In the past, contact centers have often played a passive role in customer service, handling inquiries without necessarily taking a dominant position in a brand’s overall customer service strategy. However, modern times have radically transformed the contact center into a dynamic, proactive customer engagement center. Indeed, more and more brands are recognizing their critical role in delivering great customer experiences and winning long-term loyalty.
Customer engagement is crucial for contact centers, as it helps build customer loyalty and generate long-term revenue. Consumers no longer want to be contacted when they are not available – physically or mentally. That’s why it’s necessary for brands to opt for a proactive customer engagement strategy that takes into account their consumption habits and preferences. By engaging the customer on the right channel, at the right time and with the right message, you increase your chances that they will be inclined to listen to you and turn them into your brand ambassadors.
Indeed, when a customer is engaged with a brand, they are more likely to buy again and recommend the products or services to others. This can also help reduce the costs associated with customer relationship management, as engaged customers are less likely to ask questions or report issues, which can result in additional calls to the contact center.
Here are five ways brands can transform their contact centers into vigorous customer engagement centers.
One of the most important ways to build a customer engagement center is to implement technologies that better serve the customer. Empowering customers through tools such as visual IVR and prioritized callbacks show that a brand cares about saving customers time and delivering a seamless experience. Other tools such as CRM software and Multi-CRM Connectors, are essential to keeping customer data accessible at all times and fostering smoother communication across customer service agents. The more customers benefit from timesaving and thorough customer service, the more likely they will support a brand.
Omnichannel is the way of customer experience these days, as channels ranging from social media to messaging apps to traditional voice are all valued by customers. What brands need to learn, however, is which channels their customers like best and are most responsive to. While it’s important to offer seamless experiences across all channels for true omnichannel service, it’s just as important to assess the channels regularly and determine which ones need the most support. Similarly, reaching out individually to customers on their preferred channels is vital to keeping them engaged as much as possible.
Optimizing Digital Customer Engagement is a daily challenge for companies. The steady rise in smartphone use has led to a new era of conversational commerce, as many customers now use their mobile devices for seeking support and making purchases. For this reason, it’s critical for brands to engage mobile customers and give them a seamless experience on the go. Many brands are turning to messaging apps and SMS, for example, to assist customers with product research, make personalized recommendations, offer support, and enable customers to make purchases with greater ease. With over 2 billion smartphone users in the world, mobile remains a critical component of the customer experience.
While technology may help fuel great customer experiences, the humans behind the service interactions are essential to making customers feel valued. Training service agents in soft skills and asking them for their feedback are important to providing natural, personalized customer experiences that win trust and loyalty. Agents should be trained to address customers by name, empathize, and offer meaningful solutions while using a friendly tone, for example. In addition, reaching out proactively to customers on social media is another way to keep them engaged and show that their opinions matter.
Successful brands know how to take a customer’s perspective and ask the important questions ahead of time. When creating a customer journey map, for example, a truly customer-centric brand will consider each step of the journey from all angles and find solutions to potential problems before they even arise. Taking a proactive approach may also mean engaging customers during product research and development, running fun marketing campaigns on social media, or simply sending vouchers on preferred customer channels to thank them for their business. A customer-centric and proactive approach combined is a winning strategy for customer engagement. Transforming a contact center into a sophisticated customer engagement center is all about putting customers’ needs first. With advanced technologies, well-trained agents, and a proactive approach, brands can do more than deliver one-time service by engaging loyal customers for the long-term.
