According to one recent study, a massive 96% of all consumers say that the quality of their customer service experience is one of the major deciding factors when it comes to whether or not to be loyal to a brand. Once you also consider that they listed customer service as the number one quality that impacts their trust in a business, you begin to get an idea of just how important this really is.
Yet at the same time, customer service is nothing if not fragile – one wrong move can mean the difference between a single sale and a loyal, repeat customer. It’s not even necessarily a matter of customer service agents in a call center doing a “bad” job – mistakes can happen in quick moments, but the damage they can cause will take far longer than that to undo.
Therefore, there are a number of important common customer service mistakes to be aware of – all of which can be solved with the right contact center software by your side.
1. A Lack of Personalization
By far, the biggest mistake that most customer service agents make has to do with a lack of personalization for the experience in general. That is to say, they try to fit every customer’s issue into a “one size fits all” box that doesn’t really exist, rather than listening to the root cause of the matter.
Intelligent contact center software solves this problem by making sure that key data–that’s relevant to each customer and their current issue– is available at an agent’s fingertips at the right time. Then, a personalized solution can be offered – one that meets the needs of the said customers and exceeds their expectations at the same time.
2. Over-Promising and Under Delivering
While it’s absolutely true that many of the issues a call center receives will be similar, this is not always a foregone conclusion. It wouldn’t be wise for an agent to immediately promise a quick resolution to a problem if the actual solution will take a great deal of time to arrive at.
Over-promising and under-delivering are some of the most effective ways to sever trust with a customer, which is why it should be avoided whenever possible. Contact center software solves this problem as well by allowing agents to meticulously track what a customer is going through, all in a way that allows them to follow up and make sure a resolution is reached – regardless of how long it takes.
3. The Pain of Being Transferred
Another one of the major issues people experience with contact centers is that they get transferred from agent to agent in search of “the right person” to solve their problem. It’s a frustrating experience – not to mention that nobody likes to repeat themselves over and over again.
Contact center software addresses this by acting as a central hub for all relevant information pertaining to a customer’s experience. With this volume of data at their disposal, literally every employee becomes “the right person to talk to” because they instantly have a full view of what the customer is going through and what needs to be done to rectify the issue.
4. A Lack of Follow-Ups
Finally, one of the major issues that customers experience with impersonal contact centers has to do with a lack of adequate follow-ups. People aren’t necessarily upset that they don’t get an immediate resolution to their problem – it’s being kept in the dark that they don’t like.
What is going on with their case? When is a solution expected? Are there any additional steps that need to be taken? These aren’t questions that they should have to answer themselves. Agents should follow up on a regular basis to keep people informed and with the level of automation afforded by contact center software, doing so is easier than ever.
In the end, these are significant common mistakes that many call centers experience – but with the right software by your side, they’re also easily avoidable in a way that creates a better customer experience at the same time.
To find out more information about intelligent automation solutions for customer service teams, or to get answers to any other important questions you may have, please don’t delay – contact Intradiem today.