Customer experience (CX) is the sum of all touchpoints the consumer has with your business and brand. The goal of any business is to, at a minimum, meet the expectations of the customer, and to do this, they must keep the customer connected.
Over the last three posts, we’ve discussed the areas of function within contact centers that could negatively impact the customer journey. And with roughly eight out of ten consumers believing companies deliver disconnected experiences, these are areas that businesses have yet to get a handle on in the eyes of the customer.
To summarize, these three areas are:
Disconnected Interactions. Customers want the ability to connect to a business from every medium. Research shows less than 10% of companies deliver a seamless omnichannel experience in real-time[1].
Disconnected Data. Businesses collect a vast amount of customer data but it is scattered throughout multiple systems. Research shows agents spend 30% of their time searching for information.[2]
Disconnected Processes. Front and back offices are siloed, which limits the free flow of data. Research shows 89% of customers become frustrated when they are forced to repeat issues and information to multiple agents[3].
Use of technology
While customer experience is not clearly defined, it does follow the coined phrase “the customer is always right”. The immediate impact of one bad customer experience might be minimal to a business, but the ripple effect of such could significantly impact a company’s bottom line. A Salesforce survey shows that 57% of customers have stopped buying from a company because a competitor provided a better experience[4]. That same survey showed that 62% of customers said they will share a bad experience with others[5].
Improving the customer experience will continue to be a hot topic in corporate boardrooms. New initiatives to drive revenue and increase customer loyalty can only be implemented once a business evaluates the customer journey and understands where gaps might lie in that path.
Luckily for businesses, CCaaS technology has evolved to remove the disconnects within contact center operations. Customer interactions, whether voice, web or social channel, can be on the customer’s preferred medium with a seamless hand-off between channels and agents. Data housed in different departments can instantly be retrieved by agents, enabling them to make real-time decisions. The use of AI and machine learning to integrate back-office systems and automate processes are a catalyst in facilitating meaningful customer data wherever it might lie.
Customer expectations are at an all-time high, and only increasing. For companies to survive, they must go beyond the expected product or service. By empowering agents with intelligent CCaaS tools that remove the disconnects, not only can businesses deliver a customer experience that differentiates, but one that keeps the customer truly connected.
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