“A recent survey showed that 65% of users would recommend your business to others if they had a good experience the first time.” – Qualtrics analytics
We’ve changed. Our expectations when it comes to customer service have shifted dramatically, pushed along by the global pandemic. A digital-first delivery is now standard expectation. The convenience and speed it offers has brought most of us around to preferring an online ‘customer-experience experience’.
In this article, Australia’s leading customer experience solutions provider, TSA, talks about some of the key strategies it recommends for delivering an exemplary digital customer experience – one that optimises customer retention and brand loyalty. Because we’ve all had some bumpy customer experience rides, we know how damaging they can be in influencing future interactions.
What is a digital customer experience?
It’s any customer interaction that happens over the internet that’s not a direct phone conversation or in-person interaction.
Does digital cancel out the need for human – person-to-person – customer experiences?
One word – No.
Digital CX strategies use automation technology to manage simple and/or repetitive tasks. It means your contact centre team invests their time dealing with the thorniest and most emotionally-charged customer queries – the ones that require their human skill and understanding.
*Bonus – a great digital strategy makes customer contact jobs more interesting and rewarding, improving overall job satisfaction, which has been known to reduce staff turnover.
An omnichannel customer experience solution is essential in 2023
“90% of customers rate an ‘immediate’ response as essential or very important when they have a customer service question. 60% of customers define ‘immediate’ as 10 minutes or less.” – HubSpot Research
More than ever, the boundaries between our digital and physical realities have blurred. We seamlessly receive and send messages through multiple channels and via multiple modes of communication. Even our digital journey to buy a product or service will likely traverse multiple channels as we research and compare.
Today, the expectation of customer experience delivery is that it, too, exists across channels – webchat, email, message apps, text message, social media. Leading organisations go further to place flexibility and ease into the hands of the customer, giving them the choice on how they interact with a brand – this could, of course, include a phone call but, essentially, the above statistic confirms speed is key and that’s usually a job for the digital realm.
Omnichannel interactions integrate customer interactions into a unified thread. If a customer calls, and then a day later sends a webchat message, it’s all available to the customer service agent as part of a single line of information for them to pick up on.
Time saver. Game changer.
“70% of customers say service agents’ awareness of sales interactions is fundamental to keeping their business.” – Salesforce
Who hasn’t gone crazy having to explain a problem multiple times to get it addressed! Research by Harvard Business Review shows brands with strong omnichannel strategies retain 89% of customers.
A good strategy is a bespoke strategy that includes follow-up
Don’t assume that what works for one successful company will also work for you. Customer experience, like almost any other industry, can use data to do better. An omnichannel cloud-based CX solution is an opportunity to better understand ‘your’ customers to deliver more targeted and personalised content and support.
“Your online conversion rate can improve by roughly 8% when you include personalised consumer experiences.” – Trust Pilot
Omnichannel CX technology can leverage automation and machine learning to recommend personalised interaction points for customers – from arranging repeated bookings, push for purchase, or scheduling contact times and preferred methods. It helps customers engage on their terms and feel that their individual needs have been both considered and met.
Follow-up practises also have a strong role to play in retaining customers, providing a vital link between product, process and customer satisfaction. A way to ensure customers feel valued, follow-up is also made possible when omnichannel interactions provide both the time and a lead on how a customer has engaged with a brand and what their experience has been.
It’s a journey not a destination
Let’s face it, the internet’s not going anywhere, and if customer experience plays a role in your business, then neither is the need for a digital customer experience strategy. Switching to an omnichannel cloud-based solution is an investment and will involve training, but the outcomes for agents, customers, the bottom line, and the brand’s reputation are entirely positive.
TSA are Australia’s market leading specialists in CX Consultancy and Contact Centre Services. We are passionate about revolutionising the way brands connect with Australians. How? By combining our local expertise with the most sophisticated customer experience technology on earth, and delivering with an expert team of customer service consultants who know exactly how to help brands care for their customers.