Yesterday, I was trolling the net for my daily dose of news when one discussion grabbed my attention. The topic? You guessed it: Customer Experience.
This term has been thrown around like grandma’s fruitcake on Christmas. We all know that good customer experience if delivered properly, can do wonders for any business. A customer who is treated like royalty is likely to become a loyal customer and praise your service. In the age of social media, the reverse can also happen. They could hate you and embarrass you in a public forum.
I saw that there was a strong stance on the quality of Customer Experience delivered by Contact Center agents. Culture, language intonation, and such factors are important. These are crucial to businesses for enhancing customer interactions as it influences the overall experience.
Like in my case, I speak with an odd-mix of accents, and I respect cultural norms when interacting with people from diverse backgrounds. While this is important, as we know, non-verbal cues greatly impact relationships. Recently when I went out to dinner with some friends, I was introduced to a couple of people from Australia. I engaged them in a conversation, I was courteous in my mannerisms, and served them whenever I saw fit. This was well appreciated.
Similarly, how can Contact Centers utilize non-verbal communication after all it impacts more than 50% of communications when agents mostly only talk? What should Contact Centers do?
The answer is technology. While communication is important and it is the mainstay of how we interact, it impacts business-to-customer relationships the most. If a Contact Center wants to deliver an unforgettable Customer Experience, then it must go beyond the verbal and employ non-verbal cues too.
Like in the case of my internet connection. I lodged a complaint when it was down and got it resolved in the first call. But when it was down again after a while, I called back. A new agent told me to do the same steps I had completed even after I told them that I had gone through those steps. The agent did not understand, called his supervisor, and after some heated discussion, I was too irritated to bother.
Now if the first agent had answered the second time I called, I would have moved to Troubleshooting-Part 2. He knew my situation, the next steps, and was most able to assist me further. The cherry on the cake would have been if the agent would call me to enquire how my net was functioning instead of me calling back.
This is where the right solution can actually make a difference. People claim, I have a solution that can give you ACD, Auto Dialer, IVR, and etc. So what? Is that solution going to meet my exact requirements? Does it comply with the requirements of a new business entering the market, as well as it does with an established manufacturer of products, or even an individual entrepreneur?
The right technology can do wonders in delivering the perfect non-verbal communication to your customers, be proactive, and ensure right connectivity. This is exactly what the solution should be; it should be able to differentiate your business and provide the right non-verbal cues to your customers to deliver the right Customer Experience.