7 Customer Service Channels To Improve CX In The Call Center

Customer service channels have evolved significantly over the past decades. Today, there are a variety of ways that a customer can communicate with businesses and solve their problems in a short time.

In business terms, all these forms of interaction are known as “customer service channels.” Fast and outstanding service can greatly impact the customer experience and contribute to a company’s competitive advantage.

CX in customer service channels and throughout the customer journey can even turn dissatisfied customers into advocates. What customer service channels can help businesses manage user requests more effectively and greatly improve the customer experience?

7 Customer Service Channels To Improve CX In The Call Center

1) Social Networks

Social media can be a vital tool for organizations of any size. In the digital age, it is one of the most competitive customer service channels for engaging with customers.

However, being present on social media by opening new Twitter and Facebook accounts and leaving them inactive will not help. An empty or static social media page is like an empty store: why would customers want to visit it? Therefore, it is necessary to actively share relevant content and develop a presence on social networks to interact with customers online.

Customers who interact with companies through social media end up spending 20% to 40% more money in those organizations. Additionally, 71% of users who find positive customer service through social media recommend the brand.

Therefore, perspective must be harnessed to publish the brand, thus capitalizing on the power of social media, and this can only be done through regular and engaging social practices.

2) Live Chat

With an increasing number of people shopping from the comfort of their couches, everyone wants customer support right there. For this, live chat is a tool that can be used to interact with customers and solve a variety of problems that they face.

Live chat can be used as an information bank for customers, through which they can interact directly with employees to quickly get answers about a product; tilting the purchase decision in your favor.

3) Customer Discussion Forums

An online forum is a very specialized community that allows users of a certain brand, product or service to meet and share their comments with each other.

The prevalence of many forums for certain products or services is increasing, encouraging more customers to voice their concerns in a closed peer group where they can get responses from other customers and not just from company employees.

One of its biggest advantages is that much of the negative feedback stays within the group while giving the brand direct access to customer complaints, which ultimately also helps improve the product.

Of course, not all customer discussion forums will attract customer engagement on their own. It is key to assign a team of discussion moderators who first direct customer comments to the forum and then resolve their concerns.

Moderators on these forums should do their best to find customers on this channel and respond to them frequently. Also, the comments seen in the community are as important as any other channel, so they should not be left unattended at all.

4) Text Message Support

According to Comscore research, 75% of users use SMS regularly. Looking at these statistics, wouldn’t it be wise to implement an SMS customer service in your company? It doesn’t have to be the only way to offer customer support, but keeping a wide range of options for users encourages them to communicate.

Just like some customer service complaints are generated through email and the loop is closed through the same channel, SMS text messages can be used to extend customer support via your mobile phone.

Eventually, the customer could be called if he needs further clarification, but at least he doesn’t have to wait while a call is transferred from one department to another. 

5) Smartphone Apps

In research conducted by Comscore, four out of five customers use their smartphone to shop and 50% of those mobile users prefer to use a customer service app rather than wasting their time on a call.

A mobile application can also help you facilitate a real-time feedback system and thus introduce further advances in the customer experience management system.

6) Customer Feedback Surveys

A customer feedback survey is a crucial method of finding out what your customer thinks of your business and how satisfied they are with your brand.

It allows you to know how customers interact with each of the contact points and the errors that exist in them. This feedback should be reversed and used to improve the customer experience journey.

7) Online Customer Portal

An online customer portal is something that can be created as part of a website or mobile application for users to access their personal data and transactions with a company.

A customer portal is by far one of the most efficient and effective customer service channels because it helps users access information they may need multiple times without having to wait in any queue.

In conclusion, today’s companies have to evolve with the needs of customers. It is necessary to develop and improve every day new and innovative methods to interact with users and solve them.