Research shows that the financial benefits of implementing online self-service for contact center customer service are insurmountable. Don’t get us wrong, multi-channel customer service is touted as being the future of the contact center, but sometimes, customers inevitably want to serve themselves. So, what better way to handle their inquiries than online?
If your customers are misusing or abusing your multi-channel approach, you could unfortunately be losing out on revenue. Forrester reports that when consumers incessantly switch between communication channels – such as Web, phone, e-mail or chat – a company’s costs to serve them can spike. In fact, after building a model to calculate the unnecessary costs that a company may incur as a result, it was found that an extra $22,567,967 in sales and service costs could have been avoided if the website had enabled users to complete their goals online.
Bottom line: Websites that don’t support customers can waste millions.
Ready to get the ball rolling with your online self-service strategy? First, consider some of the lower-complexity customer interactions that are ideally suited for online self-service. This can include site search, FAQs and virtual call center agents. For what Forrester describes as “medium-complexity customer interactions,” there is click-to-call, click-to-chat, community forums and other, more advanced virtual call center agent technologies. Meanwhile, “high-complexity customer service interactions” can include click-to-call, reactive or proactive chat, co-browsing and the telephone.
Whichever level of customer service interaction you choose to implement is entirely dependent on your company’s chief goals and objectives and your consumers’ behavior and preferences. Click here to learn more from Forrester’s recent whitepaper, “Navigating the Future of Customer Service.”
