4 Customer Experience Tips for Contact Centers
0 comments | 1000 reads Organizations are spending more time and money to improve the customer experience in 2011. Here are 4 ways to improve the contact center experience for customers.
- Avoid Offshoring If Possible
Offshoring has its benefits and drawbacks. A key drawback is its impact on the customer experience. There is an inherent distrust of a representative outside of the caller’s country handling a customer service issue. In addition, offshoring and outsourcing typically results in a loss of control over the experience itself. Offshoring may be less expensive, but a hidden cost is the impact on your customer satisfaction.
- CTI and Screenpops
A computer telephony interface that displays information about a telephone caller on an agent’s screen lowers the average call handle time and reduces the number of questions required to identify the caller. As a result the customer gets their issue handled quicker while providing fewer or no verification details, improving their experience.
- One View of the Customer
There is no better way to kill the customer experience than having customer information silos in a contact center. A customer’s information and interaction history across channels should be available to each department in the contact center. Otherwise you risk making the customer repeat information he / she has already provided which is very frustrating. From the customer’s perspective, their interaction across the contact center is one experience… ensure it is not broken up when they navigate across channels.
- Invest in Your Agents
There is no getting around it, your contact center agents ultimately have the biggest impact on the customer experience. After all, they are the actual point of contact between the caller and your organization. Customers are quick to pick up on unhappy and unmotivated agents, which provides a negative impression of your company and can translate into a poor experience.
Ensure your agents are happy, motivated, and well-trained. This starts by hiring the best quality agents you can from the start, and investing in their career development and training. Too often in contact centers, agents are unmotivated and poorly trained because of low payment and an unclear career path. This typically stems from a tight contact center budget. Provide them with performance-based bonuses and incentives. Treat them like humans, not machines or numbers. You may be surprised with the results.
Omar Zaibak
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