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Key Takeaways for Improving the Customer Experience 2

Everyone seems to be talking about artificial intelligence (AI) and self-service technology as it applies to the customer experience. Certainly, digital technologies and deep learning breakthroughs offer new opportunities for agents and organizations to provide a high-quality interaction for customers and effective support for their agents. And yet… When it comes to the key elements of the customer experience, AI is still not as important as the one-to-one, transactional experience between employee and consumer. Even a recent study by Gartner Research confirms that “... the pace of introduction channel choice (such as sensors, virtual customer assistants, advanced search, kiosks and in-line video chat) and the focus on personalized customer experiences will require companies in most industries to retain a highly trained core of customer service professionals.” In other words, as organizations service customers with more automation, consumers still expect a personalized, human experience to also be available, especially if there’s a problem. Senior Managing Director of Accenture Strategy describes it this way: “Companies have lost sight of the importance of human interaction and often make it too difficult for consumers to get the right level of help and service that they need.” Whether your organization identifies as cost-centric or customer-centric, the fact remains that well-trained, empowered employees continue to be the most important element for a successful experience with the consumer. In fact, according to a recent survey conducted by CCW Digital, a popular community and resource hub for customer experience professionals around the world, the three critical areas for effective customer management in 2017 revolve around improving the following: #1. Customer Satisfaction #2. Customer Loyalty #3. Agent Satisfaction

The voice of the customer is still

king, but without happy, empowered employees, no one

is there to really listen

Be the SPARK for change in your organization! Game Changers

Key Takeaways for Improving the Customer Experience 3

Key takeaway? The voice of the customer is still king, but without happy, empowered employees, no one is there to really listen. According to CCW summary findings, organizations must “focus on the customer, while making [the] contact center a better place to work.”

83% of U.S. consumers prefer dealing

with human beings over digital channels

to solve customer service issues

Accenture https://newsroom.accenture.com/news/us-companies-losing-customers-as-consumers-demand-more-human-interaction-accenture-strategy-study-finds.htm

52% of consumers have switched

providers in the past year due to poor

customer service

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Key Takeaways for Improving the Customer Experience 4

As the CCW data indicates, most organizations currently rate their CSAT score at 3.8 on a scale of 1-5. As their analysis notes, “[this score]...is not necessarily impressive for a metric that is supposed to represent the most important determinant of success. Organizations still have ample room for improvement.” How to improve? Now more than ever before, it comes down to appropriate training. With more points of consumer/company engagement, your contact center employees must be provided the tools that will allow them to navigate this new complex landscape of possible interactions.

Facebook, Twitter, chat and email - along with the phone - mean it’s no longer just about your agents having a friendly demeanor or a passing knowledge of product offerings when they pick up a call. Instead, they must be equipped with the emotional insight and conflict resolution skills necessary to understand and address the needs of today’s consumer. First, consider where consumers are in the process when they pick up the phone to get in touch. Chances are, they’ve already tried (and failed) to solve their problem. As Forrester Research Vice President Kate Leggett describes it, “Voice [continues to evolve] to be an escalation – not a primary service – channel. Today, customers resolve straightforward customer service interactions via self-service, leaving complex issues like account closure, booking a complex multi-city set of flights, or an explanation of smart metering billing policies for a phone conversation. These questions often take longer to resolve and are opportunities to build positive customer relationships with an end goal of increased customer retention.” In other words, most of the customers your agents are now interacting with on the phone are calling with far more complicated issues than ever before, and ones they may have tried to solve using other touchpoints beforehand. The good news? Surprise! According to a 2016 study by Accenture, these multi-channel (digital, social media, and call center) users will also be your most profitable customers, if handled correctly. From the study: “While it is true that digital capabilities allow companies to deliver services in a more cost-effective manner, this strategy

Companies need to offer both digital and

traditional service experiences to

create customer loyalty

Be the SPARK for change in your organization! Game Changers

Key Takeaways for Improving the Customer Experience 5

doesn’t appeal to the most profitable customer segments. That title falls to customers who regularly use multiple channels to interact with their provider.” Key takeaway? Companies need to offer both digital and traditional service experiences to create customer loyalty. Furthermore, your phone support team must be ready to interact with the customer who has already navigated multiple contact points before calling. By the way, the multi-channel profitability factor applies to customers across a wide variety of industries and locations. Also from the Accenture research: “...this higher rate of profitability….holds across industries and geographies. In the global retail arena, for example, customers that engage with companies through a variety of channels drive three times the volume of sales and more than twice the margin of store-only customers.”

The message is clear. More than ever before, your employees will now be relied upon to solve challenging problems, address the customer experience, and provide real accountability for consumers who likely have already tried to interact in some other way. That’s why, according to the CCW Digital survey titled Performance & Agents, 86% of organizations in the coming year will be using one-to-one coaching, 67% group coaching, and 66% customer feedback review to work with their agents on improving these services. If you’re interested in making customer satisfaction the brand differentiator you provide, ongoing training and coaching will be essential. As customer experience analyst and current editor of International Quality & Productivity Center’s online advisory portal and publication Customer Service IQ, Brian Cantor describes, “Leaders must take action. They obviously need to educate their agents on the basics, but the crux of talent development should focus on empowering employees to handle difficult, unpredictable issues while making meaningful, Human Connections.” Raising your CSAT scores isn’t only about how fast your agents reach callers or process an order. A high-quality, holistic approach to the customer experience is now an imperative. It revolves around authenticity, human connection and personal empowerment within your organization, from the C-suite to the agents who answer the phones.

44% of consumers will

complain about poor service on

social media

Accenture https://newsroom.accenture.com/news/us-companies-losing-customers-as-consumers-demand-more-human-interaction-accenture-strategy-study-finds.htm

45% of consumers are

willing to pay more for goods

and services if it ensures a

better level of service

Be the SPARK for change in your organization! Game Changers

Key Takeaways for Improving the Customer Experience 6

The CCW Digital survey indicates that customer loyalty is among the most important issues for

organizations seeking to improve in 2017 and beyond. Once again, the skills of all

your employees are called into play. For example, did you know customers often

assume an agent is more competent simply if the agent remembers and uses the

customer’s name during any interaction? Does your staff make it a point to ask

and use their customer’s name when working with them over the phone,

during an online chat or through social media?

Obviously, there’s more to understanding and improving the customer

experience, but even this small, frequently overlooked detail can bring

dramatic results quickly and easily. When agents are trained in this and other

proven, reproducible communications techniques as they handle consumers

across multiple touchpoints, improvement can’t help but occur. After all,

inspiring customer loyalty isn’t magic. Instead, one could argue, it comes just one

name at a time.

In 2017, the link between a positive customer experience and brand loyalty cannot be

overestimated. According to a 2017 study by the Aberdeen Group, companies that offer a

high-quality customer experience retain 89% of their customers, vs 33% retained by low-quality customer

experience providers. As their research summarizes, “...without satisfying clients, companies can’t expect

to retain their business or earn positive word of mouth. The analysis….revealed that getting service

activities right helps service leaders win the hearts and minds of customers. To this point, companies that

achieve service excellence enjoy 3.9 times greater year over year increases to their customer retention rate

Training employees in the communication,

conflict resolution, and active listening skills...

remains the single most important way

companies can improve sales, boost morale, and

increase profits

Be the SPARK for change in your organization! Game Changers

Key Takeaways for Improving the Customer Experience 7

than those that fail to meet buyer needs in service (5.8% vs 1.5%).”

Again, success in customer retention comes back to investing in the most important asset your organization

has: your people. Training employees in the communication, conflict resolution, and active listening skills

necessary for consistent, confident interactions with each other and the customer remains the single most

important way companies can improve sales, boost morale, and increase profits. As the customer

experience research company Temkin Group outlined in a recent 2017 report, organizations that made a

concerted effort to align employees with a set of goals and values, as well as to provide customer insights

across the organization, were most successful at creating enduring differentiation and lasting customer

retention.

http://www.icmi.com/Resources/People-Management/2016/07/Reducing-Attrition-in-Contact-Centers

The average cost of replacing

just one

front-line call center agent can reach

$15,000

according to the

Human Resource Institute

Be the SPARK for change in your organization! Game Changers

Key Takeaways for Improving the Customer Experience 8

The final key takeaway in a discussion of customer experience lies in perhaps the most important piece of the puzzle: your employees. No matter what the values of those in the C-suite, they mean nothing if not embraced and expressed by your staff, who can only do so if they have the training to put them into play. Your success as an organization depends upon whether or not employees are equipped with the real-time skills and emotional insights they can use again and again in communicating with the customer, consistently and across staff departments, roles and responsibilities. Customer service agents want to do a good job. A 2016 study by telecommunications software provider inContact and Qualtrics reveals that 74% of customer service agents see their job as a long term career opportunity, with more than 41% of these agents also reporting that simply helping customers was their favorite part of their work experience. As one respondent said, “I like the company I work for. I agree with their goals. My supervisor is wonderful to work for, and leaving a customer satisfied makes me feel good.” However, a whopping 65% in the same survey said that they found angry or rude consumers the most difficult part of their job, with more than 30% of agents saying they usually spent more than an hour a day with unhappy customers, every single day. Clearly, this is part of why the average turnover rate for a call center employee is 29%, and why offering a great customer experience is easier said than done. How then can companies bridge the divide between the goals and the realities of working with the public? How can an organization truly improve the customer experience? The quick answer? It’s not about finding the perfect staff, or necessarily paying them more money.

Your success as an organization depends upon whether or not

employees are equipped with the real-time skills and emotional insights they can use again and again in communicating

with the customer

Be the SPARK for change in your organization! Game Changers

Key Takeaways for Improving the Customer Experience 9

It’s about changing attitudes, empowering individuals, and making your organization a place where people can achieve their goals, rather than set them aside - or worse, find them actively thwarted. Remember what happened with McDonald’s? Home of the Big Mac and a stock downturn in 2015, many pundits were predicting a gloomy future for the fast food chain, that is if it survived the recent onslaught of competing burger outlets at all. And yet, thankfully for all of us who are fans of McDonald’s french fries, the chain not only endured, but is now flourishing. Their secret? Along with better wages and a few menu tweaks, the company began investing in more training, empowering its employees to provide better service in exchange for more career flexibility, benefits, and individual recognition within company-owned outlets. As McDonald’s CEO Steve Easterbrook explained, “...[the changes] have resulted in lower crew turnover and higher customer satisfaction scores...and we are gaining share relative to the sandwich segment.” Investment in your employees pays off outside the drive-thru too. Another study from Tempkin Group entitled The Five I’s of Employee Engagement reports that “employees who receive positive feedback from their boss are three times more likely to do something unexpectedly good for the company and three times more likely to make a recommendation for an improvement.” Creating an environment where employees are not just encouraged, but taught how to engage in the process is key to creating not only a positive customer experience, but a successful workplace as well. Founder of Southwest Airlines Herb Kelleher understood this connection when he said, “I never had control, and I never wanted it. If you create an environment where people truly participate, you don’t need control.” With increasing challenges posed by a multi-channel customer service environment coupled with the stressors of providing an ever more complicated customer experience, organizations simply cannot afford to ignore the “employee experience” as one of the cornerstones of success. As researchers from Harvard Business School noted in a 2015 study, “...a large and growing body of research on positive organizational psychology demonstrates that not only is a cut-throat environment harmful to productivity over time, but that a positive environment will lead to dramatic benefits for employers, employees, and the bottom line.”

Companies with lower employee engagement

scores have

18% lower productivity

65% lower share price over time

Harvard Business Review https://hbr.org/2015/12/proof-that-positive-work-cultures-are-more-productive:

Be the SPARK for change in your organization! Game Changers

Key Takeaways for Improving the Customer Experience 10

When it comes to improving the customer service experience, creating an environment where employees are engaged, enthusiastic, and ready for the challenges ahead is now mission critical. With effective training, organizations can create an atmosphere of well-being that leads to improvement both in terms of customer experience, and to incremental gains across every facet of operation and development. The only requirement to doing so? To simply begin. After all, as Mark Twain once said...

“The secret of getting ahead... is getting started.”

Getting started is easy with Bonfire Training. We’ll show you how customer service training and good communication skills light the way for loyal, satisfied customers and employees. Call or click today! www.BonfireTraining.com info@BonfireTraining.com (800) 888-4893

Highly engaged employees are

5.8 times more likely to

help their companies succeed

Customer Experience Matters Blog https://experiencematters.blog/2012/01/05/report-employee-engagement-benchmark-study/

Aberdeen Group http://v1.aberdeen.com/launch/report/knowledge_brief/15475-KB-SoS.asp Brain research

Dennis P.Carmody - Michael Lewis https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1647299/ Britain's workers value companionship and recognition over a big salary, a recent report revealed. | AAT https://www.aat.org.uk/about-aat/press-releases/britains-workers-value-companionship-recognition-over-big-salary Business Insider

The Economist http://www.businessinsider.com/the-worlds-largest-fast-food-chain-is-floundering-2 Business Insider

Hayley Peterson http://www.businessinsider.com/mcdonalds-wage-increase-improves-customer-service-2016-5 CCW Digital - Call Center, Customer Service & Customer Relationship Management https://www.callcenterweekdigital.com/call-center-management/white-papers/ccw-executive-report-performance-agents CCW Digital - Call Center, Customer Service & Customer Relationship Management https://www.callcenterweekdigital.com/call-center-management/white-papers/building-your-brand-around-better-service CCW Digital - Call Center, Customer Service & Customer Relationship Management https://www.callcenterweekdigital.com/cm-tools-and-technologies/articles/does-the-rise-of-ai-the-fall-of-human-customer CNBC

Katie Little http://www.cnbc.com/2015/05/22/mcdonalds-ditches-more-sales-for-accuracy.html Customer Experience Matters® https://experiencematters.blog/2017/04/25/report-the-four-customer-experience-core-competencies-free/ Digital Disconnect in Customer Engagement – Accenture https://www.accenture.com/us-en/insight-digital-disconnect-customer-engagement Gartner http://www.gartner.com/newsroom/id/2956618 Harvard Business Review

Emma Seppala Kim Cameron https://hbr.org/2015/12/proof-that-positive-work-cultures-are-more-productive "Http://images.response.incontact.com/Web/InContactInc/%7Bdc34fcc4-5004-4999-984a-acd6346ccd74%7D_inContact_CSR_survey_REPORT_FINAL-Sept_28_2016.pdf?elqTrackId=b9935e324a5645189536b0e8ade6af39&elqaid=2229&elqat=2." Incon-tact.com. N.p., n.d. Web. Newsroom https://newsroom.accenture.com/news/us-companies-losing-customers-as-consumers-demand-more-human-interaction-accenture-strategy-study-finds.htm Philip Guo - On remembering and dealing with people's names http://www.pgbovine.net/on-names.htm Reducing Attrition in Contact Centers: It's All About the Team http://www.icmi.com/Resources/People-Management/2016/07/Reducing-Attrition-in-Contact-Centers Temkin Group http://temkingroup.com/research-reports/the-five-is-of-employee-engagement/ Your Customers Don't Want To Call You For Support | Forrester Blogs http://blogs.forrester.com/kate_leggett/16-03-03-your_customers_dont_want_to_call_you_for_support

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