5 Ideas To Understand the Customer and Improve CX Management

When it comes to understanding customer feedback, companies can learn a lot if they put the effort into it. This not only means interpreting the words they use, but also involves analyzing behaviors and actions that influence that line of communication.

Customers send many behavioral signals about their preferences, needs, feelings, and expectations. All of these aspects, in turn, can be the difference between positive and negative customer experiences (CX). But the messages are lost without the right focus and tools to listen and react.

In this post we will explore some new ways to listen to the digital languages of customers and thus offer an improved CX.

5 Ideas To Understand the Customer and Improve CX Management

1) Integrate Customer Feedback Surveys with Interaction Data To Improve Understanding

Surveys are an effective way to collect customer feedback and calculate key metrics like satisfaction, Net Promoter Score (NPS), and customer effort scores. These types of surveys are valuable because they let call centers know how people feel about their overall service experience. They also measure satisfaction levels with specific aspects such as agent proficiency, speed of resolution, and usability of self-service solutions.

Survey results are a vital input to every customer experience management program, but as valuable as they are, they don’t provide a holistic understanding of the Voice of the Customer (VoC), as people tend to fill out customer satisfaction surveys when they are very happy or very angry. Furthermore, the customer feedback obtained does not always provide useful information on the extent of certain problems; for example, a single customer may complain about a problem that affects thousands of people.

Combining survey results with contact center interaction data helps develop a more complete understanding of customers and why they engage with a company. Going back to the previous example, using this combination of data can help organizations understand whether an issue that surfaced in a single customer satisfaction survey is an anomaly or more widespread.

2) Personalize Customer Experiences (CX)

Personalized customer experiences show that their needs and expectations are understood. Tailoring experiences to specific people requires companies to recognize customers across all the channels they use and leverage individual data, such as purchase history and interactions, to make personalized recommendations.

In the call center, personalization could mean using a customer’s history, preferences, and sentiment to route them to an agent who can effectively resolve their query.

Users not only value personalized experiences, they also expect them. In fact, a Salesforce study indicates that 59% of customers expect personalized engagement based on past interactions.

3) Upgrade Call Center Customer Experiences with Advanced Conversational AI

Virtual agents using conversational Artificial Intelligence (AI) can be implemented in chat and voice channels and integrated with automation tools and back-end systems. They can also easily perform the following tasks:

• Digitally guide conversations.
• Use customer data to personalize interactions.
• Answer frequently asked questions.
• Schedule and make changes to appointments.
• Collect customer information and share it with agents in real time.
• Contact customers proactively with personalized messages.

Conversational AI is essential to the effectiveness of virtual agents. Because people use various ways to describe what they need help with, non-AI bots can quickly fail when they haven’t been programmed to process certain words or phrases. For example, a bot that repeatedly responds, “Please rephrase your question,” indicates to customers that the company does not speak their language fluently.

4) Use Real-Time Analytics To Empower Agents and Engage Customers in More Effective Live Conversations

Real-time engagement guidance helps coach agents in the moment by using AI to objectively detect and measure sentiment and soft skills behaviors that have been shown to improve customer satisfaction. When the system detects low sentiment or behavioral metrics, real-time engagement guidance prompts the agent for the best response or solution. For example: listening more actively, empathizing with the customer’s situation, or exhibiting other soft skills that can improve CX.

Additionally, real-time interaction guidance provides ongoing training reinforcement so agents can work proactively to improve their service levels with every customer interaction.

5) Offer Customers the Option To Browse the Channel of Their Choice

Offering multiple communication options to customers allows them to use the ones they find convenient and most appropriate for their problems.

Offering various channel options can influence customer behavior and loyalty. Salesforce research revealed that 90% of consumers are more likely to do business with companies that offer multiple ways to communicate.

Those options should include self-service. Most customers prefer to resolve their issues on digital channels themselves, and often contact customer support for more complex queries.

Omnichannel experiences allow customers to move seamlessly across channels without having to repeat information. The result? It’s a much higher chance of gaining positive feedback and increasing user satisfaction.