Brands often spend time making customer experiences meaningful and even fun, but how many focus on making it effortless? It’s always great to engage customers in a positive manner, but overcomplicating the experience will not win them over. Here are six tips for giving customers an effortless experience and winning their satisfaction.
When customers start switching channels because they feel they have to, service is definitely being compromised. For example, if your customers are reaching out by phone because a social media message has gone unanswered, take it as a wake-up call for channel optimization. Create an effortless experience by staffing channels properly, making sure agents are trained to manage the channels they work on, and making real-time responses a priority.
Proactive measures are key to effortless experiences. Be a step ahead of your customers and solve problems before they even arise. This may include offering detailed tracking information for deliveries, making goodwill gestures as soon as a negative issue is communicated, and letting customers know in advance if any changes to regular service hours or channels are scheduled to occur.
Making customers repeat information is a sure way to frustrate them. Using such tools as a CRM database can help organize and centralize customer data and enable seamless communications across the contact center. This is especially critical when customers choose to switch channels, or when an agent needs to refer a case to another agent. Keeping data centralized with real-time updates is essential to saving customers time and effort.
Many brands have recognized the power of self-service for effortless experiences. Customers save time by finding answers efficiently. Optimize your self-service options by using such tools as visual IVR menus to effectively route customers to the most qualified agent, comprehensive FAQs on the company website, easy click-to-call or click-to-chat buttons on a mobile-optimized site, or the popular chat bots that power conversational commerce with quick and personalized assistance through messaging apps.
Never underestimate the human element of customer service: Your agents are essential to making your customers’ lives easier. Empower your agents to simplify and humanize the customer experience all at once by training them to communicate properly with customers. Agents should be trained in soft skills to help them handle difficult communications, and they may learn more about products and services the brand offers so as to share such information with customers. The more agents are informed, the better they can convey relevant information to customers that will save them time.
Customers have preferred channels for a reason, and honoring those preferences is essential to great engagement and loyalty. An Aspect Software consumer survey found that half of consumers claim to have been asked to switch channels in order to receive an answer. Customers should only have to switch channels when their case truly demands it for better service, not because a brand is understaffed, disorganized, or lacking in proper resources. Reaching out to customers on their preferred channels for everything from service cases to surveys and marketing offers is essential to giving them consistently effortless experiences. Customer satisfaction and loyalty depend on providing effortless experiences that eliminate the obstacles and deliver the essentials every time.