Customer Experience – Seeing ‘clearly’ in 2020

Having said goodbye to 2019, it’s the time of year when most of us will reflect on the events of the year, or the decade that has passed. It’s also the time most of us will think about New Year’s resolutions. While many of us might want to ditch the carbs or learn a new language, what will 2020 hold for business resolutions?

With Customer Experience a real differentiator, organisations can not afford to have a ‘business as usual’ mentality. Why? Because customer experiences, that don’t have a real business impact, isn’t going to cut it anymore.

Customer expectations are rising faster than a souffle at a festive dinner. And as such should constantly be accessed, because if businesses wait too long to rise to new customer expectations, it might sink their company’s reputation.

Weather you thank (or blame) technology for most of these new customer expectations, the shear amount of information accessible today at the speed of light and in the palm of people’s hands makes mostly everyone anticipate more. These expectations are at the top of the list for most businesses, well, at least in theory. Recent research by Forrester show nearly 95% of business leaders saying that providing a good customer experience is their top strategic priority and 75% want to use customer experience as a competitive advantage, however just 37% of business leaders have a dedicated budget for customer experience improvement strategies. This shows that the disparity between having great intensions and ideas for CX and the actual implementation thereof.

In order to deliver enhanced customer experience, businesses need to understand what customers want now and how it will drive their satisfaction and loyalty.

It’s kind of curious that in the all-encompassing online world we have come to accept, in which so many business and personal interactions can be anonymous, customers want very personalised experiences. While many of us love the convenience of online shopping, we still prefer the personal one-to-one experience of visiting a brick and mortar shop.

Customers expect a business to have all the information on products or services where they expect to find them. And when it’s not where they expect to find it, they simply leave. Research by Sales cycle revealed the average cart abandonment rate for retail ecommerce sites reached 84.24% in the first half of 2019. Having technology able to identify when consumers are struggling or hesitant to complete their purchase could have a dramatic increase on the bottom line. In fact, one of the UK’s biggest pharma retailers saw a significant drop in shopping cart abandonment rates after implementing live chat triggers to alert agents to hesitant shoppers.

Customers want to be able to interact with a company and its people anywhere across various channels like self-service, voice, digital and social channels. And although voice is still a popular option, customers now expect to be able to find the answers for themselves online. In fact, experts at Gartner predicted that 85 percent of customer interactions to be handled without human agents in 2020.

Self-service is by no means a new concept, but according to Forrester it was one of the top trends in 2019 and it’s not going to go away soon. Self-service is no longer a “nice to have”. It’s a necessity to providing a positive customer experience. Dimension Data reports growth in every digital channel and a 12% decrease in phone volume with customers of all ages moving away from using the phone to using web and mobile self-service, communities, virtual agents, automated chat dialogs, or chatbots as a first point of contact with a company.

However, shockingly, according to Northridge Group, businesses are still struggling to deliver the fundamentals of great customer experience with 57% of consumers saying that they frequently have trouble finding answers on a company’s website. The problem appears to be that businesses implement these self-service options from a business’ perspective, not from their customers’ view. The business creates the experience based on what they want the customer to do and see; not on what the customer may want to do instead.

So, while offering as many channels to communicate as customers demand is important, it’s probably more vital that communication is seamless and agile.

Investing in integrated knowledge across a website, contact centre and channels like live chat will ensure consistent and accurate answers from a single source of truth. Customer service handled via automation should not be complex to use.

Customers’ tolerance for jumping through hoops has diminished dramatically over the years. Customers now believe they should have what they want the minute they request it. They don’t want to repeat themselves and expect the same great service during peak and quieter periods.

However, before businesses can determine how to develop the ideal customer experience, they must decide what that term means to them; customer experience means different things to different industries.

And whilst understanding the elements of the customer experience strategy is a good first step — successfully implementing it is another. We believe these 9 key points might provide some assistance to businesses wanting to kick-start their customer experience strategy in 2020.

Plan for the worst-case scenario

High call volumes come at times of crisis or peak trading periods. Having the right technology in place to support contact centre staff is imperative.

Plan to be flexible

The contact centre is only one contact channel available for customers – dependent on the nature of the enquiry, would it benefit the company and customers to handle enquiries across other channels like a Chatbot/Intelligent Virtual Assistant, Live Chat, FAQ self-service or Social channels.

Be integrated

Are all contact centre staff up-to-date with the latest information and how is this maintained through technology? When staff shifts change or if they leave, does it affect the transferral of knowledge – how is this communicated. Do you have an Agent Knowledge-base?

Enhance resources

Given all the tools needed (such as a cloud contact centre solution), is it possible, in times of crisis or peak trading times, for temporary and non-frontline staff to be used as agents following minimal training?

Be pro-active

Avoid the need for customer to call in the first place. Is there another channel by which they could answer their queries? Push out service updates via social media to communicate with customers in advance of any issue to minimise contact?

Measure and control

Quickly and efficiently responding across contact channels to customer queries is key – is there a mechanism in place to monitor customer feedback to improve the quality of products and services and level of response in the future?

Prioritise

Do most customers need support during work hours, or do they frequently require assistance out of office hours? Which are the most effective/popular convenient contact channels for customers – focus on these first.

Training

It is imperative that all contact entre staff are trained to handle support, especially during seasonal influxes of contact. Effective communication, getting answers to customer quickly and consistently across all channels, can have a huge impact on how customers perceive your brand.

Prepare to adjust

A legacy infrastructure often risks only noticing failure when all has gone wrong. It doesn’t have the ability of gathering granular information to help understand how any issues might be developing. Investigate your infrastructure to see if it should be improved, updated, or replaced by more relevant technology.

Wishing you a prosperous 2020

Patiently building a business case that shows how technology solutions will meet user needs, and therefore encourage the uptake of digital channels, will help to allay fears of making poor decisions or going down the wrong path in 2020.

The resources section of our website can offer insight and the technology for developing your customer experience strategy such as:

1. Reducing customer contact – improving first contact resolution
2. Offering a consistent multi-channel customer service
3. Improving operational and service cost efficiency
4. Increasing customer satisfaction & loyalty levels

And to prove the return of enhanced customer experience by leveraging technology, why not see for yourself with our ROI calculator?

Are you ready to take the next step towards delivering exceptional customer experience, driven by AI technology that can deliver quick-win business results?

Retailers – Dreaming of a ‘Black-Friday Christmas’?

With Black Friday and Cyber Monday over, are you feeling ‘Christmassy’ yet?

With Christmas a mere week away (take a deep breath), retailers should be smiling with new figures showing an increase in footfall of 3.3% in comparison to last year’s Black Friday. According to Springboard shopping centres had the best footfall uplift and they believe the reason to be the fact that Black Friday fell on payday.

There’s no denying that Black Friday is BIG business, however is this trend ultimately good for both consumers and retailers? Having barely shut the front door to Trick-or-Treaters the festive frenzy drags on for weeks. During the pre-festive season, the ‘Golden Quarter’ has become a bargain hunter’s dream. However, many retailers believe Black Friday could be collective suicide for the industry. In the past few years shoppers have seen no need to go shopping if they might get things cheaper the following week. Why would they when they are being trained to expect big discounts over Black Friday?

When retailers promote and prolong the discount holiday shopping season, driving down prices to remain competitive and attract footfall, it’s no wonder that by the time Boxing Day dawns, after so much discounting, shoppers show ‘discount fatigue’ with January sales figures lukewarm.

Not to sound like a Bah-humbug (I actually love Christmas), but there is a darker side to the ‘Golden Quarter’ for businesses and consumers amongst all the tinsel and festive cheer. With customer experience a key differentiator, mega-discounting runs the risk of shattering carefully cultivated customer journeys with a ‘price is everything’ attitude. For example, consumers my want to browse in-store, order online, have their order delivered and or pick is up from a convenient collection point. They might want to return item/s to the store, and when they do, pick up an alternative item, ordered via a mobile app. At each step they expect retailers to know who they are and what their recent interactions with the brand have been.
Businesses that flourish during the festive period understand that customer experience can change the attitude of customers towards their favourite brands, so it’s of utmost importance to deliver the same levels of customer service during peak shopping season to that of quieter periods. However, some retailers are still caught off-guard, unprepared for the escalation of customer interactions during this busy period and last-minute shoppers still expecting exceptional service.

For instance, many businesses will be employing extra staff in the lead up to Christmas as part of their customer service strategy, however many newbies will not have the same knowledge about products, refund or exchange procedures, like permanent staff. A clear multi-channel strategy is required to maintain high levels of customer experience. Deploying AI-powered online customer service software to ensure right, consistent answers are delivered to customers regardless of channel, and to assist temporary and permanent contact centre staff, could be the competitive advantage to provide the high levels of customer support needed.

Having produced an amazing and successful Christmas ad campaign might to wonders for PR, simple missteps can cause shoppers to stray to a competitor such as websites buckling under an unprecedented influx of traffic on Black Friday. When this happens, customers will be quick to exploit the benefits of online shopping – not having to brave the weather, crowds or queues – by spending money at a competitor, from the comfort of their own sofas, in two clicks.

It’s clear that the consumer is in control, enabled through technology to remain constantly connected and more empowered than ever before. Multi-dimensional consumer behaviour is driving the changing the retail landscape at an unparalleled rate and though the channels they’re using to shop with are changing, their expectations are not.

Continuously nurturing relationships with your customers is crucial to growing your business, especially during peak times. The questions is: Will 2020 be the start of a beautiful customer experience journey for your business?

More interesting reads:

Customer Experience – What do customers expect
Cut routine enquiries by up to 50% – Revive your CX strategy

How CX can help businesses thrive during periods of political paralysis

The UK economy has been in a stop-start mode all year, with growth disrupted by the various Brexit deadlines.

Brexit has been given a great deal of political airtime, but no one has been able to confidently predict the effect it will have on businesses or consumers, although many have tried.

For Synthetix, the issue is and less about political egos and more about how a departure from the EU will affect our current and future clients, the facts of risks, potential threats, benefits and difficulties of both sides of the argument so that businesses can begin to make informed decisions around planning for the future.
We’ve been talking about Brexit for more than three years now and even if we exit on 31 January 2020, negotiating permanent trading relationships will not happen overnight. And with little clarity emerging from Westminster and the population now bracing itself for another General Election, businesses are still none the wiser as to what’s around the corner.

“Never let a good crisis go to waste.”

The infamous words of Winston Churchill contain a recognisable truth which is why they have resonated into an adage frequently deployed during times of uncertainty. But uncertainty requires an answer. Uncertainty requires action because the alternative is procrastination and stagnation. In uncertainty, lies opportunity.

On the face of it, during times of trouble, it might seem sensible to sit on the sidelines, reducing spending and not investing in ‘non-essentials’ such as marketing or technology. Yet it’s a false economy.

As it is with recession, so it is with the potential implications of Brexit.

Uncertainty opens new avenues as companies and organisations flex and change.
In the race to not only survive, but thrive against competitors, it might seem difficult to excel in the turns when others pushing down hard on the breaks. However, during the last period of uncertainty – the financial crisis in the late 2000’s which caused the deepest UK recession since the Second World War – 20% of companies in the bottom 25 percent soared to the top by end of the recession. They did so not by falling into a cost-cutting trap like others, but by increasing efficiency and investing in customer experience before the downturn hit.

During difficult times consumers have a choice about where they spend their money. Better customer experience (CX) will not only help businesses weather the uncertain outcomes of Brexit, it will can put them in a position to excel.

Businesses that have thrived during times of financial uncertainty, fought against the cost reduction tactic of redundancy to cut costs. Instead they searched for opportunities to automate repetitive tasks with technology and reskill employees for more rewarding work to drive customer success. Investing their efforts in this way, realised not just cost-savings, but opportunities to reroute gains to customers — which meant they stayed around longer giving them a higher lifetime value.

In fact, during the last recession, while Office Depot cut it’s workforce by 6 percent, their competitor, Staples increased theirs by 10 percent. This allowed Staples to serve their customers better, alongside a reorientation around offerings such as personalised printing, business and technical services. The next three years saw Staples, on average, to be thirty percent more profitable than Office Depot. And more recently, 2015 saw Staples acquiring Office Depot.

Now is the time for businesses to show their clients that they care. Furthermore, now is the time to demonstrate their utility – to answer their questions and provide sensible improvement where necessary. Now is the time to invest in automation and train employees in areas that have a direct correlation to customer experience.

It’s time to evoke those inspiring words again

Irrespective of what happens to the UK over the next few years, customers will always have questions that need answers.

Brexit is an opportunity to get closer to your audience. It is an opportunity to refocus efforts and be genuinely helpful to existing and potential customers. It’s an opportunity to do customer experience better than before. Do this and you will reap the rewards. Can businesses afford, given the risks to their reputation and revenue to do nothing?

For more insight into the delivery of enhanced customer experience the following articles may be of interest:

E-tail is NOT the enemy
The ultimate tech stack to improve CSAT and agent efficiency
The first step towards AI can benefit the bottom line

Etail is not the enemy

How the High Street can leverage technology to boost the bottom line this festive season

November marks one month into the “Golden Quarter” shopping phenomenon. It’s hard to believe that Black Friday and Cyber Monday is a mere three weeks away. This time of the year sees many of us execute the ritual of changing our spending habits from essentials to hunting for bargains, ‘perfect gifts’ and more extravagant purchases. With the cycle of promotions seemingly starting earlier each year, us Brits have come to expect retailers to deliver good tidings and cheery returns for more than just twelve days.

Although several large British retailers have publicly stated that they will not be participating in any Black Friday promotions this year – preferring to invest in year-round lower prices – spend this Black Friday and Cyber Monday is estimated to be £7 billion. In fact, this shopping trend annually accounts for as much as 30 percent of sales, albeit that headlines of yet another British High Street closure this week will have many traditional outlets worry if 2019 will be a merry celebration or more a hangover for their bottom line.

Many retailers believe that e-tail is to blame for the decline in footfall and plummet in consumer confidence, but is Amazon about to eat everyone’s Christmas dinner? And how can traditional outlets compete?

Swapping trolleys for home delivery?

E-tail is not the enemy. There is more to the story of physical versus digital than meets the eye.

Britain is now the biggest online shopping nation in the developed world, with almost two thirds of adults using the internet to buy goods or services, according to IMRG, a body which represents the UK’s online retailers. Although it must be said that online sales only account for 25% of overall retail sales, which proves our persistent desire for an in-person shopping experience.

Multidimensional consumer behaviour is driving the changing the retail landscape at an unparalleled rate and it has a lot to do with the super computers (smartphones) in our pockets.

Our smartphones appear to have become symbiotic to our existence. From checking our spelling, the weather, the fastest route to commute or ordering anything in a few clicks without having to leave our sofa, our omni-present connectivity expands into our physical shopping habits – driven by our desire to access information on products and services and to compare prices creating new demands and pressures for offline and online retailers alike.

Advances in technology has resulted in a society with low patience of slow and old fashioned ‘analog-like’ service models. We’ve become accustomed to having on-demand services, from streaming movies through Netflix, booking and Uber or ordering food from Deliveroo without any further human assistance.

So how can retailers ensure they survive in this world where customers demand and expect seamless convenience?

Breaking down siloes to connect shopper behaviour online and in-store

The winners this Christmas will be those retailers who are able to transport the digital world into their stores in order to create convenient and memorable customer experiences.

Recognising the unique advantages of a physical location, traditional retailers can use technology to leverage the different benefits of traditional, in-person shopping in ways that digital sites can only dream about, enabling retailers to offer consumers a truly omni-channel shopping experience.

Not too long ago, retailers had no way to link what a shopper bought or looked at online to their behaviour in-store. Today however, retailers that have invested in AI-driven technology can analyse meaningful data such as location, shopping history and context and are seeing rising sales as a result.

Click, click = instore ka-ching!

By blending digital services with in-store operations retailers can benefit from the growing popularity of cross-platform ‘Click and Collect’ options. Click & Collect is an attractive option for customers who desire more flexibility from their delivery options, whilst still appealing to the convenience of online shopping. Consumers can shop when they want online, on any device, from anywhere, able to compare prices, with the in-store ease of collection. The merging of digital and physical not only drives consumers to a physical store, but also drives impulse buys with figures from JDA’s Customer Pulse Report revealing 1 in 4 shoppers making additional purchases in-store when picking up Click & Collect orders. And with delivery backlogs a concern during the lead up to the festive period, this alternative option can help ensure customer expectations are met.

Aligning back-end operations with front-end customer service

Time has become a pricey commodity. No-one likes waiting. Customers of all ages now expect speedier service, partly because successful brands, both start-ups and established players, have shown it’s possible to speed up service without sacrificing quality, but Millennials (which have now surpassed Baby Boomers as the world’s largest living generations and biggest spenders) are speed freaks.

If an app or website takes too long to load, they’ll abandon it and use another. Their diet of on-demand services has made them superb multi-taskers who expect convenience and they don’t mind paying more for it.

Convenience creates loyalty, whether a shopper is transacting online or instore, or when need support before or after a sale. Convenience should be key focus throughout a customer journey, but especially so when consumers need support. Untimely responses to customer queries are one of the hallmarks of poor customer service and precious time wasted. Customer response-rates, product shipments, service offers, and return policies all need to be as smooth as possible. Digital support channels can offer convenient, 24/7, instant real-time support with little customer effort. Which is why many retailers are using AI-driven digital customer service technology at every step of the supply chain, to offer the seamless, streamlined experience that consumers now demand.

However, although digital support channels have become the preferred choice for customer support, it’s shocking how many retailers still struggle to implement a robust platform that can facilitate automated, multi-channel communication. Retailers will need to adapt to keep customers engaged with instant access to the information through integrated Natural Language Search FAQs, live chat and intelligent chatbots across the contact centre and social platforms too.

The future of the UK retail industry

There is no way of knowing precisely how 2019 will play out for the UK’s retail sector as we face the uncertain consequences of the decision of an election and yet again, Brexit.

However, the key takeaway for brands and retailers is the need to embrace change. Physical retail is not dead. Boring retail is. Consumers are confident, and they are planning to spend.

To exploit return, brands and retailers must be prepared to think differently and pro-actively support new consumer standards around when, where and how their key audiences plan to shop this holiday season. The winners this Christmas will be those retailers who are able to transport the digital world into their stores in order to create convenient and memorable customer experiences. If technology is embraced and integrated in a way that empowers employees, serves customers and improves the bottom line, retailers can look forward to a profitable Christmas.

Further reading:

The gift that keeps on giving, the page turner that is Multi-Channel Online Customer Service For Dummies.

• Understand the challenges delivering effective online service creates
• Get an overview of the tools available to meet those challenges
• Discover the must-haves you need for effective implementation

Delivering Exceptional Customer Experience – Try, try and try again

Japan is the first Asian nation to host the Rugby World Cup. Rich in culture, famed for their hospitality, Japan is proving to be a transformational driver of sporting and social legacy across Asia.

The sport of rugby, in many ways functions like an enterprise business. Each player brings a specific set of skills, strength, fitness and tact which attribute to the strategy to ultimately win the game. Teams must constantly adjust their strategy to maintain their victorious status and should never underestimate any of their competitors. Think of the stunned reactions when Japan beat Ireland a few weeks ago and in 2015, when Japan beat South Africa in their first match of pool play 34-32, which to this day is referred to as the “greatest Rugby World Cup shock ever”.

It might be painful to watch a team when their performance isn’t up to scratch, but unlike loyal fans urging their team to do well at the next game, in business, not being on top of your game can lose you valuable customers.

So, what lessons can be learned from the World Cup about customer experience?

Although the aim of the game is simple, new rules, TV referees, camera angles and even the kit players wear, has not only changed the game significantly since school prefects wrote the first codified rules of rugby in 1845, but in the last two decades, the game has become big business. Players are bigger, stronger and faster than ever before with training, strength programmes and better nutrition meaning those who take to the field are now in the peak of physical condition.

Enterprises have had to up their game too, with customers more connected, over more channels than ever, and their expectations of brands set extremely high. Customer Experience has become the brutal playing field where businesses must constantly adapt their strategy to beat the competition.

Although Customer Experience is a key competitive differentiator, according to Forrester’s Customer Experience Index, 2019, it’s stagnating. The study reports 81% of brands having stagnant sores in 2019, with no brand making it into the “excellent” category. And 5% of brands saw their scores dip, many of them being industry front-runners.

It would appear the term ‘Customer Experience’ like the overused buzzword ‘AI’, has some brands a little confused. Is it customer service or customer satisfaction or something else?

The best way to explain customer experience is as the impression you leave with a customer, resulting in their perception of your brand, across each stage of the customer journey.

When a customer is satisfied with a company, they are also lower in the cost to serve, but also have a higher potential to be more loyal and maybe they’ll even promote this company among their friends.

When customers interact with a company, they want to achieve a specific outcome. The different touchpoints businesses make available for customers to interact with, are the drivers with which customers can fulfil that need or solve that problem. The channel that customers choose to achieve the desired outcome might be different depending on the query e.g. a request for more information about a product or service, needing assistance in paying a bill or placing an order, however there are four key elements to delivering exceptional customer experience, regardless of the channel chosen by a customer.

Digital Customer Experience must be:

• LOGICAL
• SEAMLESS
• IMMEDIATE AND TIMELY
• FRICTIONLESS

And while there is a plethora of technology available that can contribute to enhanced customer service like AI, Chatbots and Virtual Assistants, it is extremely important to not just invest in technology for the sake of it.

It has become increasingly apparent that many channels are being bolted on with little or no consideration for how they are integrated with the rest of the organisation. For the customer, the existence of siloed channels can be apparent in a variety of ways, such as inconsistency in actions from channel-to-channel; different tone of voice; duplication of messaging; or having to start the conversation anew every time it shifts to a fresh channel.

To put it simply: Customers view their experiences with a company, not with discrete channels. They want an omni-present world where they can transition seamlessly from channel to channel, picking up where they left off in their purchasing or enquiry process, with consistent support throughout their journey.
Businesses that want to be classed as delivering ‘World Class’ customer experiences will have to engage their customers. A rugby game has to deliver on spectator expectations, which won’t be fulfilled if it’s just an endless play of kicking the ball from one side to the other. They will need a clear strategy, supported by powerful integrated technology across channels and staff with a clear understanding of the objectives that need to be achieved.

World Cup takeaways for businesses wanting to deliver on customer expectations:

• Continuously review your customer service strategy, as even small changes can have a huge impact on customer experience.
•  Integrate knowledge across all channels to ensure that information is consistent, accurate and quick to access.
• Have a clear strategy in place for the customer service technology you choose to invest in and understand that multiple channels should integrate with each other to create a unified view from the customer’s point of view.

Below are two more assets containing expert advice and insight into the world of enterprise customer service software, powered by conversational AI.

In the dark about Customer Experience?

The clocks go back the last Sunday in October just in time to set the scene of darkness for ‘trick-or-treating’ fun. Halloween will have many of us dress up, pretending to be evil monsters or witches, but 31 October 2019, might haunt us for years to come as this is also the current date set for the UK to leave the EU. And as if the question of if we will leave with or without a deal, or maybe ask for another extension, the slow-burn impact of Brexit on the British economy will be a drag on growth for the rest of 2019.

Today analysts and industry experts all agree that Customer Experience is key to competitive differentiation, driving loyalty and revenue. They write articles and present inspiring keynotes advising enterprises to ‘Put customers at the heart of everything they do’. Shockingly though, Customer Experience is stuck.

According to Forrester’s Customer Experience Index, 2019, 81% of brands measured stagnant sores in CX. No brands made it into the “excellent” category, and 5% of brands saw their scores dip, many being industry front-runners. How is this happening with such a focus on Customer Experience Transformation?

A zombie unicorn?

The world of Customer Experience Transformation is mystifying. Consumer expectations are higher, word of mouth travels faster. Purchasers are more empowered than ever before. Customers no longer base their loyalty on price or product.

As a marketer myself, these days more than often, I get extremely annoyed when I hear buzzwords used just because everyone else use them. Marketers, and experts who are consciously or unconsciously, trying to educate and advise enterprises in their quest to grow their customer base and keep existing customers loyal, are actively participating in creating terminology which is confusing professionals within the Customer Experience Transformation space.

Like the very broad term ‘AI’, Customer Experience isn’t what most people believe it to be. Some think it’s about customer service or customer satisfaction, customer engagement or customer success. The truth is, that the customer experience begins well before a customer is even an actual customer. It’s the perception/impression of a brand, across each stage of the customer journey, e.g. when customers browse a website, receive marketing messages, or when they have to contact a company. It’s these customer touchpoints which impacts their perception of that brand and guide their future decision.

As in any multifaceted activity, whether it’s Customer Experience or mounted archery, it’s worth keeping in mind a perpetual principle:  get the basics right.

Measuring customer experience – the memorable interactions with a brand – usually comprises of feedback, analytics and journey mapping across a brand’s products and services and often falls within the remit of the Marketing team.

However, ‘Customer Experience’ should not be confused with ‘Customer Service’. Customer Service must also deliver enhanced experience, but with one clear goal: To assist customers when they need help. This might happen pre-sales or post-sales at any time, across digital channels, over the phone or in bricks-and-mortar environment. The sole purpose of Customer Service is to meet the expectations of the customer so that they are satisfied with the outcome.

But how can businesses find this perfect fit between horse and horn to make this magical CX unicorn?

Putting some horsepower behind your CX

Customer Service tends to impact customers more than any other department. It’s inevitable that at some point, no matter how good your marketing and branding sets your business apart from your competitors, people will need assistance and they will remember their experience especially if it wasn’t a good one.

Great Customer Service is key to a satisfied, loyal, returning customer base.
Upon asking 1000 consumers “what is good customer service?”, Dimensional Research found the 3 key factors for customer satisfaction in order of importance to be:

• The problem was resolved quickly.
• The person who helped me was nice.
• The problem was resolved in one interaction (no channel hopping).

The conclusion therefore is that customers want quick, friendly and efficient channels to resolve their queries. And customers don’t care about buzzwords like omni- or multi-channel. They only care that they can connect with a business, the way they want to, and when they want to, through the channel that’s easiest and most convenient for them.

While many businesses understand the value of digital support channels like email, FAQ self-service/FAQ bot, live chat or a virtual agent to assist their customers in channels convenient to them, outdated processes, siloed teams and archaic stand-alone IT systems still have customers end up with inconsistent, splintered experiences that drive them away.

To avoid disjointed experiences, Customer Service, and especially digital channels, should be:

• LOGICAL
• SEAMLESS
• IMMEDIATE AND TIMELY
• FRICTIONLESS

Headless horseman?

Synthetix are not in the business of shoving square pegs into round holes. We don’t do off-the-shelf or one-size-fits-all customer service tools. We understand that your business, requirements and goals are unique. Our consultants work with your team to capture business requirements and design a solution with measurable KPIs. We want your online customer service to be successful and that all starts with a great business case.

To awaken your Customer Service form its Sleepy Hollow and to prove how Synthetix can truly transform your online Customer Service why not visit:

Case Studies