Customer retention is unquestionably a huge concern and one that should be under constant evaluation and scrutiny. For the call center manager, driving customer retention not only means boosting profit, but dodging the costly bullet of losing a customer to a competitor (as many veterans in the space know from experience, it’s cheaper to keep a client than to cultivate a new one). Why? Because the connection is there, the business is in place and the relationship is already built.
The kind of call center technology and strategies that you invest in will either accelerate or stall these drivers. When it comes to the first part of this equation – technology – consider the power of taking your organization to the cloud. According to data aggregated from Mad Graphs, companies who move to the cloud see an up to 80 percent improvement in productivity, and 47 percent of companies reported seeing lower operating costs after adopting the cloud.
The second part of this equation – strategy – can be fairly simple. Perhaps the most common way for a company to go about this is to develop a simple point or reward system. Everyone from fast food chains to airlines employ this method of retention and loyalty, with the idea being that, “the more you use us, the more it is worth your while.”
So, how do you take this idea from conception to implementation? Start by offering immediate incentives. For example, e-mail customers coupons or discounts just to thank them for sticking around or when you notice that they haven’t purchased anything in a while.
When leveraged properly, the right call center technology and service strategies will astound not only your customers, but yourself, as well.