In our hyperconnected world, consumers have the power to choose their preferred channel to get in touch with companies, change the channel at a moment’s notice, and share their experiences with others.
What does this mean for a brand, especially in a competitive space where the experience that goes along with products and services has become as important if not more important than the product or service itself?
It means not only doubling or tripling down on investments in delivering great experiences, but exploring and investing in a unified platform which helps follow each customer’s behaviour and preferences in order to predict why they are connecting and how they can be served in a fast, friendly and effective way.
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Patrick Joggerst[/caption]
The challenge for organisations supporting millions of interactions across multiple challenge is the same as it was when call centres emerged decades ago: how can we serve our customers in cost-efficient ways that don’t erode our overall margins?
The opportunity for those same organisations has advanced to not only providing the right answer in a short amount of time for the best outcome (retain the customer) but to deepen the relationship with the customer and in so doing expand the share of wallet.
The distinction today between a service and sales call is blurring, adding a layer of complexity along with growth opportunity, and as we start to see companies embark on sophisticated Customer Experience (CX) programs in pursuit of creating loyal, enthusiastic buyers who in turn can become brand ambassadors, the use of Big Data Analytics and the Artificial Intelligence (AI) engines that data feeds becomes undeniable.
Look at it this way: when contact centres started, there were toll-free numbers and agents in facilities answering questions.
As the popularity of these contact centres grew, innovations including Interactive Voice Response systems were invented, along with the menus that frustrated consumers for years, and with the massive disruption made possible by the rise of VoIP networks, the outsourcing market grew into a multi-billion-dollar industry overnight.
Around the same time, the Internet exploded as did the mobile industry, and access to websites, mobile apps, and digital services completely changed the way we communicate, and the demand for multiple channels grew faster than companies in the contact centre industry could keep up.
The chaos grew, and smart brands responded with thousands of innovations, including self-service on the web, push-to-talk features, mobile application contact capabilities, chat, screen sharing and PC control for tech support, and more.
Layer on the dramatic growth of social media, and today Facebook is one of the fastest growing CX platforms for service and sales, Twitter is becoming a preferred channel for demanding service (and sharing bad and good experiences), and over-the-top services like WhatsApp and QQ are driving growth exponentially beyond what any traditional contact centre could handle.