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But even if your organization isn't ready for that type of change, you can still better connect with your customers by digitizing a few key support processes to engage more authentically with customers.
Here are six strategies for revamping customer support processes to deliver a memorable experience, drive sales, and grow revenue.
1. Be proactive
Don't wait for complaints to reach your call centers. In today's social media-driven society, angry customers often go online first to voice their unhappiness.
Identify ways of redefining processes to drive proactive support. By tying predictive and prescriptive analytics to service and support, you can solve problems before they boil over into complaints.
2. Create multiple channels, one customer experience
Customers move fluidly among call centers, IVRs, social media queues, online chat, and email - and expect customer support to do likewise. An omni-channel experience delivers the message that your organization values customers and encourages their engagement.
Creating one experience requires a unified view of customer interactions - by leveraging existing CRM systems or using a cloud-based solution. You'll also need to redefine support outcomes to include customer demands, such as the expectation you can anticipate their needs.
3. Develop personalized experiences
"Mass personalization" is a core strategic goal for companies eager to digitize the customer experience. For instance, online retailers are dovetailing support with sales, thereby altering the once-transactional sales process to one focused on the art of suggestion.
As your products become more personalized, so too must customer support - through smarter technology and more advocacy-focused service personnel.
4. Deliver 'moments of magic'
Most support organizations focus on responding to incidents. But customers want "moments of magic," those unexpected interactions that leave them feeling valued.
Customers crave recognition and organizations need quantitative and qualitative measures to deliver it. Evaluate whether you have the right mechanisms and metrics to encourage moments of magic.
5. Encourage interaction
The one-to-one nature of customer support makes it a goldmine for feedback. But converting customer support into a function that offers insight into customer wants and needs requires a shift in focus from reactive to interactive.
Identify the functional, operational, and cultural changes needed for interactive support. Then put in place mechanisms to enable your support organization to listen carefully to customers, which in turn creates meaningful experiences.
6. Empower frontline support
You can't count on technology alone to create a positive experience for customers - there needs to be a human element as well. Make sure customer service representatives have the right training they need to succeed, combined with the authority - and budget - to offer refunds, incentives, and other ways to make customers happy. This approach can create value for customers and ultimately improve your bottom line.
Adapted from a whitepaper by Mahesh Jadhav and Robert Hoyle Brown, Cognizant senior leaders.
Find out more about how Cognizant is helping companies improve their digital strategy.
This post is sponsored by Cognizant.