Customer expectations are rapidly evolving as technology advances, especially with the introduction of bots and automation. In 2020, customers want and demand a full-service customer experience. They want more than just their questions answered or problem solved; they want you to know them intimately, respond to them immediately, interact via any and all channels and at the time and method most convenient for them.
These expectations exist because this level of service is available. New players in each market are getting smart about how they manage customer interactions effectively, choosing to automate over interact, and in turn creating the types of experiences our customers are learning to love.
Disruption is happening, and it’s not slowing down. To stand out from competitors and meet the growing expectations of your customers, contact centres too must be disruptive in their approach.
Here are 5 key tips for you to beat customer disruption in 2020:
1. Learn about your customers
Customers are too often the ones who educate our industry on consumer needs and expectations. It is crucial for businesses to proactively understand their customer
(ideally better than they understand themselves) and how their needs can be met in order to improve customer relationships and identify personalisation opportunities.
Anticipation of customer needs is the new benchmark, and we have years of data to help us achieve that. If you aren’t yet using your customer data to inform your business, now is the time to start.
2. Meet their needs digitally
A large portion of our society is ‘born’ digital, and most of us spend the day glued to our phones, computers and tablet screens. Children learn how to search for things before they can ask for them with words. Humans now have different needs, whether it is for solving problems or finding information.
Therefore, companies need to keep pace with search abilities of consumers and improve their digital reach meet their customer’s needs. Many customers (myself included) get frustrated when they have to call someone to solve problems – mostly because they cannot solve it themselves – and this frustration can be drastically reduced by maximising the self-help available through digital solutions such as chat bots, self-service knowledge bases and online community forums. For most businesses (not all), investing in smart self-service capability is an investment that will pay itself back one hundred times over!
3. Don’t make them wait
Consumers’ service expectations continue to rise in 2020. Right here right now is the way we roll - for food, entertainment, transport, shopping & more. On-demand access to products, services and support is becoming seen a basic human need, and we’re not planning ahead and we’re acting more on impulse than ever, so there is an inherent urgency behind every request.
Most reviews, ratings & feedback references the speed of response as a factor in their rating. Even great service paired with slow delivery will usually be marked negatively.
4. Create meaningful connections
As we’ve explored, customers today are often impatient, frustrated and unforgiving, and connecting at a human level is the key to breaking down these barriers.
The ability to turn a begrudged phone call into a spark of joy in your customer’s day can be as simple as making them smile, and achieving this simple task often requires skills in emotional intelligence, empathy and creativity, combined with the autonomy to use these skills appropriately.
5. Find the right leaders
To succeed at these items, companies will need to seek out leaders that are adaptable, resilient, creative and inspiring. They will need the ability and autonomy to think on their feet and act quickly to develop solutions.
Leaders need to be able to empower employees and engage with other business units to gain support and solve challenges. They need access to peers and managers to aid in decision making above their delegation. They need a forum to share their knowledge and insight to guide future customer-impacting business decisions. Disruption will continue to occur, and will only accelerate in both speed and impact, so leaders have to be prepared to support their teams, the business and your customers as best they can.
LinkedIn’s ‘Top 15 Attributes to Look for in Leaders’ is a great starting point for companies to look into in order to get ready for customer disruption. Some of the core traits included are curiosity, collaborative, empathetic, understanding of technology and open to new opinions and ideas. Experts suggest that there is never a perfect leader than can have all these traits, but these traits can be used as a guide for companies to hire and train their leaders effectively.
If you are interested to learn more about the customer disruption trends facing the contact centre profession in 2020 and beyond, watch this podcast . If you have any questions regarding customer disruption and operational excellence, please contact Athena Consulting for more information.
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About the Author
Frances Quinn is an award-winning CEO & Founder, an experienced speaker, facilitator and mentor, and a passionate customer futurist.
Starting from humble beginnings - leaving school and home at 16 to make her way in the customer contact world, Frances forged a successful career path for herself, quickly climbing the corporate ladder and gathering a strong reputation for excellence along the way.
After 20 years in the corporate world, Frances set out on her next adventure as an entrepreneur and business owner, applying her versatile set of skills to building a successful high-growth consulting firm.
Frances' passion and expertise lies in creating customer loyalty, driving operational efficiency and excellence, and implementing successful and sticky change in organisations large and small. She has worked with large global brands and startups alike.