Contact centres play a crucial role in customer experience, as they are often the first point of contact for customers seeking assistance or support. A positive experience at the contact centre can mean the difference between a satisfied customer who continues to do business with a company, and an unhappy customer who takes their business elsewhere.
Historically, contact centres have often been siloed from other areas of customer experience, particularly digital or online experiences, and, understandably, given the high cost of contact, have focussed primarily on efficiency and productivity.
However, elevating the contact centre to be an integral part of the ‘front line’ of customer contact strategy and understanding how and where it fits into an overall customer experience is a vital step to improving customer loyalty, advocacy and ultimately retention.
If ‘the best service is no service’ then understanding what is driving customer contact and working to eliminate those triggers is key
For those contacts that can’t be deflected, using technology to support self-service options, such as automated voice response systems, online chatbots or enhanced FAQs can also allow customers to quickly get the information they need without having to wait on hold or speak with an agent.
For those contacts that need a human touch then there are several key factors that contribute to a positive customer experience in the contact centre. Customers obviously want to be able to reach an agent as quickly as possible, and long wait times can be frustrating so improving availability by staffing appropriately and using tools such as call routing and prioritisation ensure that calls are handled efficiently and effectively.
When the call gets to an agent, presenting them with contact specific information about the customer, their recent activity, along with recommendations allow the agent to be able to answer questions quickly and accurately and to resolve their issues. Targeted training and support for agents based on performance and agent self-assessment can help ensure that they are able to deliver a high level of service to customers.
Supporting the agent with real time contact analysis on customer mood and sentiment will also greatly impact the customer experience. Customers want to feel that they are being treated with respect and that their concerns are being taken seriously. Contact centre agents should be friendly, patient, and empathetic, and should do their best to make the customer feel heard and understood.
Following up with customers after their call to ensure that their issue was fully resolved and to gather feedback on the overall experience and linking that back to the call itself allows predictive analytics to generate a likely satisfaction score that is closely correlated to actual feedback. This vastly increases the feedback sample and allows for immediate reporting back to the agent so they can monitor and adjust their own performance.
The customer experience in the contact centre is vital to the success of any business. A positive experience can lead to customer satisfaction and loyalty, while a negative experience can cause churn and tends to get more widely circulated.
Integrating the contact centre into the end to end customer contact strategy and focusing on availability, knowledge and expertise, effective communication and technology, means contact centres can deliver a high-quality customer experience that builds trust and strengthens relationships.