We are all well-versed in the many benefits of technology in business today. Some of us have been around long enough to remember the days before we had e-mail, or even voicemail (can you imagine?). For decades, we've clamored over technology's speed, its cost-cutting ways and its ability to give us immediate access to information. But when it comes to customer care, we often don't use the words warm, fuzzy and technology in the same sentence.
Today's customers are beginning to expect personalized experiences whenever they make contact with us. When one company personalizes the customer experience, it raises the bar for the rest, and more and more consumer-facing companies have figured out how to mass-produce a personalized customer experience at the point of customer contact.
Contrary to what many believe, "personalization" does not mean creating a persona for the IVR. It means knowing who your customers are, what they need, and being able to meet their unique needs. Then based on those needs and past interactions, being able to suggest or offer additional information, products or services they didn't even know they wanted. It's up to companies to figure out how to deliver these warmer, intelligent interactions accurately and without busting the budget. Technology is the answer.
Technology enables new ways of communicating with customers along with ways of empowering customer service employees. Automation and self-service clearly help reduce costs, but today's technology can actually provide an experience that can be used to create highly effective customer touchpoints. Increasingly, these interfaces can combine the strengths of live agents and technology to provide the best of both worlds.
Here are three ways to make technology work for you:
- Make your business personal. For example, an analytics-based system can identify the customer as he or she calls in to the company, quickly assess their history, and instantly give the contact center agent a targeted recommendation for servicing that customer. That recommendation may be a purchase suggestion based on the customer's buying history, or a follow up question on the last service the customer received. In essence, this use of technology enables the company to have knowledgeable, responsive front-line employees, and to deliver a mass-customized service that is unique to each and every customer. These intelligent, personalized customer-agent interactions can be delivered in a fast, efficient and repeatable way.
- Lower Costs, Improve Service. For customer care operations, better service and lower costs have traditionally been conflicting goals. But with effective customer interfaces and the growing ability to merge people and technology, companies can achieve both. By taking a balanced approach using technology and agent resources, you can create better experiences for customers that increase satisfaction, grow revenue, and decrease the cost of service. In other words, quality service and low operating costs are no longer mutually exclusive.
- Be Proactive, not Reactive. Technology can also help companies tackle costs by identifying inefficiencies and problems within the operation. Analytics, for example, can be used to identify customers who are likely to defect based on their history and experience, making it possible for companies to be proactive in retaining them. Operations using this technology have found that this practice enables them to reduce customer churn significantly, resulting in real bottom line savings. Research shows that it costs seven times as much to acquire a customer than to retain one, so why not put technology to work in this area as well?
At a time when all companies are searching for ways to reduce costs, the smart use of technology in customer care can do just that while improving customer satisfaction. Warming up your customers by using the right technology could be the answer to not only cost reduction, but happier customers and revenue growth.
About the Author
Mike Betzer is president of the Relationship Technology Management (RTM) line of business for Convergys Corporation, a global leader in relationship management. He is responsible for leading the development and implementation of intelligent, multi-channel customer solutions that improve operational efficiencies and the customer experience.
February 11, 1:00 Eastern: Personalized IVR: Turning Customer Information into Intelligence. Presented by Ovum & Voxify. A Personalized IVR Model will be introduced. The model shows how to leverage existing data to enable higher levels of customer service and IVR cost savings. The model identifies three sources of relevant data that are critical to build intelligent applications and gives practical steps on how to use customer data from different channels to speed the completion of transactions over the phone.
February 16, 1:00 Eastern: It's a Matter of Intent.... Presented by NICE Systems. Participate in this informative webinar to demystify the ongoing exchange between your company and its customers and learn how you can tap into these interactions to create a huge opportunity to optimize operations, differentiate through exemplary service, and grow your business.
February 18, 1:00 Eastern: The Value of Improving your Strategic Planning Process. Presented by Bay Bridge Decision Technologies. Applying algorithmic technologies to strategic planning can yield significant staff savings yet again. Just-in-time hiring, extra-time/under-time optimizers, and optimizing planned shrinkage will save our companies a lot of money. In this session, we'll discuss those technologies and the results you'll see by implementing them.
February 19, 1:00 Eastern: Recent Advances in Analytics: How They Are Impacting the Customer Experience. Roundtable Debate. Utilized properly, analytics can provide better understanding of your customers, their customer experience, competitive pressures, and ways to improve customer service. During this session you'll get insight into what the experts have experienced and how an investment in an analytics solution can provide a return for every department in your organization.
February 23, 1:00 Eastern: WFM 2.0: Do You Have What it Takes? Learn What You Need to be Ready for the Future. Presented by InVision Software. During this session, we will explore the growth of WFM technologies from ACD-centric solutions to robust software that is fast, efficient, and able to meet the real-time demands of today's multi-channel / multi-skill contact centers.
Febrary 25, 1:00 Eastern: Learn How Global Payments Provider Elavon Identifies and Retains At-Risk Customers Using Speech Analytics. Presented by Verint Witness Actionable Solutions. "After implementing speech analytics, Elavon saved nearly 600 at-risk accounts-about $1.7 million in revenue- in the first three months alone." - Roman Trebon, Elavon. Leveraging speech analytics as a strategic asset in its customer service operations, Elavon significantly improved customer retention and benefited from greater insight into leading customer and process issues.
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