Companies survive only because of their customers. Therefore, it makes sense that you’ll want to provide all of your customers with the best experiences possible whenever they interact with your company. Customer experience (CX) simply refers to how the customers perceive your business based on the contact and interactions they’ve had with your company.
Keep in mind that the interactions can include any type of contact that the customer has had. This could be purchases they’ve made or services they’ve used, your company’s advertising, interactions on social media, and their dealings with your customer service department.
Your customer experience management refers to the means by which you design, monitor, and improve upon all the interactions. You should always strive to provide your customers with the best possible experience. It’s also important to ensure that the quality of the experience is consistent regardless of the type of interaction. NICE CXone has created a suite of tools that are geared toward helping improve your company’s ability to provide superior customer experiences.
Why You Need to Pay Attention to the Customer Experience
Businesses must understand the importance of their customers and why it’s essential to provide the best possible customer experience at every turn. When the customer experience is better, there is a greater likelihood that customer loyalty will increase. Naturally, this can lead to higher revenue for the business.
Great customer experiences aren’t going to happen without some guidance, which is why customer experience management is so vital. The team that’s in charge of this aspect of your business will have to align various departments for the various touchpoints the customer has with the company. The goal should be to create a unified version of the experience for the customer.
Consider what would happen if you don’t put in the energy and time to improve your CX. It’s likely that many customers would simply leave and go to one of your competitors they feel treats them better and listens to them. In some cases, they might have some negative things to say about your company, which could damage your reputation. Whether they are leaving bad reviews online, talking negatively about your company on social media, or they are getting their friends and family to leave, it can take a toll on your business.
Too many companies aren’t thinking about the results of a bad customer experience and how it can grow and fester into greater problems. One of the reasons is that many companies still operate with older ways of thinking. In the past, it was common for people to sit on hold to get in touch with a representative for 10, 20, or even 60 minutes or more. Waiting on hold was the norm. Contacting someone from the company without being put on hold or shuffled around from one person to the next was the exception.
People in today’s world simply don’t have the time or patience for this. They expect to be treated well, and companies that don’t, will face the consequences. You must transform your company from simply providing customer service and offering a better overall customer experience. Of course, this begs the question: how do you do this?
Creating a Better Customer Experience
In addition to the tools from NICE CXone that will be discussed later in the article, you’ll find there are several things you can do to start delivering a better customer experience.
- Get a better understanding of the customer experience
- Learn the customer perspective
- Stay consistent
- Use quality technology
- Continue to make improvements
Get a Better Understanding of the Customer Experience
Before you can make improvements, you first need to investigate each customer touchpoint. While this can take time and effort, you’ll find that it’s well worth it and is necessary if you hope to understand and then improve the customer experience.
A touchpoint is simply any time when a customer gets an impression of a business. It’s the commercials, social media posts, and interactions with employees mentioned earlier in the article. When it comes to contact centers, touchpoints occur each time the customer has an experience with the company whether they’re using an AI chatbot, being routed to an agent, dealing with an agent, etc.
You want to get a better sense of what it’s like for your customers to deal with your company at various levels. It’s also important that you make it easy for the customers to leave feedback for you. This could be done through customer satisfaction surveys, discussed later, and other means.
Customers should always feel as though they have a simple and effective way of voicing concerns that they might have. Remember, all the feedback that you get from your customers can be used to help to make improvements to the customer experience going forward.
Learn the Customer Perspective
When you start to make improvements to the customer experience, you’ll need to think about things from your customer’s perspective. What is it that your customers need? When they are interacting with the various parts of your contact center—or other elements of your business for that matter—what are their goals? What are they hoping to accomplish? Essentially, you need to empathize with your customers and think about the pain points and frustrations they have. What are your customers complaining about? Below are some of the common issues that customers will have
Reentering Information
You’ll find that one of the biggest complaints that customers have is needing to reenter their personal information each time they talk with a brand or change from one channel to another. You need to utilize tools that can eliminate the need to reenter information. Your agents should have all the customer information as soon as they connect, or even before they connect regardless of the channel the customer is using. This will reduce annoyance for the customer, and it can help to make the interaction move forward faster.
Not Getting Answers on the First Contact
Another one of the complaints customers have is not getting the answer they need when they first contact the company. Some companies are concerned with keeping their wait times as low as possible, so they connect customers with the first available agent. While shorter wait times are nice, if the customers are being connected with agents that can’t help them, you’ll run into a slew of other problems.
Customers won’t mind if they are waiting to be connected a little longer if they will have their questions answered during their first contact with the company.
No Human Contact
While AI like that offered by NICE CXone can provide a range of benefits and should be used, it shouldn’t be the only option available. Some customers will have more complicated questions, or they might simply prefer talking with a human rather than a computer, no matter how sophisticated it might be. Automation is fantastic, but you still need to be sure that customers have the option of connecting with a human if they prefer. Offering live chat as one of your channels is a good way to help with this.
Limited Channels
When customers make contact with your company through certain channels, they are using those channels because it’s what they prefer. For example, if a customer contacts you through Twitter, they are using the social media site because they feel comfortable using it. They expect that your company will be able to provide them with answers and the solution they need using the same channel.
Customers don’t want to be forced to move from one channel to another. They don’t want to have to go from a social media site to a phone call or a text chat on your site, for example. Regardless of where the customer initiated the contact, the entire conversation should take place using that channel. Additionally, you should have a wealth of channel options from which the customers can choose. With NICE CXone, you’ll find more than 30 channel options.
Personalization Makes a Difference
Customers do not like feeling as if they are just another cog in your machine. They want personalized service that feels as if it has been made just for them. Of course, they also want to make sure that they have their service fast. Find ways to ensure that the contact feels more personalized. Again, NICE CXone offers some great tools to help with this, which will be discussed later in the article.
Stay Consistent
The interactions with your company should always be as consistent as possible and that everything is in line with your brand. The way you interact with the customers should be high-quality and should strive to meet the promises you make to your customers.
Use Quality Technology
Your company needs to keep up with all the various types of technology that are available today. Technology, such as the products offered through NICE CXone can make a world of difference in your customer experience management. The purpose of many of the tools is to help streamline the customer experience and your agent experience. When they are used properly, they can provide you with everything needed to make your customer’s interactions with your company’s contact center as smooth as possible.
You can be sure that the competition is looking for ways that they can better their customer experience using technology. If you want your business to stay relevant, you need to keep your customers happy.
Continue to Make Improvements
Customer experience isn’t something that you can “fix and forget”. It’s a process that needs to be nurtured throughout the life of your company. There will always be things you can do differently and that you can do better. There will be new customer concerns and complaints that you’ll need to address. This means that you need to continually find ways that you can improve your customer experience and the management of those experiences.
If it sounds like it can be a lot of work that’s because it can be. However, you can make things much easier on yourself and your employees when you utilize NICE CXone. The suite of tools will provide you with the advantage you need to stay ahead of the competition and ensure that your customers are taken care of properly. Remember, happy customers will mean that you will have loyal customers.
Tools from NICE CXone
You will find a range of tools that you can use to make the management of the customer experience easier. With NICE CXone, it becomes easy to offer omnichannel customer service along with a host of other benefits. Let’s get a closer look at some of the tools that can make a difference for your company.
- Multiple Channels
- MAX
- Partner AI Chatbots
Multiple Channels
NICE CXone provides your company with more than 30 interaction channels for your customers. You can use social media sites, chat, voice, and more to connect with customers. The customers can initiate the contact through their preferred channel, and then your agents can connect with them and help them solve their problems.
Remember that customers want to be able to use their preferred channels, and they want to have their entire interaction through that channel. When you’re able to provide the customers with more channel flexibility, they will be more likely to reach out, and they will be happier with their overall experience.
My Agent eXperience (MAX)
Earlier, we mentioned that customers want to have personalized connections with the company. This tool from NICE CXone allows for this and is beneficial for both the customers and the agents. The feature helps to streamline interactions and allows the agents to utilize collaboration tools, rich media, and even emojis. The CXone system allows agents to have information about the customers before connecting, so they can get started helping the customer right away.
The MAX system is designed like other elements of CXone to handle a wide range of channels. Agents can switch between channels as needed, so they can be more productive. They can do it all from a single interface rather than needing to switch to a different product.
Partner AI Chatbots
You will find that the use of AI chatbots is a nice feature, too. The bots use machine learning and AI, along with speech recognition as a means to deal with customers in a manner that feels very human. The intelligence of the bots today allows them to handle a range of interactions with the customers that would otherwise have to go to a human call center agent.
Chatbots are great for handling minor problems and the frequently asked questions that would otherwise take up an agent’s time. The bots used today with CXone are proactive and good enough that they can engage with customers. Some customers may never realize that they are talking with a bot.
Customers will be happy that they can get the answers they need quickly, and the agents will be pleased that they can focus on helping customers who have bigger and more complicated issues. Of course, you’ll also have means for the customers to get in touch with a human agent if they don’t want to communicate with the bots.
Customer Satisfaction Surveys
Another tool from NICE CXone that you can integrate into your company is the customer satisfaction survey. This tool is essential if you want to get a better and more accurate idea of your customer’s experience with your contact center. You can find out what you’re doing right and where you’re going wrong. This will make it much easier for you to then determine the best course of action to take to make improvements.
Customer satisfaction surveys should be provided to the customers via the same channels that they used to contact your company. They should also be given immediately after the contact, as this will provide you with the most accurate results. The feedback provided can allow your agents to find ways that they can improve themselves, and it provides the supervisors with information regarding areas that might need better training and coaching.
These are just some of the many tools offered through NICE CXone that can help you get a better handle on the customer experience. Be sure to employ these in your business.
Choose NICE CXone
Customer experience management is not something that can be left as an afterthought. If you want to take your company to the next level, you need to be sure that your customers are being treated well at every step in their customer journey with your company. The tips in this article, along with the tools offered through NICE CXone can help to ensure this happens. Learn more about the options that are right for your business.
