It’s no secret providing superior customer service can help your company stand out from the competition. And whether you represent a small business or large corporation, cost-cutting measures tend to erode the customer experience.
Small companies may be able to squeak by, but when you’re playing in the big leagues, you can’t afford to offer substandard customer care. While you may not be able to be everything to all people, staying on top of these customer care technology trends will help you remain competitive.
1. Live Chat
The first trend you need to embrace is live chat support. Customers love it when you do it right. Traditionally, they had to make a phone call or send your company an email to resolve an issue or get more information. Those methods can be useful, but they are also time-consuming. Chat support changes that. Your customers can ask questions and get answers 24/7. Plus, perhaps most importantly, they can ask follow-up questions and get answers almost immediately.
2. Proactive Support
There is another advantage, too. According to Forbes, chat support can also be proactive. When a company reaches out to website visitors via a chat window, 13 percent of those people responded, and more than half ultimately made a purchase. In comparison, conversion normally doesn’t even reach 3 percent.
Artificial intelligence is behind this ability, either generating responses using an algorithm or suggesting several canned responses that call center agents can use to interact with the customer. While AI cannot replace human agents, it can help route issues to the right people and improve your speed to resolution.
3. Self-Service Options
Self-service isn’t limited to chatbots, either. Customers around the world have more choice than ever before. They can be influenced toward a purchasing decision by company information, as well as reviews, social media and blog articles. Chatbots provide on-demand information, but they’re not the only self-service opportunity available to your company. Voice user interfaces are also important, as they let your customers access specific account information.
4. Social Media
Social media will keep playing a more prominent role in customer care as well. Almost two-thirds of people expect to be able to contact companies through social media, and people like it. Roughly 35 percent of people prefer to interact via social media over any other communication channel.
5. CCaaS Integration
Contact Center as a Service is also gaining ground. CCaaS options are worlds apart from traditional call centers. They include a variety of communication channels, like chatbots and social media, and skip many of the more cost-intensive aspects of traditional call centers. With CCaaS, you can have as many customer service agents as you need when you need them. There is no need to purchase space, lease equipment or learn how to run a call contact center. The CCaaS provider handles everything for you while they leverage their expertise to deliver top performance.
Conclusion
Your corporation needs to stay current on customer care technologies so that it can offer a customer experience that is on par with its competitors – or surpass it. Putting an emphasis on chat-based support and social media-enabled conversations are a good start. You also need proactive AI and a variety of self-service options. Thinking of call centers as a service is a good solution and often cost-effective.
