Stop for a minute and put yourself in your customer’s shoes. What would you want as a consumer of your company’s products or services? What would you expect, and, most importantly, does your company live up to these expectations?
A survey by CX Professional, I.J.Golding revealed the top 5 variables proving most valuable to a customer were value for money, customer service, reliability, quality and ease of doing business. To be honest, we’re not surprised. However, although cost efficiency ranked the highest deciding factor in customer experience of an organisation, it’s important to consider that a failure in any one of these fields could lead to negative reviews and, in turn, loss of business.
Esteban Kolsky observes that unhappy customers are more likely to shout about their experience to colleagues or friends, telling an average of 15 people or more, whereas those who are satisfied with a service are only likely to let 6 people know. You might not even be aware of customers’ displeasure, as only a very small percentage of them will make an official complaint. This makes communication with your client base all the more important. Positive recommendations lead to profits, but negative endorsements lead to churn.
How can I ensure that the customer is always happy?
The whole process runs from pre-sale first impressions, all the way to the transaction and beyond. A recent AT&T survey found that companies spend an average of 94% of their advertising budgets on enticing consumers and inducing a call, while the small percentage left over to deal with the call once it comes in. It’s definitely a case of “Erm, we didn’t think this would actually happen, so we’re not sure what to do right now”. With a cloud communications system, not only can we reduce the cost of consumer phone calls, we can help you out with what to do once you get there.
Bespoke IVR (Interactive Voice Response) and advanced call features add a professional edge to your organization’s interaction with customers. Suitable for use with any of our telephone numbers, you can customize a greeting or voicemail message to fit your company image. Set up missed call alerts or voicemail to email messaging, so oversights in communication can be a thing of the past.
Contrary to popular belief, customer service telephone lines do play a part in a company’s marketing scheme. Although it might seem insignificant, your on-hold music can contribute towards retaining customers. Callers with music playing whilst on-hold will remain on the line for an average of 30 seconds longer than those left in silence, where they were likely to terminate the call after less than a minute. So what dulcet tones should you wow your callers with? Well, customers are likely to notice music that fits your company image. Your phone lines are an extension of you after all.
Further insight from North American Telecoms revealed that streaming information on the line would encourage customers to stay on hold for up to 3 minutes longer.
D.I.Y
With the rise of self-service ticket machines and supermarket checkouts, pay-from-the-table restaurant apps and Internet banking, consumers are taking back control. People prefer to be able to handle things themselves. Gartner predicts that in as little as 4 years time, customers will easily navigate as much as 85% of their relationship with an organisation without ever speaking to a real, walking, talking human being.
The advanced calling features from the cloud allow your customers to re-route their own phone calls to the relevant department. Furthermore, running information over the line adds to the efficiency of service. The caller’s query may have been answered before they even reach your service operative, thus reducing queue time for other customers.
In the unfortunate chance that they do have to speak to you directly (after much huffing and puffing because who want’s to talk to an actual person?!), the least you can do is make everything as easy as possible. Zendesk’s investigation into the “customer service gap” showed that if it becomes too difficult or irritating to contact a business i.e. if there’s a problem calling in, they are increasingly likely to cut all ties and not look back; much like your Uni girlfriend, who constantly found you disappointing. * sigh *
In a story that sounds like the CX machines take over the world, it’s not all doom and gloom! Cloud-based systems such as Hosted PBX run via an external VoIP server (like ours), making your company’s communications more reliable. For a 24 hour, global service, Hosted PBX enables customers to call a local number (regardless of the time at headquarters) and receive the support that they need at any time. Your employees can be increasingly mobile in their working day; connect to the company network remotely.
Back-tracking a little bit; the self-management model works for organisations too. We understand that time is precious and you don’t have nearly enough of it to call us up every time something there’s a small change in your communications system. With our SelfCare portal, you can look after your system your way. Add or take away phone lines, customize executive call features, apply for phone numbers and much more, all from a simple online interface. Could it be any easier?!
Our cloud-communications systems allow you to make use of clever executive phone features, remote working, call management and more; all of which are there to improve your customer’s experience (and make things easier for your business!).
Click here to find out more about our cloud communication services, and make the switch today!
