Long gone are the days when shopping and doing business was a 9 to 5 concern. You can also say goodbye to the days where the only businesses open past midnight either charged a bundle or were emergency services. As the Internet grows (and similarly, customers’ access to it grows), any enterprise is given that much more face time with the client, putting rest to these now archaic business processes.
At the same time, however, the expansive nature of the Internet has also introduced customers to options and competitors that didn’t exist before. A flourishing enterprise can no longer rely on proximity and on maintaining a casual business relationship; it needs to invest in its customers and have its customers invest in its brand.
This can seem daunting, and it should. If a customer experiences a negative encounter with a call center or customer service agent, it is now possible to push the “End” button on their phone and then use that same device to find a replacement within seconds. This becomes that much more frightening when you consider that 60 percent of consumers aren’t willing to wait on hold for longer than a minute.
This same technology has also made it easier for those on the service provider end. For example, deploying a cloud contact center is proven to increase customer satisfaction by reducing call waiting time. Furthermore, acquiring better informed agents who are subject matter experts is made easier than ever before, as the cloud enables companies to select employees across even the farthest of remote locations.
Additionally, today’s proliferation of mobile devices has created a whole new marketplace made up of mobile apps – all which should be capitalized on by the call center. By developing a user-friendly and useful mobile device app, customers are able to dedicate a part of their device to your company. This can open up a more direct line of communication, encouraging multi-channel contact such as live chat, video conferencing or whatever the customer is most comfortable with. Considering that 50 percent of smartphone users actually prefer the use of a mobile application, this is certainly a good route to explore.