“Walking the Talk” When It Comes to Customer Experience

Talking and walking should be synonymous when it comes to customer experience. But the reality is that many businesses fail when it comes to “walking a good talk.” And money talks in this case. More than 90 percent of marketing budgets is spent trying to get customers to call; only six percent is actually spent on the operations for handling the call.

It shouldn’t be a surprise that customers are letting their feet do the walking as a result. Sixty-seven percent indicate they hung up on a customer service call when they couldn’t get a live human on the line. And when prospects have a poor engagement experience: 78 percent bail on completing a transaction.

The number-one thing customers cite that companies can do to create better experiences is to respect their time. This makes a lot of sense. Consider that the average consumer spends 1.2 years waiting on hold—phone and live web chat—during their lifetime. And it simply isn’t a B2C problem: business leaders spend 60 hours waiting on hold each year!

Giving your customers—and prospects—a great experience begins with a multi-channel (or omnichannel) approach. You cannot rely on just one method of engagement. Companies that excel at delivering great customer experiences offer their customers multiple engagement options—self-service, phone, email, and live web chat. Social networks are also a channel of preference for a growing number, particularly the Millennial demographic—those between the ages of 18 and 34.

When your customers engage, they buy more, they are more loyal, and they advocate more often on your behalf. The following are some things that you can do as a business leader to ensure that your organization is walking the talk when it comes to customer experience.

1. Digital Personalization. Not every customer who comes to your website will do so with the intent of initiating an engagement experience. They may be looking for information and quickly go elsewhere when they cannot locate it. You often have less than 90 seconds to make that connection. This is where intelligent digital engagement comes into play. Based on the identity and/or behavior of the visitor, you can proactively offer them content or even engagement options (e.g., phone, live web chat, etc.). With Davinci Live Web Chat, small businesses have the ability to do so without incurring large overhead or acquiring expensive technologies. Check it out today.
   
   
2. Digital Self-Service. Self-service is most certainly the cheapest engagement channel, and it is the preferred option of customers—nearly three out of four want to solve their problems and answer their questions via self-service versus live human engagement. Customers need information and often require guided navigation. Embedding a knowledge base and integrating it into your website, online community, or even product is a great starting point.
   
   But, an online knowledge base or community may not be enough. Customers sometimes need digital directions, and this is where real-time content personalization can make a big difference—in terms of both giving customers exactly what they need and deflecting customer service calls or even chats. This can be proactively presented to customers via content personalization.
   
   
3. Live Web Chat. Sometimes it requires live human engagement. Traditional engagement channels through phone and email are not only more expensive, but they are sometimes not the most effective mode of engagement. The majority of Millennials prefer live web chat over phone or email. This compares to just a little over one-quarter of those age 35 and older.
   
   When it comes to offering your customers and prospects live web chat, a static “Chat with Us” button is a starting point. But it should be much more than a one-directional engagement offer; rather, companies must engage with their customers based on their behavior. Conversion rates go up, bounce rates go down, and satisfaction ratios for customer service increases. And with our Live Web Chat service, small businesses don’t need to worry about the technology or staff to make live web chat a reality.
   
   
4. Live Receptionists. Live human engagement through phone is sometimes a requisite. Some problems simply require phone to achieve an appropriate resolution. In other instances, certain customers simply prefer phone. For small businesses that don’t have the time or resources to manage inbound and outbound calls, Davinci Live Receptionists are a great option.
   
   Portability between each of your engagement channels is important; it needs to be a seamless experience where customers transfer between each channel without repeating information and each engagement channel experience builds upon the previous one. With half of call centers admitting they do not use end-to-end workflows to keep track of interactions and information, there are substantial opportunities for businesses that create seamless channel portability—and big challenges for those that fail to do so. As all of our different engagement options are integrated—from Live Receptionists, to Live Web Chat, to Virtual Offices, to Meeting Rooms, Davinci Virtual’s customers know their customers receive outstanding engagement experiences.

Davinci Virtual has helped tens of thousands of businesses to walk the talk of great customer experiences for more than a decade.

About Patrick Spencer

Patrick Spencer (Ph.D.) is the President and Founder of TIRO Communications that helps companies develop, build, and manage content, customer, advocacy, and demand-gen programs. Included in its offerings is TIRO Cognition Insights, a data analytics tool that enables B2C and B2B businesses to pinpoint what their customers and competitors’ customers are saying and to identify corresponding actionable product, services, competitive, sales, and marketing intelligence.

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Website: www.tirocommunications.com