The new customer experience (CX)

“Let’s talk” …. what’s your customer experience like these days? Are you rolling out the red carpet? Can your customers communicate with you in ways other than phone calls? Do you gather and analyze communications and interaction data, so you know your customers better? Have you started to dabble in automation and AI?

If you answered “no” to even just one of those questions, it’s time to give your customers the Hollywood treatment.  It’s time to deliver the innovative experience customers demand and receive rave reviews. This is what we at IntelePeer like to call the NEW customer experience. And since we are in this business together, we will let you in on our secret of what this means and how you can create it.

Agile

As any famous movie star could tell you, change is inevitable. Customer preferences, what is happening in the market, what your competitors are doing, and even changes within your own company can all impact the service you deliver. You need to be agile so you can react quickly to these changes as well as be proactive in modifying or creating new ways to handle interactions. Having access to analytics will give you the actionable intelligence you need to make informed decisions for these new ideas.  Make sure you are always starring in the year’s blockbuster, and not just the extra on a made-for-TV movie.  

Flexible

Along with being more agile in reacting to and planning for change, you need to be flexible in how you enable customers to resolve inquiries.  AI and automation are the leading co-stars to quickly address common tasks and only drive customers to one-on-one conversations as needed. If a customer wants to take care of common tasks such as checking their balance or getting FAQ-type information, you can leverage AI bots and automated self-service options to handle those. Which frees up your team for specialized issues or to pick up an interaction if a basic inquiry turns into a more complex conversation.  

Omnichannel

Not everyone wants to “phone home.” More than 52% of customers would prefer to interact in another way besides phone calls (Nemertes Research 2020). Allow customers to interact with your business through their preferred channel, whether it’s voice, SMS, social channel, email, smoke signal, carrier pigeon… ok those last two are probably not necessary, but you get the picture. You can also send outbound notifications through these new channels, such as payment reminders, product updates, discounts, and more. You’ll be able to have more personalized and effective interactions when you meet your customers where they want to be.