Tips To Increase Call Center Customer Loyalty

Discomfort caused by a bad experience is more common and easily spread today, making customer loyalty difficult to maintain. This is demonstrated by a study by Microsoft, which found that 61% of customers stopped doing business with a brand due to poor service.

When customers interact with a call center, the last thing they want is to fall into an endless customer journey that doesn’t meet their expectations. So what can companies do to strengthen the bond and increase customer retention? What is the most effective way to improve user loyalty? In short, how to prevent customers from going to the competition?

Hint: Brands should focus on customer experience (CX), and the contact center is a great place to start. In this post we will look at three areas that call centers can focus on to increase customer loyalty.

Tips To Increase Call Center Customer Loyalty

Focus Area 1: Instant Gratification with Enhanced Self-Service

A surprising fact is that most customers prefer to find answers to their own questions and solve their problems. In fact, according to an article published by the Harvard Business Review, 81% of people try self-service before asking for help from customer service.

This is so because immediacy is a high priority for today’s consumers. Salesforce found that 83% of customers expect an immediate response when contacting a company.

Also, people expect businesses to be available 24 hours a day. According to CMS Wire, anything brands offer customers today, especially from a digital service, has to be 24/7/365.

What Steps Should Call Centers Take To Ensure High Self-Service Completion Rates?

• Optimize the website and its content to meet customer needs.
• Implement self-service powered by Artificial Intelligence (AI) to maintain 24/7 availability through the following channels: voice, chat, and messaging.
• Offer and guide customers to expanded methods of communication, that is, they must be able to choose how they interact with companies.

Effective self-service meets customers’ expectations of instant gratification and provides the kind of CX that builds customer loyalty.

Focus Area 2: Reduce Customer Effort and Frustration, From Chat to IVR to Live Agent Conversations

Reducing friction is a primary goal of customer experience/trip management. When looking for answers or solutions, people not only want, but also expect effortless experiences. It’s the CX team’s responsibility to optimize touch points and cross-channel handoffs so customers don’t struggle to achieve their goals.

The proliferation of so many different digital channels has made travel management much more difficult. Every new point of contact and transfer presents an opportunity to get it right if organizations are vigilant in identifying pain points and frictions that cause customer frustration.

How To Significantly Reduce Customer Effort and Drive Higher CSAT (Satisfaction Surveys)?

1) Integrating Channels Into a Unified Framework

If a customer exchanges a couple of emails with a company about an issue and then decides to call customer service to expedite the process, the agent answering the call should be able to pick up where the colleague who handled the emails left off.

If a contact center can’t provide this kind of omnichannel experience, users must repeat the same thing when they switch channels and start from scratch each time they switch interaction channels, increasing friction and customer effort.

To meet customer expectations, the best practice for call centers is to integrate all of their support channels into a unified framework. This ensures that contextual information follows customers as they change channels, eliminating the need to repeat information. Omnichannel customer service creates the kind of CX that results in long-term customer retention.

2) Simplifying IVR To Reduce Frustration and Effort

Advanced IVRs support two main tasks: routing and self-service. Both are greatly simplified with conversational AI.

Conversational AI leverages natural language processing (NLP) to enable tools like virtual agents and IVRs to understand human language. Callers simply indicate what they need help with, eliminating confusing, and multi-level menus.

3) Empowering Agents To Deliver Service Excellence

Agents play a critical role in creating the kinds of experiences that increase customer loyalty. Although self-service adoption is increasing, agent-assisted channels remain the most widely used.

Even the best agents can create friction if they take too long to find information. Customers want quick solutions to problems and companies to show empathy and active listening. Both of these expectations are difficult to consistently meet without the right tools.

When used by agents, knowledge bases can show them what online searches customers made and what content they viewed. This gives them insight into the nature of an interaction before the conversation even begins.

Customers want easy and stress-free customer service. When omnichannel capabilities are implemented, IVR menu designs are streamlined, and agents are equipped with the tools and support they need, call centers more consistently meet user expectations.

Focus Area 3: Listen to Customer Feedback, Make Sure They Feel Heard, and Take Action to Improve Their Experiences

What is the best source for CX improvement ideas? It is the Voice of the Customer (VoC). And now, there are more ways than ever to hear what customers are saying.

In today’s digital world, it’s important to get customer input and feedback from all channels. AI-powered engagement analytics evaluate 100% of engagements across all channels, providing insights into:

• Sentiment.
• Frustration.
• Problems of products, services and processes.

These insights enable business leaders to identify and address CX pain points before they negatively impact customer retention.

A strong customer feedback program allows companies to take more meaningful action, such as rewarding agents who receive positive feedback and proactively reaching out to frustrated users. Acting on customer feedback sends the kind of positive message that can improve customer loyalty.