Customer Experience

What are the Guiding Principles for Outsourcing Your Customer Service?

Excellent customer service is an integral part of every business. Whether your company deals in retail or offers specific services, consumers look for a convenient and flexible means of contacting the business. At Etech, we strive to provide exceptional customer engagement solutions for our clients. Hence, we have a deep understanding of what exactly customers expect out of an organization. However, not all businesses have an idea of the same. Also, there are small and medium scale businesses that struggle to have the time, funds, or resources to build their in-house customer service center or have outgrown the capacity. For all such companies, customer support outsourcing is a great option. We, at Etech, have a hands-on experience of years on helping such businesses with extraordinary customer support. Well, the decision to outsource customer service is ultimately an integral one for businesses. If your organization doesn’t suffice the customer service needs and you want to outsource, there are certain proven benefits of that. You don’t have to hire and/or train new employees with an outsourced provider. Also, your business will ultimately employ the knowledge and skills of experts who are adept at customer service. However, how can you make your decision about outsourcing the customer service the best one? Below are some guiding principles that you should keep in mind while you outsource the customer service for your organization: Know the Right Time to Outsource Before you finalize your decision to outsource your customer service, you should first consider the best time for your organization to make this big move. If you think there is a significant change going on in your company or if it is experiencing fast-paced growth, this is when you should think about outsourcing your customer support. The outsourcing contact center will ensure your customers are taken care of while your organization can focus on the ongoing internal rapid developments. Make the Most Out of the Outsourced Customer Service It’s crucial to understand and implement the right approach to manage outsourced customer service. Your organization might already have a customer service team in place; however, you are not maintaining the best practice. In such a scenario, you should speak to an outsourced expert company to know what works best. This can be a useful step if your internal support team needs to focus elsewhere. Also, a third-party customer service team can fill the gap if your support team is not staffed rightly. It will help if you think the outsourced team as an extension of your in-house team, rather than as an individual entity with increased domain expertise. Ask for Quality Control Call management (CMS) IT solutions play a significant role in managing inbound and outbound calls efficiently. These can be helpful in monitoring and analyze the call activity to ensure continuous improvement. If you are planning to outsource your customer support, it’s always better to opt for such a company that includes this, too, especially if your business is already handling a high volume of phone call interactions. CMS IT can be highly useful to assess your business’ operational contact center issues and figure out the right ways to resolve them. Quality Control is a big deal! Make Sure to Exceed Customer Expectations Customers expect faster online responses from brands. According to The Social Habit’s survey, 32% of customers expect to get a response within 30 minutes. Only 10% will prefer to wait for 60 minutes. Hence, either way, the answer must be at least within an hour. Otherwise, your organizations will fall short of customers’ expectations. Therefore, when you are outsourcing your customer support, make sure the outsourced team is meeting this requirement. It’s only then your organization will be able to stand out. Look for Social Media Customer Service Customers no longer prefer to call a hotline. Your brand must engage in social media to attain maximum customer satisfaction. Any outsourced customer service provider will typically have the tools for online and call responses. You must consider them to focus on both forms of communication, as today’s customer mainly interacts online. Moreover, social media customer service is a much affordable investment. Forbes reports state that social media only cost $ 1 per interaction. With that, you can enjoy lower costs, and once done right, you can enjoy huge profits. Summing Up Want to outsource your organization’s customer support? Look for a contact center with extensive experience and expertise like Etech. We offer customized customer engagement solutions to fit organizations’ specific requirements. Contact Etech to explore its inbound, outbound, live chat, and quality monitoring solutions, and learn how they can benefit your business, your team, and, ultimately, your customers.

Characteristics of a Good Project Manager That Translate Into a Great Customer Experience

One of the goals of project management is to create a positive experience for your customers. According to a recent survey conducted by Gartner, within the next two years, 81% of respondents expect that the company that rises above its competitors will do so on the basis of quality customer experience. It’s still important to have a great product, but among top quality producers, you need something extra to make you stand out. The project manager is the person who has the most contact with the customers and thus is the one who is likely to have the most influence over their decision to choose your product or service over the competition. There are several characteristics that this vital point person needs to exhibit in order to build a solid customer relationship. Solution Orientation   Project management involves fostering collaboration and cooperation in your team to come up with the best solutions for your customers. While ideally, every person on your team is going to be a talented problem solver, the bulk of that responsibility lies on the project manager. A good manager leads the team by thinking outside the box when the standard answer doesn’t address what the customer actually needs. To offer good solutions in a timely manner, it helps if the person in charge of the team has a broad range of knowledge. When customers contact a company, they often don’t know exactly who at the organization will be able to answer their question the best. This can result in being shuffled around from person to person until it gets to someone who can give them a clear solution. This may make sense from the inside, but from the outside, it can feel like they’re getting the runaround. As the project manager, if you have a general grasp on a lot of the questions customers typically ask, you can satisfy them without having to pass them off to someone else. Good Time Management   Time management is a key component of project management toolbox. In a world where customers can make a few clicks and have what they want delivered to them in record time, being able to offer swift, efficient service is not optional. Be available to your customers, and return calls and emails promptly. In fact, if you find a way to serve them better, don’t wait for them to contact you. Follow up with them to make sure that all their needs have been met. Taking the initiative to contact them to ensure their satisfaction can make you stand out and give you a loyal customer for life. Open Communication   Many of the characteristics of good project management are made possible by great communication skills. These skills start with your team. Aside from brainstorming sessions, you can utilize other tools to make sure everyone stays on the same page: Email Task management tools Instant messaging software When it comes to customer service, the main role of the leader in charge of project management is to act as a liaison between the team and the customer. You want to communicate regularly with them but not excessively. By having one person who is tasked with keeping the lines of communication open, you can better manage the relationship with the customers. As a project manager, you are in a unique position to listen to your customers. You are the face and voice of the company to them, and as such, you are likely the first person they will contact to voice a complaint. Pay close attention to this feedback. It will tell you where you need to focus your service efforts. Good customer experience doesn’t usually involve revamping the entire way you do business. Identify the one key element that makes customers happy, and you can soar above your competitors. Extra Mile Service   Good project management involves paying close attention to the service you provide to your customers. As the project manager, you should ask yourself six questions about the experience of your customers: What are the unique qualities of your product or service that satisfy the specific needs of your customers? Does what you offer meet or exceed the customers’ expectations? What extras can you supply to surprise your customers and add value to your service? Is the overall customer experience pleasant? How can you simplify the buying process to make it easier for your customers? How quickly do you respond to both positive and negative customer feedback? You need more than a great product or service to attract customers and keep them coming back. The characteristics that make you excel at project management are the same skills that you need to please your customers. This blog was earlier published on LinkedIn.

Do We Need AI to Truly Transform the Customer Experience for the Better?

According to a Gartner Report, 85% of customer interactions will take place without human involvement by 2020. Put simply, artificial intelligence is transforming the way companies interact with their customers. But, do we really need AI to maintain high levels of customer satisfaction, or can we rely solely on human intelligence? To answer this question, here are some of AI’s transformative qualities and how they complement human intelligence. Constant and Immediate Availability   When customers call customer service or initiate a chat, the wait time is longer without the help of artificial intelligence. Bots can at least begin the greeting process while customers wait for an available agent. Bots can also help to confirm what kind of help customers need, ensure they are communicating with the right department and redirect them if they’re not. Forbes notes that because bots never need to sleep, they can handle these tasks even when there are no available agents, because it is outside of business operating hours. This is especially important for business with restrictive hours, such as the post office, banks or government institutions. Artificial intelligence also reduces the pressure on contact centers to schedule more agents to work at nights. The Financial Times notes that night shifts present a fundamental biological challenge to the human body. People who work nights generally sleep less. Note that routinely getting less than six hours of sleep can increase mortality risks by 13%. Improves the Work Process for Human Agents   Sorting calls and verifying that customers are on the right line is the less exciting part of customer service. It can also be the one most frustrating for customers because they hate to be transferred. When bots handle the sorting in chats or automated operators handle this on the phone, people can focus on aspects where human intelligence is best applied. Humans are more urgently needed for the real people skills and creative problem-solving. These are the aspects where artificial intelligence may fall short, no matter how brilliant the coding is. Bots may, for instance, fail to understand a message riddled with typos or which is written by someone who does not speak English as a first language. Humans would pick up on these errors, whereas bots tend to need more specific parameters to act. When bots can handle sorting, scheduling appointments and other small tasks, it further helps to make work easier for human agents. It reduces the bottleneck they may otherwise meet in the morning when they begin their shifts. Bots can also help to reduce the pressure when centers are short-staffed during an unexpected incident related to the client’s products and services, such as a service outage. Provides Actionable Data and Predictions   Artificial intelligence may also provide personalized information on customers. Depending on how advanced the system is, this information may even include predictions based on a customer’s purchasing behavior. For example, agents may see current subscriptions, how long customers have done business with the company and even ratings on the likelihood of successfully upselling certain products and services. By arming agents with this valuable information, it prepares them for higher levels of success in interactions. This is true even when the customer begins the conversation frustrated or upset. Forbes notes that this personalized data helps companies to tap into the coveted 1% of the customer pool. These are the highly discriminating customers worth more than 18 times the value of a regular buyer. One bank even uses it to maintain unsolicited but helpful contact with customers. When a customer of the Royal Bank of Scotland continuously overdrafts their account, bots flag the account for a follow-up. The best employee for the job then calls the customer to offer financial advice. The Bottom Line: The Argument for AI in Business   Put simply, artificial intelligence is an indispensable part of transforming the customer experience for three main reasons: • It reduces the cost companies would otherwise sustain for providing 24/7 customer support and a strong commitment to customer satisfaction. • It reduces the workload for customer service agents, while increasing their effectiveness through personalized data. • It keeps customers happy. It does this by helping companies to better cater to a buyer’s individual needs, while being available right around the clock. At Etech, we are in the people business. We believe that the role of AI in transforming customer experience is to complement the work of our amazing team by taking over menial work. This allows workers to shine at the tasks that require creativity and interpersonal skills. For more information on how we use artificial intelligence at our contact centers, email us at info@etechgs.com. This blog was earlier published on LinkedIn.

How to Improve Customer Experience and Sales With Voice of the Customer Research

Companies offering inbound call center services often train their employees to believe that the customer is always right. When it comes to customers’ knowledge of their own needs, expectations, preferences, and dislikes – that is, the voice of the customer – the adage is correct. VoC research, obtained through both qualitative and quantitative methods, gives a company insight into how well its products or services are going to fare with its target customer base. Researchers at MIT identify four aspects of VoC outcomes: • Customers’ needs • Hierarchical ranking of those needs • A prioritized list of importance • Customers’ perception of products or services Through the use of research methods such as focus groups, interviews and surveys, data collectors gather statements in customers’ own words about how the inbound call center services the company offers should meet their needs. The list they compile is sorted into primary, secondary, and tertiary needs to discover what the customers want most and what specific things can be done to satisfy those desires. The information gleaned from the customers is also used to arrange needs according to their relative importance to customers. Finally, customers are asked to weigh in on the performance of products or services on the market that fulfill the needs discussed or, if no such product or service currently exists, on how they satisfy that need without it. By understanding their customers better, companies can improve customer experience. An improved experience, in turn, improves customer retention and sales. The Relationship Between VoC and the Customer Experience   According to Oracle’s 2011 Customer Experience Impact Report, 86% of customers are willing to pay more for excellent customer services experience. Conversely, 89% have no qualms about taking their business to a competitor if their experience with a company is bad. Customers expect to be treated well, and if they have any problems or concerns, they expect those issues to be addressed and resolved promptly. Information gleaned from VoC research is helpful because it offers detailed insight into how to improve the customer experience across multiple levels. It improves marketing and measures the effectiveness of the product or services offered. When VoC is utilized effectively, the features of the inbound call center services that are most helpful to customers are continued and improved, and the features that don’t satisfy customer needs are retired. Customers notice when their feedback is taken seriously, and they are likely to remain loyal to a company that uses their input to drive decisions. The Benefits of Using VoC Research To Improve Customer Services   Listening to customers leads to clearer direction and focus. When companies seek to improve call center services through VoC research, they can expect certain benefits: • Stronger Customer Relationships   – Good relationships depend on mutual knowledge and trust. Customers typically know the companies they patronize frequently, but how well do those companies know their customers? Through VoC research, companies gain knowledge of what the customers want and need as well as the role the companies play in fulfilling them. The process itself humanizes the customer, making service providers even more excited to make them happy and build a lasting rapport. • Retention of Current Customers   – No matter how great inbound call center services are, problems are bound to arise occasionally. The efficiency and professionalism with which the company resolves customers’ problems improve their perception of the company and VoC can help make this process go smoothly. In fact, companies that use VoC effectively may experience up to a 55% increase in customer retention rates. • Increase in New Customers   – Satisfied customers are walking, talking advertisements for their favorite companies. When companies use VoC research to help improve services for their existing customers, the customers tell their friends. Companies who take advantage of the information they glean can improve their sales. • Improvement of Existing Products or Services   – Negative feedback can be a positive sign. It is proof that customers are invested enough to care how inbound call center services perform, and this input can lead to vast improvements in what the company already has on the market. • Inspiration For New Products or Services   – Information from VoC research helps companies identify needs that are not being met by their current offerings or the market in general. This gap can lead to the creation of innovative new products or services. When a company takes an interest in not only in its customers’ preferences but also their aversions, it can see a marked increase in customer satisfaction, marketing strategy success, and its bottom line. VoC research helps improve inbound call center services to inspire loyalty in existing customers and pique curiosity in new ones.

Why You Need Omnichannel Customer Engagement Solutions?

When a company is set in its ways, it can be a hard rush to encourage managers to create lasting change. This is as true for call centers as it is for other types of businesses. One aspect where companies can become stubborn is communication. A business that has excelled from taking only phone calls at their contact centers, for instance, may not be willing to open up new lines of communication through email, live chat, social media, and other omnichannel customer engagement options. Unfortunately, this would be to the detriment of the business. Here’s why. Some customers do prefer a phone call, but others may prefer to type a few words in a Facebook chatbox. Thus, by keeping multiple lines of communication open, i.e., offering omnichannel solutions, a company makes it easier for customers to resolve issues. Estimates say that 98% of your customers expect you to communicate consistently across multiple channels. If it is instead easier for a customer to engage with a competitor to start a new service than it is to reach your company to resolve their issues, you may lose that customer. They may also take a few family, friends, and followers with them. Shaping Customer Experience Customers generally have three points of contact with a business. The first occurs when they purchase a product or service. The second occurs during the use of the product or service. The third is if or when something goes wrong with the product or service, or the customer has a query. Depending on the type of business, customers come in contact with agents for at least two of these three points. As a result, contact centers play an integral role in shaping the customer experience, irrespective of their encounter with the actual product or service. 96% of consumers agree that an essential determining factor of whether or not they remain loyal to a company is the customer service experience. However, phone calls are not enough. More than half of customers prefer to text rather than call when seeking customer support. Forbes also notes that live chat is preferred by 41% of customers. Omnichannel customer service is especially important when a company’s main offering is a service. When there are intangible components of a business, customers may rely on the contact center team even more for support issues, such as troubleshooting a website glitch or questions regarding successful completion of an online course. When a customer has the option of accessing that support through multiple channels, the likelihood of them viewing the company more favorably tends to be higher. Benefits of Providing Omnichannel Service Higher customer satisfaction is the benefit most frequently cited for the use of omnichannel customer solutions, but it is not the only one. See below for some additional advantages of applying this strategy: Reduced Costs: When it comes to implementing big changes, one of the first things companies look to is their bottom line. The good news is that while there is an initial investment, switching to an omnichannel approach reduces call center costs over time. One reason for this is that self-help omnichannel solutions reduce the need for agents to tackle every potential issue themselves. A customer may find the answer on their own through FAQ web pages, branded videos, or even chatbots. Additional Insights: Social media, live chat, forums, and other aspects of the omnichannel strategy provides the opportunity to gain additional insights. Through these channels, companies can learn what customers love best about their products and services, what they hate most, why they stay, or why they chose a competitor. Increased Employee Productivity: Customers aren’t the only ones with a preference for certain communication channels. Some employees may also be better suited to texting or creating DIY videos than just taking phone calls. By matching employees with the communication channels that best suit them, you may increase employee engagement, motivation, and productivity. Reduction in Turnover: Companies are often so focused on customer retention that employee retention often falls by the wayside. Contrary to what many employers believe, providing employees with the option of manning the different forts of an omnichannel may increase employee retention for the reasons highlighted in the point above. It also introduces the element of choice and reduces monotony. In short, an omnichannel customer engagement strategy allows companies to communicate with people on their own terms, wherever they feel most comfortable. Customers are currently demanding better service and more accessibility to their favorite brands all around the world and this is one way to deliver this experience seamlessly. Would you like to introduce omnichannel customer solutions at your contact center? Contact Etech today to get the process started.

Are You Adapting Omni-Channel Customer Support?

Customer support was originally handled through three information channels: telephone, letter or in person. As technology advanced, however, the available communication tools evolved, moving toward digital and cloud services. Now, businesses must handle customer service communications through a multifaceted approach known as omnichannel. As defined, this new approach streamlines and unifies consumer information across all corporate and client touchpoints to provide seamless, universal and informed service, and it can be further defined through the four Ps: Pain-free The first P refers to the seamlessness of the customer experience during the point of contact and finding a solution. Is your business’ currently facilitating this process in the best way possible? Proactive Is your current service reactive or proactive? The second P is about being ahead of the curve when it comes to solutions. Therefore, provide answers to problems that customers haven’t asked yet. Personalized How attentive is the business to client needs? The third P requires a personalized approach, meaning that the old ways of one-size-fits-all don’t work in today’s customer service environment. Productive Lastly, the fourth P is focused on productivity. Are your service agents empowered to make unilateral decisions, or does everything have to go through upper management? Streamlining the decision process is the focus of omnichannel customer service. If your business is not yet in tangent with the four P’s, it is not too late to start. There are several steps your company can take to improve the consumer experience and better align itself with the principles of multichannel service. Understand Customer Behavior   The basis of business and customer support is to understand customer behavior, and in the current economic climate, it is more important than ever before. To understand consumers is to understand their behavior, and to acknowledge their actions. It is difficult to establish successful communication channels if you do not know where your client-base spends their time online. Knowing that the majority of your clients use platforms like Twitter and Facebook will allow you to divert budgetary dollars from other social platforms. Capitalize on Mobile Platforms   Also, while omnichannel efforts where once limited to desktop and laptop computers, there are now multiple ways for customers to use business platforms and to contact support. You will be hard-pressed to find consumers without mobile phones or tablets. Therefore, it is essential that companies design for mobile platforms. Allow for Self-service   Additionally, it is not always necessary to flood your patron’s inbox with personalized messages or to provide information only through a real person. Some people prefer a more introverted customer experience, meaning that they prefer self-service. Companies can accommodate these types of shoppers by providing thorough and robust FAQ pages. Integrate SMS   Omnichannel support often depends on a personal approach to consumer relations through the utilization of technology and its platforms. Therefore, to push your support features to the next level, offer SMS capabilities. The availability of text messaging and its nearly universal appeal make it a reliable way to provide service and support. Incorporate Live Chat   When discussing personalized service, you can’t get any better than offering live chats. While chatbots have their place in the streamlining process, a real person can provide empathy and relatability. A machine is not able to provide accurate as well as emotional support and understanding. Don’t Forget Email   Granted, it is easy to forget the old methods of letters and email, but each still holds value in the customer experience. By incorporating both personalization and technology, businesses are capable of crafting targeted email campaigns that can lead to satisfaction and further purchases. While technically optional, omnichannel customer service is an appreciated customer service approach that yields real results. However, for true effectiveness businesses must be capitalizing on this approach across every touchpoint. If you are interested in incorporating this multichannel strategy into your business, then contact Etech for a customized solution.

How Artificial Intelligence Humanizes Employee Communications and Customer Engagement

Images from the movies and popular culture might have you believing that machines are taking over the world. Cars carry on conversations with drivers or just drive themselves, robots are depicted as suitable dating partners, and that smartphone you keep on hand 24/7 probably recognizes your voice, face, and other biometrics. Contacting your utility company, buying groceries online, and ordering pizza delivery may not involve interacting with a human at all. In the world of business, Gartner estimates that by 2020, 85 percent of customer experience tasks will not involve a human. However, while it’s true that many functions in society can be automated, there’s still no substitute for the human touch. Many people are fairly adept at determining whether they’re dealing with a human or a machine and show a strong preference for the former. For that reason alone, fully automated customer experience tools are frustrating for many consumers, but that doesn’t mean they don’t have a place. When it comes to engaging your customers and crafting meaningful communications, you can draw on the best traits of human intelligence when combined with artificial intelligence to create a quality customer engagement experience. For example, you might use an AI tool to walk customers through very common tasks or questions. But when a complex problem emerges, and you have an exasperated client on your hands, you need a human to de-escalate the situation, share insights and find creative alternatives that preserve the relationship with the client. How does AI Helps in Customer Engagement? Data management: Customer service is more data-driven than ever. Demographics, buying preferences, touch points, and many other factors contribute to a massive set of data that no one person can cross reference and analyze alone. Artificial intelligence excels in that arena, but it’s still impossible to map out every possible scenario of behavior where humans are concerned. Buying decisions and concepts like customer loyalty are purely emotional concepts. Pairing a robust set of data points with a human mind that can interpret the emotions of a customer and pivot accordingly to is a winning formula. Faster response times: Even if the response to the customer is delivered by a human, using AI tools in the background to generate responses and possible courses of action make your representatives more agile and efficient. No more “brief holds to research this matter” unless it’s a lengthy and complex problem. Simple and common questions can be handled in their entirety by machines faster and more accurately than your human agents. You can even configure the AI tools to lead customers down a particular path and divert them to a human representative under certain conditions. Always available: Artificial intelligence tools can work round the clock every day of the year, so even when your human staff is off, automated responses can help clients find basic information. Customers who are ready to buy can do so on the spot. When your employees return to the office, they can focus on the more complicated tasks rather than wading through piles of routine requests that can consume the day. Why Does It Matter? A 2013 Zendesk report found that: Survey respondents indicated that customer service was the primary factor in whether or not they trusted a vendor. A good customer service experience led 42 percent of B2C customers to buy more from that provider. A bad experience led 52 percent to stop buying from that vendor. More than half of the companies surveyed by Gartner are using or will be using some form of artificial intelligence to improve customer experiences by 2020. If you’re ready to develop a plan for implementing artificial intelligence tools into your business processes, contact Etech today. This blog was earlier published on LinkedIn.

Improve Customer Experience With These Live Chat Etiquettes

The Importance of Chat Etiquettes The guiding principle for successfully providing customer service via live chat is to help the customer with the task or issue he or she contacted you about. It’s irrelevant whether you are handling the processing of an order, answering a billing question, or checking the status of a return; your job is the same. You can turn even a disgruntled client into a lifelong fan of your product or service by using appropriate live chat etiquette. Implement these 10 tips and watch your customer satisfaction scores soar. Know Your Stuff If you don’t know the product or service you’re supporting, it won’t matter how polite or friendly your sound. The fastest way to frustrate your customer is to display a lack of basic knowledge. Even if you don’t immediately know the answer to the problem at hand, you should at least know how to find it. Familiarize yourself with the visitor-facing portion of the company’s website so you can quickly direct your customer to the correct place if he or she is looking for product details or the FAQ section. Don’t Lose Focus While it’s important to be friendly and personable as a part of live chat etiquette, it’s also easy to drift off course into small talk in the name of polite customer service. Remember that your goal is to fix the issue the customer contacted you about. Be ready to gently steer the conversation back to the problem at hand if things seem to be getting off track. Listen Most products and services have features that generate questions from users regularly. You may feel that you answer the same queries every day and can make assumptions based on those experiences. However, listening to the customer’s words as they describe what they are struggling with is critical. Don’t assume their problem is the same as everyone else. Tell the Truth If you make a promise to a customer, keep it. That seems like a pretty simple principle of live chat etiquette, but operators get tripped up on it often. Don’t offer something that you don’t have the authority to follow through on, and if you do make a promise, stay with it until you know it’s done. Explain Yourself Rather than just replying to a question with a yes or a no, provide an explanation for why that is the answer. Even if the customer doesn’t like the answer, he or she is more likely to accept it if they understand the reasoning behind it. Know When You’re In Over Your Head If you find yourself faced with a customer support issue that you simply cannot solve, don’t be afraid to admit that to the client. Reassure him or her that repeating the whole story won’t be necessary, and then transfer everything you’ve done so far to the more senior agent to maintain the live chat etiquette. Speak Clearly Remember that the person you are communicating with may not be knowledgeable of all the abbreviations, technical terms, and other jargon associated with your product or service. At least initially, ask basic questions in simple terms. If you establish that the customer is more advanced, then you can elevate the terminology of the conversation. Keep It, Professional While it’s tempting to lapse into less formal language using slang or shortcut spelling, resist the urge. In a professional environment, stick to proper grammar and sentence structure to build your customer’s confidence in you. Don’t Leave Your Customer Hanging If you need to put the conversation on hold to research or get more information, be sure to communicate to the other party what you are doing. If you just disappear, the customer might think something happened to the connection. There’s no such thing as overcommunicating in the world of live chat etiquette. Try to Fix It With One Chat Customers feel most confident and happiest with your service when you answer their questions or fix an issue with one call. Having to contact your company again and again with the same problem damages brand loyalty and makes the customer less likely to recommend your products because of a bad customer service experience. Remember the Impact Obviously, most consumers wish they never had to reach out for support of a product or service. But if they do need to, the best way to turn around that negative experience is to provide a customer support experience that is so good and so helpful they want to tell their friends about it. In a 2017 study by Northridge Group, 81 percent of customers surveyed reported that the quality of the support experience would be a determining factor in whether they continued to use a product or service. If you need help in establishing a world-class live chat support team, contact Etech.

5 Effective Tips to Raise Your Customer Service Standards

What Are Your Company’s Customer Service Standards? According to the Institute of Customer Service, your company’s customer service standards should include clearly defined and communicated expectations for timeliness, applicability, and accuracy. Service-level agreements are ideal examples of defined standards. It’s not enough to say that you’ll answer all calls within a reasonable period of time. Instead, a defined service level agreement would state that between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. Monday through Friday, calls will be answered within an average of 30 seconds at least 98 percent of the time. Applicability relates to inquiries from customers, clients, or potential clients. The expectation is that 100 percent of the time, the response to an inquiry will answer all the parts of the question correctly. Setting applicability standards makes it clear to internal and external stakeholders that giving out incorrect or incomplete information is unacceptable in your organization. Applicability is a strong proponent of an effortless customer experience. Accuracy as part of customer service standards, for every business, should be 100 percent. Nothing less is acceptable in-house because nothing less is acceptable to your customers. Accuracy and applicability go hand in hand – applicability applies to information, and accuracy to products, or service delivery. How Can You Raise Your Standards? Now that you’ve defined your standards and expectations, how can you improve their success rate? No matter how good you are, you can always aim higher. These five tips can help you move the needle Omni-Channel Experience: Omnichannel is a cross-channel content strategy that organizations use to improve their user experience. Rather than working in parallel, communication channels and their supporting resources are designed and orchestrated to cooperate. Whether your client interacts with your business via voice call, chat, email, social media, text messaging, website, or some other method, every interaction is recorded and related so that future touchpoints all share the same information. An example of a seamless omnichannel experience would be when a customer sends a message through your Facebook page with a question about a product and later calls the customer service phone number, the phone representative can see the information from the Facebook interaction and have a complete and up to date picture of the situation. Empowerment: Even in the age of so much technology, the human touch still reigns supreme when it comes to customer experience and satisfaction. Consumers expect a confident, knowledgeable voice on the other end of the line to take care of their questions or issue accurately and efficiently, preferably on the first interaction. However, your team members can only do that if they are knowledgeable, empowered to make decisions for the customer and the company, and have the technical toolbox required to deliver on each interaction. You must make sure they have the tools at hand and the authority built into your policies to take care of your customers without having to climb ladders for permission. Agent Experience directly translates into Customer Experience; any friction points the agent encounters will ultimately be felt by the customer. Developing a culture of servant leadership combined with purposeful training, coaching, and development provide agent the confidence they need to expertly handle each customer. Tie Your KPIs to Customer Service: Key performance indicators (KPIs) have traditionally been tied to quantity measurements, such as the number of calls processed per hour. Times-they-are-a-changing; more and more organizations now understand the value of tying customer satisfaction to the company’s overall performance measures. Team members who use everything within their power to create satisfied customers are now recognized as some of a company’s most valuable assets. They have the powerful ability to encourage loyalty and a deeper relationship with your customers. Prioritize culture, training, and employ enrichment and the numbers will follow; a robust and action-oriented ESAT program creates an environment of engaged employees and shared success. Consolidate Your Data: Gone are the days when each department within your company kept a separate file on each customer. With customer management software available in almost every industry, it’s easy to pull together a profile on each customer that the different areas can share. Your sales department can see how a client interacts with materials from marketing, for example. Your customer service team should have immediate access to client profiles so they can make the best decision possible. Data consolidation is the first step toward a cross-channel strategy. Integrate Artificial Intelligence: Artificial intelligence (AI) is not ready to replace your human customer service agents, but it has advanced enough to handle routine tasks or common inquiries. Many consumers consider it a good customer service experience when they can quickly and easily find what they need on your website or through your app. Automation adaption and bots can efficiently handle high-frequency, low-value interactions. This frees up your agents to handle more complex issues that require in-depth support. This balance of human and artificial intelligence can create a winning combination for satisfied clients. Why Does It Matter? Your company probably spends a significant part of its budget on marketing to draw in new customers. However, it’s equally important to hold onto the clients once you have them. Establishing high standards is only the beginning. Maintaining those standards requires constant vigilance, data gathering, communication, and analysis. With the advent of social media, the customer’s voice is amplified, and word of a bad customer service experience spreads like wildfire. That makes high customer service standards critically important to your company’s success. If you’re exploring service standards and experience management programs, Contact Etech today. We specialize in setting the bar high and consistently exceeding it! This blog was earlier published on LinkedIn.

How To Empower Employees and Ensure a Great Customer Experience

Employee empowerment has many benefits. Empowered employees tend to be more committed to the company, which translates into lower turnover rates, improved processes, and greater customer satisfaction. Customer success is directly impacted by how connected employees are to the vision and believe their strengths and contributions are being utilized. While employee engagement is on the rise in the U.S., there is always room for improvement. Here are some ways you can improve your company culture and customer experience by empowering employees to work to their full potential. Proper Tools To Do the Job   To provide fast, efficient service, your employees need fast, efficient tools. Employee empowerment is difficult if your representatives have to struggle to make the technology and resources you’ve provided work for them. The more user-friendly your programs are, the easier it is for workers to resolve customers’ issues. To maximize the customer experience, many companies put the employee experience on the back burner. Unfortunately, the stress caused by neglecting employees’ needs inevitably trickles down to the customer. Shifting your focus to employee experience can increase satisfaction in both. Providing everything the workers need to do the best job they can do lets them know that you have enough confidence in them to invest in their work. Happy representatives pass on that happiness to your customers. High Standards for Performance and Service   Setting high standards can contribute to employee empowerment. Communicating well about company goals and how employees fit in the plan can give them a sense of purpose. This is not always as simple as it may look at first. Several key variables must be enacted for this important element of empowerment not to backfire: Hire motivated individuals. When you increase your hiring standards, you can expect that the productivity of those you hire will also be elevated. You can improve your hiring process with group interviews, which not only show how prospective employees act toward management but also how they treat their peers. It is also a good idea to exchange some of your standard interview questions with more open-ended questions that provide specific scenarios and ask how applicants would handle them. Provide clear and continuous training. Starting a new job is itself a big change, so the very beginning of an employee’s tenure at your company may not be the best time to dump everything they will ever need to know on them. Employee empowerment starts with giving new employees an adequate time frame for basic training. Then they can reap the benefits of continuous training as new responsibilities are added or new technologies come into play. Fight the urge to micromanage. If you want to communicate that you trust your employees to be competent enough to do what they’ve been trained to do, you must allow them to make the decisions they’re qualified to make. Set the end goal, but trust employees to use their creativity and resources to achieve it. Employee empowerment is based on action. You can say that you trust your employees all you want, but if you have set clear expectations yet are still requiring them to run their office supply order by you before submitting it, your overbearing actions are likely to drown out your encouraging words. Show a direct link between their behavior and customer satisfaction. Creating a great customer experience depends on the inner workings of the organization as a whole. Show your employees how they affect the customers’ views of the company, and keep them as informed as possible. This is especially important for those employees who are working at the front desk. Don’t put them in the position of being the last to know something when they are likely the first to be asked. Exceptional Professional Development   Some employee empowerment strategies can produce the opposite of their intended effect. If employees are entrusted with more responsibilities but are not given the tools or support they need to do them; they are more likely to become overwhelmed than inspired. Some employees respond differently than others to the increased attention that empowering leaders often give. It pays to be sensitive to how your efforts are affecting your employees. One way to do so is to make the empowerment strategies about their professional development. If the extra focus you are putting on them shows a genuine interest in how their career is progressing and how you can help, even hesitant employees may be more receptive to it. By incorporating employee empowerment practices in your business, you build a more cohesive team. As employees become more invested in how well the company does, their empowerment will lead to the improved customer experience. This blog was first published on LinkedIn.

Artificial Intelligence: Streamlining Contact Center Technology

It is hard to believe it now, but artificial intelligence used to be nothing more than a futuristic dream. It was portrayed in old movies as the vehicle that would completely change the world and propel our culture to unimaginable heights. Now, artificial intelligence—the stuff of the future—is all around us, and we are still learning just how much it can benefit us. In addition to improving our daily lives by helping us find restaurants, driving us around in our vehicles, and even controlling the lights and appliances in our homes, AI is also improving the world of business in a variety of ways. Automated systems are especially helpful for call centers, and Gartner predicts that non-voice interactions in customer service settings will likely rise to 85 percent by the year 2020. Many contact centers are discovering how artificial intelligence can benefit them and help them turn a greater profit while serving customers’ needs more effectively. If your contact center does not currently make use of AI, you may be spending more than you need to and missing out on your full potential to appease the needs of your customers. Consumers are increasingly desiring self-service options, but they still want the ability to speak with a live customer service agent if needed. When you offer digital solutions that recognize and predict the needs of your customers, you create a seamless user experience. While artificial intelligence should never replace the human component of your contact center, it can be used to help busy call centers handle larger call volumes with greater efficiency. How Artificial Intelligence Drives Effortless Customer Experience With Human Touch   One of the most universal challenges experienced by businesses of all types is the constant struggle to improve the customer experience. In fact, 72 percent of businesses list customer experience improvement as their top priority, according to recent data published by Forrester. Call centers that experience a high volume of customer service calls may consistently struggle to deliver a quick and effective customer service experience. Since recent research from NewVoiceMedia reveals that companies in the United States lose approximately $62 billion each year as a direct result of poor customer service, it is imperative for companies to turn the statistics in their favor by taking actionable steps to improve the customer experience for their consumer base. One of the most effective ways to do this is by incorporating artificial intelligence into the call center customer service process. Using AI in the call center can improve customer service operations in the following ways: Improving business agility Achieving operational excellence Providing machine-centric intelligence with human-centric interaction Increasing versatility and flexibility Predicting customer behavior Maximizing available resources and reducing operating costs Delivering a consistent, reliable experience to each customer Meeting customer needs around-the-clock Creating relationship-based interactions instead of transaction-based interactions Speech recognition systems can be implemented to relieve the burden of high call volume from human agents. Such systems can also take care of after-hours phone calls when call center agents are not available. This benefit makes it possible for businesses to take care of customer needs around-the-clock, without paying call center agents for graveyard shifts or overtime. In a digital age, more customers expect businesses to be able to meet their demands 24/7, and implementing a speech recognition into your call center can help you live up to evolving consumer expectations. When integrated into the call center, advanced speech recognition systems, such as interactive voice response (IVR) systems, make it possible for customers to easily navigate through a menu of options by using their voice instead of the telephone keypad. Other call center speech recognition options include speech-to-text, voice search, call routing, and voice dialing. For many businesses, automating the telephone answering system is an efficient way to handle anywhere between 40-85 percent of incoming calls. More and more businesses are leveraging the efficiency and predictability of speech recognition systems to improve efficiency and anticipate customer needs. Achieving the ideal blend between an automated, self-service environment and live agent interaction in the call center is a challenge worth pursuing. Providing customers with the option to navigate self-service systems without taking away their ability to talk to a real person as needed comes with a variety of benefits, including cost savings, more efficient customer service and improved customer experience. How to Use Artificial Intelligence As an Effective Quality Monitoring Solution   If you were to ask 10 different companies for the definition of “excellent customer service”, you would probably get 10 different answers. There is no single, universal definition of superior customer service that can be applied to all businesses. For this reason, it can be hard to nail down the standards that you need your call center team to adhere to in order to deliver the highest level of customer satisfaction. The challenge of determining, analyzing, and enforcing behaviors and actions that meet excellent service standards for your business most likely falls on the shoulders of your quality monitoring group. Their task is a monumental one, but it is necessary for delivering a concise, uniform approach to customer service. By using updated Artificial Intelligence software, it is possible to increase the effectiveness of your quality monitoring team. The highly accurate data provided by the AI software can direct your quality monitoring team to changes that may need to be made by call center representatives. The end result is an improvement in your contact center’s processes and methods for interacting with customers. Automating your quality monitoring system can provide some of the following improvements to your business: Reduced agent effort Better sales results Compliance with regulatory requirements Improved customer experience Artificial intelligence, when used correctly in a call center, can effortlessly monitor and gather valuable data from your team’s phone calls, chats and emails. It can also assist management in identifying opportunities to improve customer satisfaction, sales conversions and processes. Speech recognition technology is capable of anticipating customer needs and quickly delivering predictions and solutions that are specific to each

Want to improve Customer Experience? These are the 3 Technologies that you should be aware of!

Customer Experience successfully drives the business to the path of growth and profit. It is the critical competitive differentiation that sets a business apart from its competitors. Here are the three technologies that are imperative for delivering the best customer experience. Said so, it is essential to understand that the technology is just the enabler and a good CX is the outcome of the consolidation of people, processes, and technology. Most importantly the company’s people are the face of CX. “A brand is defined by the Customer’s experience. The experience is delivered by the employees.” – Shep Hyken Live Chat Today’s customers don’t like to wait. They want an immediate response and what can be a better way than Live Chat! Live Chat helps to cater customer needs efficiently. It gives an open-ended platform for offering instant support and timely assistance. Various studies have shown that implementing live chat services has significantly improved customer satisfaction. In one of Inc’s article, it was stated that 92% of customers feel satisfied when they use the live chat feature. WHY? Customers find live chat to be very convenient as they can connect with an agent instantly and get real-time and personalized support. Their issues get addressed swiftly. The other best thing they find about live chat is that they can multi-task while having a conversation with the live chat agent, which they consider to be an added advantage. Artificial Intelligence It’s no secret that Artificial intelligence is flourishing and expanding its horizons every single day. With AI companies will be more efficiently and effectively be able to meet customer’s requirement and needs. HOW? For instance, data insights play a pivotal role in CX enhancement. However, customer experience data comes in the form of messy, unorganized datasets that need to be reformed into rational patterns to derive positive outcome. The tedium of pulling the data sets together and transforming them into no-complex consistent patterns is overwhelming. But for AI this is the prime stomping ground. It does it seamlessly and in a minor time frame. It’s high time that people start looking at AI with a different paradigm; it is not here to replace humans but to assist them. Combining AI and Human Intelligence can lead to seamless customer experience! Big Data Analytics Big data analytics is a game changer of the CX world. The application of this technology is transforming the way the businesses are interacting with their customers. WHERE? Big Data Analytics comes handy while analyzing the data collected from customers, and providing tailor-made solutions as per the expectations and aspiration of the customer. As showcased in a Salesforce survey 57% of customers share their personal data with companies for receiving discounts and personalized offers. Big Data Analytics helps in analyzing this humongous amount of data obtained from customers into an actionable way. It thus, aid in providing personalized services and delivering a better customer experience. Integrating these technologies into your business will help you to meet today’s customers’ expectations and to stay at the top in the battlefield of customer experience. This blog was earlier published on LinkedIn.

Using AI To Enhance the Customer Experience in Call Centers

In the past Companies controlled the buying process and the customer journey, with the IoT that shift has moved to the consumer. If you really want to lead in the marketplace you must focus on customer experience. As customer service evolved, the consumers now do business based on customer experience. In this blog we will discuss how the greatest advantages technology can give us is access to this information. One example is purchase tracking, which companies can use to supply suggestions based on past buys. You can apply this same concept to your customers’ experience with service representatives if you have the right tools. Problems With Traditional QA Processes Quality assurance (QA) exists to ensure that consumers are receiving the best experience when they communicate with your company. However, many businesses make a mistake right out the gate by establishing QA standards based on what they think their customers want, rather than what customers are actually asking for. This isn’t necessarily a business’s fault. The crux of the issue is a lack of concrete data, which may be caused by limited resources to collect said data. When employees are responsible for all call monitoring, only a tiny portion of calls—sometimes as low as 1 percent—can actually be listened to. Unfortunately, that’s not enough to be a representative sample for analysis purposes. A lack of real data can lead companies to guess at what creates a great customer experience, which may do more harm than good. To better offer what your clients want, you need a reliable, efficient way to monitor calls and collect data—which brings us to AI. AI and Data Collection Artificial intelligence (AI) is a vital component of automation and can be a powerful tool when used correctly. Since according to an article by eMarketer, about three-fourths of customers feel that the best service is provided by a real person, the key isn’t necessarily more automation but strategic automation. In the case of call centers, AI can be utilized to evaluate calls, thereby increasing both efficiency (since software can listen to more calls) and data collection. When it comes to this second point, it’s essential that the AI used is dynamic, meaning that it can learn. An AI programmed to listen to agent and customer interactions, for example, can learn to identify a number of factors that may influence a QA score, such as: Tone Business policy Contextual conversations Keywords that indicate an escalation In fact, you may be able to customize your AI to recognize different factors based on your market. For example, if your company is a virtual bank, you may want the AI to track how many calls are related to website navigation, so you can determine if your site is easy to use. The Customer Experience Of course, AI alone can’t create the prime experience your customers expect. You need knowledgeable people to analyze the accumulated data and identify any trends that result in churn. You then need people to take this information and translate it into practices. Finally, you need people to implement those practices in the day-to-day and deliver that human touch. Think of AI not as a replacement for human employees but a valuable tool your business can use to elevate your call center to its greatest potential. Here at Etech, we pride ourselves on supplying innovative solutions to help our clients offer the best customer experiences to their own consumers. To learn more about our call-center technology, call us at 936-371-2640 or visit us online. This blog was first published on LinkedIn.

Combining AI and Human Intelligence Can Lead to a Seamless Customer Experience

Ongoing developments in technology have resulted in artificial intelligence that is capable of mimicking many human behaviors and responses. This increasing capability has been much appreciated by those who manage overloaded call centers. This is not to say that AI is set to take over the call center industry, only that it has been proven to be increasingly beneficial on many levels. The human touch will always be required to keep customers completely satisfied. Call centers must, in essence, use the right blend of human emotion and automation to fully benefit from these recent technological innovations. The Unintended Cold Response Though automated systems in call center environments have become more common, many situations still call for the ever-important human touch. This touch must be professional, proficient and empathetic to the customer’s needs. Call centers that rely too heavily on colder automated intelligence in order to cut costs or attain desired results frequently find that the loss of the competent, warm human touch leads to growing customer attrition rates. Customers may also perceive a cold response in relation to a phone interaction when an AI program becomes outdated. All too frequently, customers become stuck in a loop of repeating responses to an AI system that simply cannot process the information correctly. And a dissatisfied customer today is a lost customer, as there are plenty of options from which they can choose. Evaluating the proper role of AI in a call center environment as well as the need to update and review the effectiveness of such software is a must in an era where customer satisfaction rates mean everything. The Best Balance Of paramount importance is the ability of an AI program to recognize the point in a call indicating that a customer should immediately be transferred from an automated system to a live agent. The more quickly and easily this task can be completed matters as this tends to be the point at which customers begin to be dissatisfied with the level of automated service. Interaction with an empathetic agent is often just the right move. In order to determine the correct balance between artificial and human intelligence, companies must start with analytics. An automated call center program should be capable of listening to agent interactions, caller queues and gathering additional information. This information, when presented correctly to call center managers, can show where changes in policy, format or wording need to be made. The right balance means that customers are happy because they feel their needs were truly met. Past information is Critical for Future Success Data that is gathered in the background of each and every call can provide invaluable information. With such data, call center managers can figure out what irritates callers, makes them happy, soothes them or drives them completely away. Managers can use this critical data to change automated responses, increase or decrease the number of options available to each caller or even give customers the ability to skip all automation and work solely with a live agent. As AI increases in intelligence, it can also offer invaluable insights, such as suggestions on which department might be best able to assist customers based on specific indicators. Going even further, some AI technology is advanced enough that it can pair customers with specific needs to the agent who will be most able to assist with each specific issue. Such beneficial use of data only works to increase overall customer satisfaction rates. The Combination of AI and HI Can Still be Personal The end goal for every customer interaction in a call center environment should be great customer service, whether the customer is interacting with a human agent or with an automated program. By considering the ways that customer experiences might be personalized, contact center managers often come up with innovative ideas. For example, a system that is able to link a customer phone number to a name and basic information leaves many customers feeling relieved that they were not required to waste time providing information the company already had. Introduce Human Intelligence to its Artificial Counterpart While some call center agents might consider AI as an inconvenient eavesdropper listening in the background of every call, others realize just how many benefits are derived from the data gathered. Not only can this data make callers happier, it can also make the workload a little lighter for agents. Managers that take time to educate call center employees about the benefits and end-results of artificial intelligence have found that agents appreciate and tend to work more willingly with this amazing technology instead of considering it the enemy. Whether these benefits include decreased talk time, an easing of calls during the busiest times of day or automated suggestions about which department might be the most beneficial for each caller, it is certain that both agents and customers can grow to love the AI + HI combination. As humanity continues to realize the benefits gained from technology, it is becoming easier to appreciate the seamless results derived from the interplay of artificial intelligence and human intelligence, especially when it means better customer service. This blog was first published on LinkedIn

Can Hybrid Intelligence help Artificial Intelligence and Human Intelligence Coexist?

The days of mentioning artificial intelligence only in the realms of science fiction are long gone. Today, AI is all around us, though many do not even realize it is there. Still, some think that AI is going to take over in our workplaces, in our cars and in our homes. And the thought of being completely replaced by such technology is enough to make some people resistant to any new technology. In truth, artificial intelligence can and does coexist with human intelligence each and every day, and the world is a better place because of this compatibility. Such compatibility in a work environment can be called a hybrid workforce or hybrid intelligence. In such a group, both parties work toward common, superior results which can be accomplished more easily than if each group was working on its own. Peaceful Coexistence is Already Here One example of just such a multiplicity or hybrid workforce can be seen in industry giants such as Facebook and Google. In each of these companies, technologies that are driven by AI recommendations combine with human input, typically generated when human device users click, like or conduct frequent searches. The result of the combined information is the ability to predict what consumers would like to see or purchase next. In the future, AI is predicted to evolve and become less dependent on human intelligence, though there will always be a need for some level of interaction. Another entity benefiting from the combined efforts of AI and HI is Amazon Go. In this instance, the human input includes what would seem to be a very normal day in the grocery store. However, each time a customer picks up an item from the shelf and puts it in the cart, an AI system keeps track in a virtual cart. Because all items have been accounted for and tallied while the customer shops, there is no need for a stop at a cashier’s desk. Instead, customers simply walk out of the store with their selected items. AI takes care of the rest as a credit card linked to the customer’s Amazon account is charged and a receipt is sent. Changing the Workplace Hybrid workforces are already changing other types of work, typically done only by humans, is completed as well. For instance, one artificial intelligence system powered by IBM Watson analytics was given the challenge of being an online teaching assistant for a professor. The professor estimated that in only a year, the AI system could answer 40% of the questions students asked which allowed the human assistants to engage in other, more complex tasks. Again, nobody in this department expects that AI will begin to answer 100% of the questions and begin teaching the online course, removing the need for humans completely. Instead, they are able to see the harmonious existence and make good use of the time the AI system has managed to free up. Benefits of AI Some who are still resistant to the increasing use of AI ask the age old question “but do we really need it”. The answer becomes clear as benefits are discovered. Because AI is machine learning, the chance of making errors is very small. The came simply cannot be said with human counterparts. And most business owners know that human error and sometimes system error can result in a loss of capital almost every time. This is where AI can be beneficial. One new type of AI system has been installed above cashier stands in retail locations. Though it is almost unnoticeable, the system scans each transaction and sends an alert if an item fails to scan or if a cashier fails to scan something. Again, the human is necessary in this instance, the AI system stands as the failsafe for the company’s best financial interest. Benefits of Etech Insights Etech Global services understands that customers are the most important asset to every company and as such has committed to using all types of intelligence in the quest to improve the customer experience. One such solution, powered by AI and carried out by HI is known as Etech Insights. This innovative system provides actionable date that helps contact centers succeed by: Improving the customer experience Boost agent performance Increase profitability Increase span of influence Contact centers using this system benefit from massive quantities of data gathered and analyzed in the background by the AI engine. Once performance enhancing behaviors and voice-of-customer insights are presented, contact center managers can work with agents to improve even the seemingly insignificant parts of a call routine. Quality monitoring, Customer satisfaction rates and benchmarking all become one step easier with the acceptance and use of Hybrid intelligence. This blog was first published on LinkedIn

Why Your Customer’s Experience Is Important

Your customers do more than just buy your products or use your services. They experience your brand. Good experiences lead to higher revenues. Deliver a lousy experience, and you may end up lining the pockets of your competitors. Customer experiences are the interactions your company has with the buyers you depend on for revenue. It encompasses more than just call center responses. It’s how your website works, the warranty you offer, and your public image. It’s every possible factor that might influence the way your customers interact with your brand. The Emphasis Shift to Customer Experience A competitive market becomes more intense for suppliers as buyers start refining their demands. Product offerings start to become less and less distinguishable, and your customers begin to take more notice of your service habits. Market research confirms the following insights: Customers make their buying decisions based primarily on how they feel. Most consumers report being willing to pay more for a better experience. Customer experience will replace price as a critical predictor of consumer behavior by 2020. Your customers will throw their support behind companies able to deliver higher quality interactions. The demand signal from the market shows that the experiences you provide matters. Now, most companies report that improving customer experience is a top priority, but few leading firms really know how to go about achieving such a lofty goal. The Current Demands of Buyers Customer service is just a small part of the overall experience. The way your business advertises and follow up with potential buyers is also essential. Businesses need to adjust their habits to take advantage of the market’s new demand for complete experiential treatment. Here are some common points of failure in the business/customer relationship: Making customers repeat themselves when attempting to get concerns resolved Forcing customers to wait more than five minutes for assistance Leaving questions unanswered Failing to disclose pricing information Customers are twice as likely to report a bad experience to their friends than share a positive one. To make matters worse, it requires more than ten times the effort to overcome a negative experience and rebuild lost trust. Customers are willing to give your competitors a chance and often abandon transactions entirely. Poor customer experience accounts for higher rates of customer churn. Omnichannel Product Delivery Technology drives the market by opening new channels to distribute goods. In addition to store fronts, businesses must also be ready to sell products through online markets, web pages, and cell phone apps. Customers demand consistent positive experiences across platforms, but many companies are not keeping pace: Failure to integrate data gathered through different sales channels Customer service agents unable to resolve complaints from multiple media sources Unprepared to address customers using multiple channels at the same time Those firms able to coordinate their different channels and provide a consistently positive experience have the best chance of retaining the most business. Customers demand quick answers and consistent responses regardless of how they try to purchase your products. Many buyers in stores carry mobile devices and price check your goods before heading to the checkout counter. Gathering Customer Experience Data Knowledge is the key to developing a successful customer experience strategy. ETECH Insights helps you gather the data on your operations you need to make better decisions. This blog was first published on LinkedIn

3 Ways to Enhance Customer Experience in the Call Center

Call centers have come along way from the institutions that emerged in the 1960s to efficiently handle high volumes of customer calls. Today’s call centers have evolved with emerging technologies, and changed tactics based on consumer needs, but at the root of call center developments still stands the ever important need for high-quality customer service. For many consumers call center agents are the face of the companies they are reaching out to, as they may be the first, if not the only contact customers have. The level of service received in a call center can determine whether or not customers continue to do business with a particular company. It is crucial that agents do all they can to improve customer satisfaction rates. Some key tactics for success can be: reducing hold times, providing excellent servant leadership, and managing the call flow effectively. Keep Hold Times Short Most customers enter into interactions with agents expecting them to be able to solve their problem or answer their question without placing them on hold. While putting a customer on hold is sometimes necessary, it is important to remember that most customers do not view a company as having multiple layers and teams. Customers, may view a firm as one massive structure, and they expect the call center agent they have been connected with to have the right information for their need. Though it is best to keep transfers or hold times to a minimum there are a few simple steps that can decrease waits and increase the chances of giving customers a good experience and a positive impression. Explain the necessity of a short hold. When call center employees need to put someone on hold, they should explain what they are about to do and why. When a customer understands how the process is unfolding and that a brief wait is vital in order for an agent to solve their problem, they are more likely to be patient and understanding, thus streamlining the entire process. Regularly train agents. Call center employees are a direct link between a company and its customers. Positive or negative, the experience will define what customers think about a business. Recurring training and coaching for call agents is vital to reducing waits and producing a high level of positive interaction with the public. Daily refresher courses can help agents remember what to do and provide them with the latest product and service information so they have the best possible chance of providing customers with good experiences. Use a knowledge base. A pool of information available to agents can dramatically lessen waiting times as well as enhance customers’ experiences. Empower Employees Modern business is fast-paced and globalized, and companies are expected function quickly and make the most of resources. By empowering and building up employees through servant leadership, businesses can enjoy success both now and in the future. Servant leaders focus on finding new ways to encourage others through helping them discover and exercise their own powers and abilities- and then giving them the tools to use them. When businesses focus on enhancing servant leadership within the ranks of call center employees, they can provide improved customer service. Organize Call Flow Call center agents specialize in different areas. One agent is not going to be equipped to solve all problems they may be presented with alone. Businesses should ensure that their call center has measures in place that efficiently route customer calls to the agent who can best help them. There are a variety of useful software available to help companies develop an effective forwarding system. Enhanced Experiences for Agents and Callers By incorporating enhanced practices and techniques, businesses can further the call center experience for customers as well as for agents. Reducing hold times, empowering employees by fostering an atmosphere of servant leadership, and managing call flow are just some of the ways companies can build future success by raising customer satisfaction rates today. Putting good practices in place in these are areas will push your customer interactions further, and make your agents more successful. This blog was first published on LinkedIn

Elements of Great Customer Experience

Providing great customer service is a top priority for most businesses, and for many businesses, providing great customer service can often be what gives them the edge over their competition. However, even in companies with solid customer service operations, it is not uncommon, when delving beneath the surface, to find a few inconsistencies and at times, a lack of understanding. So how does an organization overcome these issues and lay a solid foundation of customer service? Below are some tips that may be helpful. Defining the concept The first step to laying a solid foundation of customer service is to develop an understanding of and improve any inconsistencies in your customer service program. The best way to do this is to come together as a group and define what customer service means in the particular context in which your company operates. For example, a business consultancy is going to interact with its customers very differently than a cinema yet both can be great in their own way. While a business consultancy will likely have fewer customers, they will work with their customers on a more close and personal level. They’re likely going to have a very long-term relationship with their customers and will have the luxury of getting to know their customers personally, and over time, understand their needs and what makes them “tick.” Their customer service is going to look very personal and slightly different with each customer. On the other hand, a business such as a cinema will see many customers throughout their day and have very brief but similar interactions with each one. For them, great customer service may be as simple as moving their customers through their lines as quickly and courteously as possible. This is why it is so important that everyone involved understands the particular framework that defines great customer service within the context that the company operates. Internal Marketing from the top down The second step in laying a solid foundation for customer service is the development of a strong company culture of service that originates with the company leadership. The process by which employees are inducted into the company’s culture is known as internal marketing. When the CEO and CFO are profoundly committed to excellent customer service, then the necessary resources and training for each employee are more likely to be prioritized. This commitment has a way of “filtering down” through the entire organization thus fostering a culture of excellent customer service. The most successful customer service operations are those where the drive for customer service excellence comes from the top down. Strong leadership, consistent communication and high-quality training are key. Stay true to who you are, but be flexible Finally, the third step in laying a solid foundation for effective customer-service program is to be true to who you are. In other words, don’t get caught up in changing market dynamics that may tend to alter how you do business. Stay committed to your priority of excellent customer service, but use change and technology to your advantage. Remember, you drive your company’s customer service “engine” not changing market dynamics, so keep your principles and priorities at the forefront of your daily operations. In doing so, your company will always have the competitive edge.

Top 7 KPI’s to Measure Your Customer Experience Levels

Enhancing customer experience is an absolute priority for corporations today. To determine if customer service meets expectations, you need the ability to measure the key performance indicators (KPIs). There are numerous KPIs for measuring the success of your customer service strategies. Following are the top seven KPIs your business might consider utilizing to measure customer experience and service levels. Net Promoter Score (NPS) Customers who are pleased with your customer service may suggest your business to family and friends. This becomes your company’s NPS. The rate of people who recommend your company to others can be a valid measure of customer satisfaction. Brand attributes Obtaining feedback about how customers describe your brand is a good measure of customer service and an indication of where you stand in your customers’ eyes. Also, you’ll discover what qualities to focus on to enable customers to see your brand in a selective light. Competitor comparison While customer retention and overall satisfaction are useful metrics for measuring service, it is critical to discern how your company stacks up against competitors, because even loyal customers may choose competitors for single purchases or interactions. External industry benchmarks It is crucial to recognize how your brand stacks up against the competition. Collect external benchmarking survey data to compare your brand to your closest competitors because even the highest-rated companies only succeed about 88 percent of the time, leaving plenty of room for improvement. Conversion rate Following an interaction with a customer, determine the likelihood that they will take some action, such as making a purchase. This number should be high if your customer service is excellent. Resolved issues Looking at all of the issues that your customer service team has fixed is an ideal method to form a snapshot of your company’s customer service. Regardless of your firm’s success, there will be problems and grievances. However, if your team can solve them efficiently and in a manner that creates a good experience for the customer, that is evidence of valuable service experiences. Overall satisfaction Although every business aims for 100 percent satisfaction 100 percent of the time, it just isn’t realistic. What is realistic is to expect customer satisfaction KPI to always be rising. You can track whether or not your rating is going up by setting internal benchmarks. You can target problem areas, set goals, and make changes to enhance your customer satisfaction rating the intelligent way. To improve upon something, it must first be controlled. To control something, measurements are required. Your business provides an experience, satisfies the customer, and builds a relationship that ultimately translates to conversion. Monitoring the health of your business requires measuring customer experiences and understanding which KPI to select to enhance customer experiences. With the right KPIs, you can recognize the direction your business is going and whether or not your customers are satisfied with your service. Etech Global Services delivers intelligent sales, technology, and customer service solutions. Contact us today for help building a stronger brand, strengthening customer relationships, and gaining your share of the market.

How to Grow and Deliver a Superior Customer Experience

When running any business, even a call center, the goal is to ensure it grows every year and deliver a superior customer experience. In my experience everyone is happy when the company can deliver superior service, the clients, the management, and the end consumers. It’s a win-win for everyone. It is therefore safe to say that, your call center activities should enable you to become superior around quality and delivery of world class service. The real question is what are the reasons holding you back from becoming superior or delivering world class service? As I was thinking about this lately, I looked at the structure and operations of Etech Global Services, what has helped us to keep improving and offering superior quality to our clients? I will highlight three main reasons that I believe have made a huge difference. Leadership The leadership of a company builds or destroys it. As a leader you carry the torch, the vision of the company and everyone looking up to you works in line with the values you portray. The saying that a leader has influence is true; your team will be influenced and follow you only if they see you are worth following. It starts with you as an individual, your character, your values and your behavior. Is your leadership helping your call center get better? If not what areas do you need to work on? Employee turnover You understand the demands of a contact center and you need great agents to help meet all the demands. At Etech, we believe that having happy team members means happy customers. There are dozens of reasons why employees quit; wrong job fit, poor working environment, supervisor problems, poor pay and lack of career advancement opportunities to name a few. Knowing and understanding your agents is the first step in giving them what they need to succeed and make the contact center successful as well. Are you supporting and empowering your agents to help them perform beyond the set targets, and empowering them to happily satisfy the customers? Right tools It is impossible to dig a huge hole in the ground using a spoon, right! The same applies to having the right tools for the job. Using wrong or outdated tools affects the contact center performance. At Etech, we keep up with the ever-changing technology because we know and understand our success lies in having high customer satisfaction levels and the ever changing digital world we all live in. The right tools make our agents work more efficiently and they are actually happier. Important to note is that the right training has to be offered to the agents to maximize their output. Do you have the right tools for the job? In addition, are you training your agents on how to use these tools? As outlined above, answer these questions honestly and you may find the answers to why you are not growing and delivering superior customer experience. You can create and maintain a great contact center program that ensures constant growth, it is not an easy feat but it is possible to achieve. Focus on every stakeholder as you develop it for the good of the business. Effective customer experience is at the heart of a successful business. To exceed your customers’ expectations and maintain a productive team, reach out to Etech. Etech Global Services is recognized as one of the Top Call Center Companies by DesignRush providing innovative contact center solutions and frameworks that your company needs for long-term success.

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