Customer experience: best practices and mistakes to avoid
The era before the web, paradoxically, was simpler for companies. Consumers had few tools to...
If your company is expanding rapidly and winning more customers, including across borders, you will undoubtedly face a series of challenges, starting with the careful management of customer assistance. A large sales flow might be exciting, but it might also result in your business losing sight of customer service, which is a fundamental factor.
It is imperative to learn to scale the customer support function, optimizing the resources available to achieve your goals, without loss of performance. Basically, you have to provide a service that can satisfy customers and feed your business at the same time.
If you wish to scale or improve multi-channel customer support, contact us at We Are Fiber. Together, we can discuss your situation and find the solution that best suits your needs.
Greater collaboration between departments
The first step in scaling call centers is to improve collaboration between departments, so that they work in maximum synergy. Small inefficiencies add up to become real critical issues, which waste time and money. Fluid communication and a continuous exchange of information improves productivity, without automating the behavior of employees, who can carry out their work with greater clarity and enthusiasm. The use of specific cloud-based collaboration tools optimizes this “best practice”, so increasing productivity.
How to provide quick and personalized answers
Modern customers are increasingly demanding and require immediate answers to their particular problems. The great challenge for call centers is therefore to respond to customer requests in a timely manner, according to their needs. To maximize the efficiency of operators, it is advisable to draw up pre-set templates for the most frequently asked questions. It is up to the operator to give a personal touch to respond effectively and offer an attentive and accurate customer care service.
In fact, it is the same concept as FAQs (frequently asked questions), where such questions with their accompanying answers can be found directly on a company’s website, e-commerce site or on social channels. The operators know in advance what the customers' problems may be and can give the right indications, optimizing the time available and reducing the wait.
A well-designed service center strives to make the customer independent, where, instead of contacting the support service, the user can find the answer to his or her problem in complete autonomy. It is a “win-win” model, as users overcome difficulties quickly and operators can dedicate themselves to solving more complex problems.
The importance of multichannel
As mentioned, the modern user detests wasting time and so it is essential that he or she is able to contact your company immediately by way of a variety of channels, including telephone, live chat, email, social channels, and a company app.
It is thus critical to create a well-connected multi-channel support base. Your team must provide 360° support, depending on the type of request and problem. The telephone, for example, despite being considered an obsolete medium, is still a favorite with older customers. This is unlike the digital native, who usually opts for less complex and more immediate solutions, such as social media, live chat or chatbots.
Scaling call centers according to three main functions
Customer assistance must ultimately fulfill a strategic function, a fact even multinationals are coming to appreciate. Why has customer support become so important? The answer lies in its ability to retain customers, who then continue to make purchases at a company, shop or business of trust.
The world is increasingly globalized and consumers have different tools to exchange feedback and opinions on shopping experiences. Reviews left on e-commerce sites, for instance, are prime examples of how important consumer opinion is.
Of course, if a company receives several positive reviews, its brand awareness increases and consumers are more inclined to spend. Conversely, if customers have had a negative experience and leave critical comments, the company's popularity usually drops dramatically.
In addition, consumers want a multi-channel experience, so they can interact with the company as and when they wish, on their own terms. It is therefore essential to provide extensive and active assistance 24 hours a day, by way of the chatbot. If customers need to solve minor problems, this technology allows them to rely on chatbots or artificial intelligence tools for answers. In the case of more complex situations, they may instead require human assistance.
Finally, we must consider the non-linearity of customer service, which has profoundly changed. Until 15 years ago, call centers were large rooms where a group of people answered calls: more phone calls meant greater efficiency. Today, the situation has literally been reversed and the yardstick of the efficiency of an assistance service is given by a lower number of support requests. Customers are self-empowered, so employees can focus on self-service documents, training and integration.
To take the first step towards the growth of your business, you need to understand how to scale your call center, a task We Are Fiber specializes in.
Contact us and we will put our experience behind your business.