication tool for customers.

Many of the most successful chatbots are ones which are integrated into messenger apps such as Facebook Messenger, Skype, and WhatsApp.

Customer attitudes towards bots continue to change.

Back in 2015, customers didn’t know much about bots or show much interest in them, but by 2017, customers had higher expectations of bots and saw them as tools that help improve customer service.

Despite this, there’s no clear evidence chatbots actually increase customer satisfaction. This is partly down to their inability to understand the complexities of language, which is an issue bots are yet to overcome.

The Future of Automation

Automation has come a long way, but still has limits in capability.

Bots are only as good as the data that powers them. Without data, bots won’t work – and similarly, data that’s spread over several databases makes the bot’s job a lot more difficult.

Contact Centres and Automation



Bots work best when they have structure and a predictable environment. However, people tend to be more complicated – and bots struggle to understand the complexities and nuances of human language, emotion, and context.

When customers contact a business, they have a problem or want answers. They may be angry or frustrated at not finding the information they need. This can lead your customers to tell long, rambling stories where it’s difficult for a machine to pick out the important sections4. A human element is essential here, as an agent can be creative, show empathy, and help resolve the issue quickly and in a way that the customer is happy with.

Sometimes automation can make simple tasks longer and more complicated. One example discussed at the Roundtable surrounds the use of Amazon's Alexa to check in for flights. Checking-in through Alexa took six minutes longer to do than completing the same task using the app – a clear demonstration of a use of technology that doesn’t actually improve or streamline the customer journey.

It’s important to consider whether automation actually makes life simpler for your customers.

Dr Nicola J Millard shares an example of ‘Margot the Wine Bot’ by Lidl. This bot is successful as it has one clear use, alongside a narrow data set.

Customers can use the bot for a straightforward way to find wine pairings, while Lidl also gets to use it to upsell their drinks at the same time.

It’s all about how the technology is used by businesses, and it’s considered impact on the customer base.

What Impact can Automation have on the Contact Centre Environment?

Automation makes a real difference to contact centres and helps your team work more efficiently.

Rather than the old fear of machines putting people out of work, automation changes and transforms jobs and, when used properly, can increase productivity4.

Chatbots can be great at dealing with routine queries, as these are often based on set outcomes rather than complex problems.

This lessens the burden on agents’ workloads and lets them focus on more urgent or complicated issues, as well as spending time developing their own skills.

Self-service and automation should be used where they give customers better service and save them time.



It’s easy to fall into the trap of using self-service as a cost-cutting device, but it’s important to make sure automation is equipped to handle the level of customer queries assigned to it. If it’s not an intuitive and seamless customer experience, it can negatively impact your customer’s experience, and have a knock-on effect on customer relationships.

Customer service plays a pivotal role in creating and maintaining relationships with consumers.

Freeing up your contact centre’s time by automating routine, transactional activities lets advisors add more value to customers and nurture relationships with them, which is particularly important in B2B work where customers often deal with more stakeholders, larger financial responsibilities, and additional risk requirements – so it’s crucial they feel cared for and confident in the customer service team they’re working with.



Can you feed into the ‘me’conomy by using prediction, personalisation, and proactivity to give your customers what they want?

Customers want companies to go above-and-beyond when it comes to providing a service.

Data gives you the chance to understand your consumers and tailor the customer experience to them.

In this increasingly digital world, customers leave a continuous trail of data behind them. This data gives us invaluable insight into who our customers are, what they want, and how to best communicate with them.

You can use this opportunity to your advantage and build strong relationships with customers by anticipating what they need, before they even know they need it.

However, there’s a thin line between using data to streamline the customer journey and improve the overall experience, and taking it too far, making customers feel their privacy has been invaded.

Creating Personalised Customer Experiences with Data

Some customers don’t realise how much data they leave online.

After all, how many of us actually read the terms and conditions when we sign-up to a new website or app?

Even customers who knowingly share their data with companies only do so conditionally – and can remove their consent at any time.

Customers are happy to exchange some data with companies in return for personalised experiences that help simplify or improve their lives. However, it’s crucial to know the difference between what the customer wants and what they don’t.

Big data sets help create algorithms that predict the most likely outcomes of situations4. Retail companies are particularly good at using data to tell customers about things they didn’t know they wanted – like tailored offers.

When using algorithms, you do need a person in the loop to make sure predictions don’t cross into ‘creepy’ territory, such as predicting a customer’s pregnancy or divorce2.

When customers feel uncomfortable with how their data is used, they opt out and you lose access to the data that helps power these algorithms.

The ‘Me’conomy



Once we understand our customers and the types of personalised experiences they want, we can start taking a more proactive approach in our communications.

A More Strategic Contact Centre

Are you harnessing the data you collect to change your contact centre from a centre that manages inward demand, to one that manages demand outwards?

Data and personalisation help contact centres become more proactive and evolve in order to exceed customer expectations.

A proactive approach is about understanding your customers’ preferences so you can anticipate their needs through the data you hold.

This lets you reach out to them at the right time, through the right channel, with the right information. Research from BT finds three quarters of people are willing to reward proactive behaviour with greater brand loyalty2.

Customers also like a proactive approach as it takes the onus off them in contacting a company. Businesses can offer a solution to customers before the customer has even noticed a problem exists. This can make customers’ lives easier, such as letting them know a service is due or a new product they may be interested in is available.

Integrating the Contact Centre within the Wider Business

Contact centres hold a lot of data and knowledge about their company’s customers. This information is useful for the whole business, which is why a connected and collaborative environment is essential.

Your contact centre can add value as a centralised knowledge hub of customers, products, and services. That information can be shared throughout the organisation to help deliver a better customer experience.

This collaboration lets departments find out where products are causing issues or how to solve problems before they impact customers – before they become a big issue.

Contact centres can even help shape policies and products through the in-depth knowledge they have of what customers want, and what they don’t.

One Roundtable attendee suggests there’s a perception that it’s the sales teams who make the money, while the customer service teams only keep customers happy – and happiness doesn’t earn money.

In fact, executives often focus on getting new customers and ignore the importance of retaining existing customers.



But these positive customer experiences result in customer retention which is immensely valuable to a business

According to Forbes5, ‘a long-term customer is of more value than a single-deal customer, and it’s a lot less expensive to keep a current customer than to acquire a new one’.

This was endorsed by Roundtable attendee who says, ‘if you lose a customer, you lose the money that comes with them’.

With the prevalence of social media and frequent discussions pertaining to brands, customer retention becomes an even bigger focus. It’s common for consumers to discuss brands on social media, and whether or not they’re happy with the service received. If they’re unhappy, they may openly state on social media that they no longer use your company, putting it out there for all to see.

In the same vein, a good customer experience breeds brand loyalty, and can create brand ambassadors who want to shout about how great the experience was and endorse the brand to everyone they know.

You need to create a customer experience that understands your customers’ needs and works to build positive, long-lasting relationships with them.



The customer experience is transforming with the advent of new technologies; endless possibilities created by big data; and more ways than ever to communicate with your customers.

Are you using these new opportunities to create a customer experience that’ll keep customers coming back to you?

A few tips for continuing that relationship: make your customers’ lives more straightforward, and save them time and energy when they need to contact you. This will help you build strong relationships with them.

However, it can be difficult to create this seamless customer experience when consumers can access your channels any time, from anywhere.

The Right Person at the Right Time

A good customer experience is more than just speaking to the customer at the right time. It’s also essential the customer reaches the right person at the contact centre who can help them.

This can be one of the biggest problems contact centres face.

One Roundtable attendee says, ‘If you don’t send a problem to the right place or person, the whole chain falls down. When a customer speaks to someone, it’s generally a last resort, or the problem is too complicated to type out to explain. Often not enough time is put into understanding the core of the problem for the agent to direct the customer to the right person to help. This needs to be a seamless experience from the customer’s perspective’.

We now see a wider range of specialist agents being introduced to help address customers’ increasingly complex problems.

These agents include advisors, problem solvers, negotiators, techies, crowdsourced advisors – each bringing their own in-depth skillset to the table.

Creating a greater knowledge pool to pull from gives your contact centre the ability to find the right person to answer the customer’s question.

Advisors should be able to search for skills and collaborate with colleagues over channels like instant messenger, to help them solve complex customer issues effectively4.

The New Customer Experience



Connecting the Dots

Having everyone in the contact centre connected and able to collaborate on customer issues is just the first step. It needs to go beyond this too.

Do you use third parties in your supply chain as well? They also need to be connected with your internal teams to help resolve customer issues efficiently.

However, this solves a collaboration problem rather than a contact problem.

At times, there can be issues in organisations where different departments and silos are driven by different metrics.

Rushing through calls may save some money in the contact centre, but that could mean more money is spent elsewhere the customers issue or query will have been handled hastily, and details could have been overlooked.

It’s important to ensure metrics in one area aren’t causing problems for metrics in another.

You need a company-wide buy-in that’s collaborative and shares knowledge internally, with the goal of providing the best possible customer experience.

Centralising customer, product, and service knowledge helps this become a reality – and can also fuel algorithms for automation as well.

All of this enhances your team in their roles, and ultimately, benefits consumers.

Give the Customer What They Want

At the heart of the new customer experience is giving customers what they want – before they even know they want it.

Data gives us greater insight into customers than they may have themselves. We need to use this and balance it with who the customers are, what channels they want to use, and whether those channels are appropriate for them.

You don’t need to use every channel in order to have a good business strategy.

Once you understand who your customers are, you can identify the key touchpoints and make those channels freely available.

Some areas can be simplified through automation. However, you need to consider whether automation makes life easier for the customer. If employed just for the sake of it, it can negatively affect the customer experience and create a backlash4.

One Roundtable attendee questions if some are, ‘trying to win a shiny award for being clever, or [...] trying to solve a problem? If you’re trying to solve a business problem, if it’s worth the money and makes sense for the customer then do it, and if it’s not, then leave it alone’.



Creating a stellar customer experience is the most important thing, but that doesn’t have to complicate things for the rest of the contact centre or have large costs attached.

A Roundtable attendee shares an example of one organisation whose contact centre supports customers through eight different channels, including Skype, Facebook, email, and live chat.

Across those eight channels, customers can use text, image, and links to communicate with the company.

On the agent’s end, all messages from the various channels flow into one interface system. Whatever channel a customer uses, the interface allows the agent to respond to them on the same one.

This method streamlines the process for the agent, and allows customers to use their preferred channels – at no additional cost to the company.

One final piece of your new customer experience puzzle should focus on first contact resolution for the customer.

This doesn’t necessarily mean there’s only one conversation with the customer, but that the customer only needs to get in contact with you once. The company should then take the initiative to continue the communication until the issue is resolved to the customer’s satisfaction.

The customer can then react to your company’s communications, rather than initiating contact each time.



The contact centre is a fast-moving and evolving entity, but its potential is often overlooked in terms of how it can help fuel companies as a whole and create the best customer experience.

The arrival of sophisticated technology and an abundance of customer data has created new opportunities to change the customer experience for the better.

You can use these to your advantage to proactively communicate with your customers, personalise experiences, and provide a higher standard of customer service. However, if you don’t take the time to understand your customers and their needs, the use of technology and data risks alienating your audience.

The always-on nature of the world today leads to higher customer expectations for service – with an added importance on convenience and efficiency.

This sentiment is echoed in how customers believe issues should be handled. Most customers expect a response from companies within very small timeframes. Failing to meet these can be detrimental to your customer relationships.

Consider who your customers are, what they want, and what will make their lives easier. The customer data you collect will inform your customer journey strategies as they reveal customer details and desires.

Once you have a good grip on who your customers are, you can create a seamless customer experience on the channels they want to use and build the right team to handle their queries.

This, alongside repositioning your contact centre as a central hub within your organisation will greatly benefit your business and your customers.

Conclusion



1 Dr Nicola J Millard (Head of Customer Insight & Futures), “Trends shaping the future of the contact centre”, BT, 2019

2 “Chat, tap, talk: Eight key trends to transform your digital customer experience”, Digital customer 2017 research, BT, 2017

3 David Armano (Global Strategy Director), “Digital Transformation Journey: Brands' secret weapon to combat marketing disruption”, Edelman Digital, https://edelmandigital.com/digital-transformation-journey/

4 Dr Nicola J. Millard (Head of Customer Insight & Futures), “Botman vs. Superagent: Man vs. machine in the future of customer experience”, Global Services Innovation Team, BT, 2017

5 Larry Myler, “Acquiring new customers is important, but retaining them accelerates profitable growth”, Forbes, 2016, https://www.forbes.com/sites/larrymyler/2016/06/08/acquiring-new-customers-is-important-but-retaining-them-accelerates-profitable-growth/#3043d1136671

References

https://edelmandigital.com/digital-transformation-journey/

https://edelmandigital.com/digital-transformation-journey/

https://www.forbes.com/sites/larrymyler/2016/06/08/acquiring-new-customers-is-important-but-retaining-them-accelerates-profitable-growth/#3043d1136671





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