Digitizing customer services: towards more proactive campaigns

The customer relationship is a never-ending loop. A never-ending loop, with customer satisfaction as its goal. The objective remains the same over time, but the challenges are different, as each era brings its own technological advances and social evolutions. Today, the tools available to brands and customers are constantly evolving, reshuffling the deck with each new advance.

Meeting customer service profitability targets, while maintaining a high quality of experience, are the 2 main challenges facing contact centers!

Challenges that digitalization has yet to meet. Indeed, brands have not lowered their costs as much as they would have liked; and the use of new technologies such as Artificial Intelligence and chatbots still has some way to go, before achieving the expected quality.

That’s why, at Vocalcom, we’re convinced that one of the ways to increase customer service quality, while lowering contact center costs, is to be proactive.

Let’s take a look back at the evolution of the customer relations sector over the last 20 years. How has digitalization impacted customer service  ? What solutions can be put in place to achieve the objectives set at the beginning of the millennium?

Over the past two decades, customer relations have undergone a metamorphosis, moving from a traditional model centered on face-to-face interactions and phone calls to a multi, then omnichannel digital environment. The rise of social media, smartphones and other connected technologies has created new opportunities and challenges for companies in the way they manage their customer relationships.

The digitalization of customer relations has brought many benefits. Customers now have instant access to information, can interact with brands at any time and expect greater personalization and responsiveness. Companies, for their part, have access to a wealth of data on customer behavior, preferences and needs, enabling them to better understand them and propose more targeted offers.

The evolution of customer relations has also been driven by the integration of emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence, process automation and data analysis. These innovations enable companies to offer more personalized customer experiences, improve operational efficiency and deliver faster, more effective services.

However, this digital transformation also raises challenges. Companies must adapt to an ever-changing landscape, be present on a multitude of communication channels and manage ever-greater volumes of data. They must also maintain a balance between technology and the human aspect of customer relations, offering personalized, empathetic interactions.

Demand delta is the difference between customer requests and the company’s ability to meet them. In other words, demand delta represents the difference between the amount of work customer service needs to do to respond to customer requests and the amount of work customer service is able to do within a certain timeframe. If demand exceeds the company’s ability to respond, this can lead to problems such as extended waiting times, inferior service quality and customer dissatisfaction. It can also have a negative impact on the company’s reputation and ability to build loyalty.

That’s why it’s important for companies to monitor their delta demand and regularly measure their response capacity and customer satisfaction levels, in order to take steps to reduce delta demand if necessary. This may include hiring additional staff, improving processes and technologies,  or setting up mechanisms to prioritize customer requests according to their level of importance.

Companies can also use data analysis tools to forecast future demand and plan their response capacity accordingly.

Demand delta is a key issue, as it can have a significant impact on customer satisfaction, customer retention and company profitability. By monitoring and managing it effectively, companies can improve their performance, strengthen their reputation and increase their competitive edge.

Referring to a significant increase in customer interactions, delta demand has an impact on :

• Interaction volume: this leads to a substantial increase in the number of customer interactions, increasing agents’ workload, which can put a strain on their resources and their ability to respond quickly and efficiently to all requests.
• Response times: Customers expect fast response times, especially in a context where customer service expectations are high. Agents are therefore under pressure to reduce waiting times and response times, in order to satisfy customers and avoid any frustration linked to prolonged waiting.
• Managing peaks in activity: Contact centers need to be ready to handle these peaks in interaction, allocating the necessary resources to cope with these periods of increased intensity.
• Maintaining service quality: It is essential to provide accurate, consistent and personalized responses, even when the volume of interactions is high. This requires sound processes, adequate staff training and the use of appropriate technologies to optimize efficiency and service quality.
• The need for scalability: contact centers must be able to adapt quickly and evolve. They must be able to respond proactively to customer requests.

At Vocalcom, we believe that the best way to reduce delta demand and thus satisfy customers is to offer proactive engagement strategies. Be where the customer doesn’t expect you to be: responding to their needs, before they know they have them.

Today’s consumers are no longer satisfied with attractive prices, even when these prices reflect quality service. They are looking for a truly omnichannel customer experience, with personalized offers, innovative products and, above all, proactive customer service. 67% say they are willing to pay more for a better customer experience.

Beyond reducing delta demand, proposing proactive engagement strategies responds to consumer demand and enables brands to stand out from the crowd. In an increasingly saturated market, the only way for brands to differentiate themselves is to address the right customers, at the right time, and respond to their expectations with relevance.

Developing proactive engagement strategies therefore helps you reduce delta demand in several ways:

• Better problem prevention: if you had to choose just one benefit, this would be it. By communicating proactively with customers, you can anticipate and resolve potential problems before they become inbound requests. This reduces the number of queries and prevents situations that could lead to an increase in demand.
• Enhanced self-service: By offering advanced self-service options, such as intelligent chatbots, customers can solve their day-to-day problems themselves, without having to contact you. This reduces agent workloads and cuts the number of inbound interactions.
• Qualitative personalization and segmentation: By using customer data to personalize communications and offers, you can anticipate customers’ specific needs and provide them with solutions tailored to their expectations. This reduces repetitive and avoidable requests, as customers have access to pre-emptive solutions.
• Reduced response times: By being proactive in managing customer requests, you can reduce response times. This improves the customer experience by providing fast, efficient responses, and helps avoid the frustrations associated with prolonged waiting. Customers are less inclined to multiply interactions or contact the contact center several times.
• Proactive workload management: By analyzing customer interaction trends and patterns, you can anticipate periods of high demand and take preventive measures to cope with them. This allows you to better distribute the workload across contact center resources, increasing adaptability and reducing peak demand.

We’ve written an article detailing how to offer proactive customer service . We invite you to read it, if you’d like to explore the subject further.

To create more proactive campaigns, certain essential steps must be followed:

• Know your customers: the better you know your customers, the better you’ll be able to anticipate their needs and solve potential problems before they arise.
• Understand their changing behaviors: it’s important to identify changing needs and new channels being used, and integrate them into your proactive customer engagement strategies.

To deliver a proactive customer experience, investing in the right technologies is essential. In particular, it enables companies to optimize their response capacity, and thus better meet customer demands.

• Data analysis tools can help forecast future demand and plan their response capacity accordingly. Data collected from customer interactions, such s as calls, emails, chat messages and social media interactions, can be analyzed to identify trends and patterns in customer behavior. This information can then be used to forecast future demand and plan the company’s response capacity.
• Chatbots and AI can help answer customer queries more quickly and efficiently. Chatbots can answer routine customer queries autonomously, freeing up customer service staff to respond to more complex requests. AI can also be used to identify customer problems more quickly and route them to the appropriate staff for rapid resolution.
• The real-time collaboration and monitoring tools can help customer service teams work together more effectively, sharing information in real time and coordinating their work to respond to customer requests more quickly.

By taking a proactive approach to customer relations, you show your customers that you care about them and are ready to anticipate and respond to their needs. This can boost customer loyalty and satisfaction, leading to better retention and growth for your business.