A well-managed and efficient call center can be a big help in making the business get more customers and retain the existing ones. They are directly responsible for maintaining the company’s image in the eyes of the target clientele.
A call center agent is often the first point of contact for the customers. therefore, they must shoulder the responsibility of customer satisfaction and deliver best in class service. While there is no absolute formula to deliver the best customer experience, a few tried and tested methods can ensure that every client interaction ends in a positive note for the customer as well as for the agent.
It goes without saying that customer experience is going to be the buzzword in 2019. Here is why:
- 86% of buyers are willing to pay more for a great customer experience
- 73% of buyers point to customer experience as an important factor in purchasing decisions
- 65% of buyers find a positive experience with a brand to be more influential than great advertising
So, can a call center deliver positive customer experience that matters? Yes, it can. Here are 5 easy steps for improving the experience of the customers interacting with a call center:
1. Minimum On-Hold Times during Calls
Putting a customer on-hold for a long period of time is a call center bane that drives customers crazy. The customers do not like to stay on hold, period. They don’t care if their issues actually need time to be resolved and the agent can’t help but make them wait. To most of them a call center should be a one-stop solution for all their problems. They want a quick solution and they want it right now.
While eliminating waiting time is impossible, a call center must try to keep the on-hold time to a bare minimum. Remember, the shorted the wait time, the happier a customer is. It’s that simple.
2. Understand who the customers are
Knowing a customer demographic is not enough, you customer service teams must also know who are their customers. Try putting a face to your customer or creating customer personas – it will help your customer service team to understand your customers better.
Your customer personas can be as detailed as you want them to be. By creating personas, your agents can put a face to their customers and better understand how they can assist and improve customer experience.
3. Recognize the stage of customer journey for each customer
A call center agent must not interact with each customer the same way. Rather they should use the CRM to pinpoint the stage of every customers’ journey and personalize their interaction to improve the customer experience.
Define the customer actions that fall within each stage of the customer journey. This will help your call center customer service team to quickly recognize and know how to approach your leads and clients.
4. Forge an emotional bond
The biggest chunk of consumers today are millennials. And millennials don’t just look for a product, they want their values to be aligned with the brands they shop from. They want value for money, as well as great customer experience.
While pricing is not something your customer service team can control, they can deliver everything else. They can forge an emotional connection with the customer by empathizing with them, telling them their side of story and even throwing in a much-appreciated surprise. This connection will help your agents anticipate the customers’ needs better and deliver a much better experience.
5. Make it easy for customers
In this age of competition, customers are being spoiled with one-click checkout, instant customer service through chatbots, next-day shipping. These services simplify the purchase process for customers and reduce customer effort in an attempt to maximize sales. A customer service team too can reduce customer effort in so many ways. They can-
- Offer to call back in case of disconnection
- Clearly Understand customer queries
- See to it that the customers do not have to repeat themselves
- Provide helpful material after service
- Solve customers’ issues the first time around
- Offer to answer a customer query through the preferred communication channel of a customer
A customer service team can make the process of purchase or issue resolution a cakewalk for the customers, resulting in a high-quality customer experience.
In todays competitive world customer experience is gold. Being the first point of contact for customers, it is up to the call center customer service team to deliver the customer experience each customer deserves. While their interactions can be short, it can be an excellent opportunity to boost customer experience.
