We live in an era where almost half of the world’s population is connected to the Internet. A large percentage of them access it through mobile devices. The global mobile population accounts for 3.7 billion unique users who spend 7x more time on native mobile apps. Thus, it is not only imperative to deliver stellar experiences but offer proactive customer service every time.
CX has become a gamechanger when dealing with markets strife with cut-throat competition and high acquisition costs. With enterprises focusing on providing the best in class experience across various parts of the journey, what’s the next big thing? How does one stay ahead of the curve? How do you retain your existing customers? More importantly, how do you consistently acquire new ones?
The answer is simple – engage proactively. It’s a key pillar for enterprises to make the first move and go out of their way to solve potential problems before customers start asking for help.
However, not being proactive can cause delays in problem resolution and create a cascading effect of more problems. That’s why proactive customer service aids in better demand management. It leverages customer information such as their profile, preferences, historical behavior to intelligently design journeys that are aimed towards solving issues.
What does ‘engage proactively’ mean?
It does not mean overloading the customer with unnecessary sales calls for new products or intruding their personal lives. Instead, one could identify problems or questions that they might have at each stage of the journey and reach out to them with relevant solutions.
For instance, if a customer is browsing through the watch category on an e-commerce website, the company could use analytical models to display relevant suggestions based on previous transactions. This could not just save time and effort for the customer but also create a personalized experience, which could further be enhanced at the point of purchase / post-purchase.
How do enterprises go about creating a proactive customer service?
A customer journey is typically split into three stages – pre-purchase, purchase and post-purchase. But to provide a holistic and proactive customer service, enterprises need to focus on every stage of the journey. Here are a few tips to help you create and provide superior experiences while improving loyalty across the lifecycle.
- Deploy analytics to personalize the search experience by offering suggestions, free consultation, information on substitutes or competitor price points
- Provide a list of easy to understand and exhaustive FAQs
- Take an omni-channel route and interact with the customer via their channel of choice
- Proactively identify the best payment method based on transactional history
- Communicate regularly with timely status updates until delivery
- Have flexible return and exchange policies
- Keep the customer informed of upgrades and other complementary products to enable avenues of cross-selling
- Be accessible and empathetic; always acknowledge complaints or service requests
- Seek feedback on the product/service experience and problem resolutions
Does adopting a proactive customer service help?
Enterprises fear losing customers because the competition is higher than ever before. It is why being retroactive can take them to front doors of competitors. Being proactive about what customers need, however, can assuage these fears. It can:
- Reduce acquisition costs through earlier stage engagement
- Reduce customer effort and lead to brand ambassadorship
- Reduce contact per unit ratio; reducing customer service cost
- Control customer churn
- Make customers feel valued
Delivering great experiences is not a one-time activity. Successful brands who boast of high customer loyalty have made this into a habit. If an enterprise wants to achieve sustained loyalty, they should take care to ensure that the promise they have made to customers is successfully translated into its engagement strategy. Having a proactive and holistic engagement strategy can go a long way in building loyalty and achieving the competitive advantage.
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