Happy Customers, Happy Brand
By Ann Ruckstuhl, SVP & CMO, LiveOps
Disney. Zappos. Nordstrom. Apple. Trader Joe’s. State Farm. Amazon.com. Recognizable brands, yes. But different industries, different products, different target customers. What do they all have in common? Widespread acknowledgement of providing top-notch customer service for every customer, every time.
There’s an old saying: “Happy wife, happy life.” It also applies to customers: “Happy customers, happy brand.” The customer service experience can vary greatly among companies. Brands must remember that customers usually have a choice, and will do business with the organization that treats them best. What can brands do to treat their customers better than the competition? Here are five best practices in customer experience management.
Act, Don’t React
Brands and their agents must engage with customers in real time—and real-time contextual routing can help them engage. Whether it’s responding to a tweet, sending an automatic follow up email when a customer has left the website with product still in their shopping cart or opening a live chat session to keep the customer from leaving the site…there are many things brands can do to engage customers and save sales. Real-time customer experience management may seem like a mouthful, but it pays dividends.
Provide Agents with Multichannel Insight
Happy customers will stay with a brand for their lifetime and become brand advocates. The best way to create those loyal for life customers is to provide outstanding customer service—and agents need outstanding tools and technologies to do so. Empower your agents with the right tools, like an integrated, multichannel agent desktop. When agents can quickly and easily access information, they can respond to customers quickly and effectively. Being able to view customer information and the history of interactions across channels, and then respond on any of those channels can be effortless. The ability to pivot a customer interaction from one communication channel to another (from a public tweet to a phone call to a private message follow up), all from the same screen, means a 360-degree view and response across channels is not only possible, but simple and efficient.
Keep Those Tools Sharp
There seems to be no end to the tools brands can implement to help with excellent customer service. CRM integration with customer service operations can improve the customer experience with integrated screen pop, which provides insight into each customer, such as a customer profile, case details and interaction history. Agents are able to offer personalized service when they can access more information in one place. There is also co-browsing, which allows an agent to connect to a customer’s browser and show them around a brand’s website or even help them fill out and submit a form. The right tools help create the best customer experience.
Live Service Is Often The Next Best Action
Not all customer interactions are the same. They can take place on different channels, with wildly different issues at different times of the day. While it’s helpful to have scripts to respond to and interact with customers on various issues, sometimes those scripts just don’t fit the situation. That’s when it’s essential to have live agents interacting with customers—not chat bots or automated systems. A live agent can dive into an issue and work to get the customer to the “next best action,” whatever it may be. That may be the difference between saving a customer relationship and losing it…and we all know it’s easier and more cost effective to keep a happy customer than gain a new customer. Check out this handy Customer Experience ROI calculator to learn more (http://www.cxengage.com/customer-experience-roi-calculator).
Maintain a Culture of Customer Obsession
Those brands mentioned at the beginning are known to be obsessed with customer service. Most brands have some level of obsession with their customers, since customers are the reason they are in business. Soon, customer obsession will become a mandate for brands to survive and thrive. Brands will have to walk the talk to keep satisfied customers.
“Happy customers, happy brand.” There is some work involved to reach that goal—and now you’re prepared. Like the best things in life, it may not be easy, but it will be worth it. 
For more information on tools and technologies for outstanding customer service, visit http://www.liveops.com/why-choose-liveops.