The Golden Rules of Reducing Customer Effort
The concept of the “golden rule” can be found in many cultures and traditions, but one common principal shared is that people should treat others in a manner in which they themselves would like to be treated. This concept can be applied to customer engagement.
Consider how your service organization handles inquiries and compare it to how you would want to be treated. You may find that your organization is not following the golden rule principle. Many organizations are reluctant to upgrade legacy contact center systems to effectively address the “golden rule” of customer care because their existing contact center infrastructure continues to accomplish fundamental tasks.
The problem is that the market and customer expectations have changed. As a result, many customer care groups naively delay upgrades and ignore warning signs that customers are not satisfied with their experience. Take a closer look at your customer care strategy if any of the following conditions are eroding the golden rule of customer care, which involves minimizing customer effort and maximizing satisfaction.
1. You are making customers repeat information—The annoyance meter is raised when customers are asked to repeat information after being transferred from an IVR to an agent, or between agents. Cost-effective technology will address this issue. For example, WhisperTel provides agents with a voice recording of what happened in the voice self-service channel prior to taking the call.
2. Agents are not informed—Knowing and anticipating why a customer is contacting you provides the foundation for reducing customer effort. An integrated CRM and ACD solution can make this happen. The ACD routes calls and some even route other channels such as email, chat, and social media. The CRM manages data associated with each customer by consolidating information and acting as a central repository for data that can be used across many departments.
3. You are always in reactive mode—Being proactive will help to reduce customer effort and even salvage what may be turning into a bad customer experience. Take for example, one online retailer that has agents proactively making calls to people who abandon their shopping cart during the checkout process.
Another example is that one Human Resource outsourcer realized there were many questions regarding a benefits package that was mailed to their client’s employees. To rectify miscommunication, they immediately launched an outbound calling campaign to all subscribers to head off questions and complaints.
4. You are losing loyalty even before customers talk to an agent—Customers are increasingly reaching out to agents when other channels have failed. Frequently, a website search has failed and a frustrated customer reluctantly calls a service number. This situation is especially common for the millennial generation who tend to make a phone call as a last course of action.
Focus on improving the self-service channel with more efficient routing to agents rather than trying to automate all tasks. Also, take advantage of data captured within an integrated ACD/CRM environment, which can provide agents with the knowledge that a caller recently communicated via another channel.
5. You are using static call routing— Are you able to easily change your IVR menu based on the availability and skill of your agents? If not, that is usually a good indicator that your customer care front door is failing.
Cloud contact center vendors have a range of capabilities you can use to optimize call routing. For example, routing rules can be set up for language, agent availability, queue times and more. More sophisticated ACD cloud providers use complex formulas to calculate the best route to an agent based multiple aspects such as both queue wait time and agent skill.
Conclusion
According to a survey by the Customer Contact Council, 59% of respondents reported expending moderate-to-high effort to resolve an issue. 62% of the respondents reported having to repeatedly contact a company to resolve an issue. These results clearly show that organizations need to continuously evaluate the effort their customers must use to resolve a problem or get a question answered. It is vital to implement process improvements that reflect the golden rule of making your customers’ experience as positive and helpful as you yourself would like to experience. 
About VoltDelta
VoltDelta is a global cloud-based contact center provider with 35 years of experience. We rapidly tailor and integrate our multi-channel contact center solutions to enable you to increase revenue, boost retention, and reduce operating costs.
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