6 Ways To Proactively Meet Customers On Their Digital Journey

According to an Accenture report, 78% of B2B clients indicate that proactive service solutions are important, but are offered less effectively. After-sales service and customer support solutions are essential. Once a consumer chooses your services, it’s just the beginning of their journey to a longer relationship and higher Customer Lifetime Value (CLTV).

With the right strategy and tools, companies can identify and direct each customer’s digital search towards the optimal result. According to Aberdeen research, proactive engagement can also achieve a 94% reduction in service costs.

6 Ways Being Proactive Can Help Save Customers Time and Effort and Increase Brand Loyalty

1) Know What Customers Expect

Today, customers expect every service interaction to be easy, efficient, and satisfying. Delivering an exceptional customer experience (CX) is not just a competitive advantage; it is necessary for business survival. According to Salesforce, 45% of consumers will switch brands if a company does not actively anticipate their needs.

How to meet those expectations? Being proactive. Delighting customers by staying one step ahead. According to Gartner, 60% of CX leaders say their customer service function uses proactivity to resolve customer inquiries, and 85% of users end up contacting the call centre after a proactive contact.

In this sense, it is key to provide connected and personalised digital journeys in which customers do not have to start over or repeat information at any time. In fact, 96% of customers expect companies to make things easier for them without repeating the same thing over and over again. Gartner research found that the simplest, low-effort experiences reduce costs by reducing repeat calls by up to 40%, volume escalations by 50%, and channel changes by 54%.

Therefore, it is desirable to offer self-service options that allow clients to conveniently find requested knowledge on their own without having to contact a live agent.

2) Prioritise Customer Needs

Even if companies use the most sophisticated technology and CX initiatives, they risk failure unless they focus on the needs of their customers. Simple and fast resolutions with minimal wait times are their top priorities.

Therefore, it is necessary to develop a CX strategy that directs customers to the best digital channel to solve their problems, be it on the web, through a customer service chatbot or a mobile app.

3) Anticipate Customer Wishes And Problems

Being proactive means anticipating the kinds of issues customers are facing to help resolve them quickly by mitigating friction with users and staying in control of the situation. Customers want companies to contact them proactively to inform them of potential issues and product and/or service updates.

4) Get Ahead Of Customer Needs

A company’s proactive engagement with its customers is based on getting in touch with them as soon as or even before they need it. To do this, they need to know what they can do to solve a problem: either by providing information at the right time that can help them reach resolutions quickly and smoothly; or guiding web and mobile visitors through their digital journey with the most relevant and appropriate support offer.

It is important that clients have their online knowledge always available on demand.

5) Help Customers Help Themselves

It is about reducing the need for customers to communicate with live agents, building security, trust and loyalty, encouraging users to complete tasks on their own.

The solution? Deliver great self-service experiences by providing the information they need where they can easily find it.

6) Proactively Engage With Customers Who Will Not Contact The Company

Some customers never contact companies when they have problems. They fear that the process will take too long and be cumbersome. You don’t have to risk losing them to the competition. Customers churn increases acquisition costs and can also limit growth.

In this case, being proactive means anticipating and getting ahead of customer needs. With the right tools and the right strategy, you can eliminate friction throughout the digital customer journey and solve user problems the first time faster and easier.

This will deliver several key benefits for both customers and the business: improved first contact resolution, increased self-service resolution, reduced call volumes, lower operating costs, and minimal customer effort.