We discuss customer experience with a range of businesses almost daily. For the most part, their head is in the right place and they have some fantastic idea to ensure that their customer service is as good as it can be. Even though they have the ideas, the struggle which they have is putting those ideas into play and seeing how they do from a practical perspective. This is a common issue for businesses. They have the ideas; they have the passion, they are just unsure of how to move forward with their ideas.
If you’re one of these businesses, then don’t worry about it. We believe that there are four pitfalls which a lot of businesses fall into when it comes to their CEM (Customer Experience Management) strategies. In this article, we’re going to take a look at each of these pitfalls and discuss how you can avoid them to get the most out of your CEM strategies.
Positive Feedback is Just as Important as Negative Feedback
A lot of businesses focus a lot of their attention on the negative aspects of the feedback which they receive from their customers. It’s understandable; businesses want to make sure that any issues which were had don’t occur again.
If your customer gets in touch with you and they are unhappy with the service you’ve provided, they are going to be a lot more outspoken about what was wrong than someone who is calling you to tell you that you’ve done a good job. Negative points tend to stick in our minds a lot more than the positives, and so we focus on them.
When you get a customer calling you up and commends you for the exquisite service that you provided them with, take note of that customer and thank them for their compliments. When it comes to adjusting your services in the future, the positive feedback that you receive will let you know what you don’t have to change and what your customers like about the business.
Furthermore, by having a keen focus on positive feedback opposed to just negative feedback, you can motivate your employees by letting them know that they’re doing a good job. They’ll feel as though they are contributing to the businesses success and will take pride in the work that they do.
Your CEM Should Cover the Entire Business
By these, we mean that a lot of businesses have their customer service focus on, for example, just their sales department. It makes sense that they would do this considering that a large majority of your customers will frequently be contacting your sales department, although this can be ineffective.
You see, if you have a customer service team who have been trained only to deal with sales issues and assist customers with their sales, then when it comes to helping customers with an accounting issue or similar issues, your customer service team won’t be much help. Now that you understand what we mean, here’s how you can fix it.
Rather than “moulding” your CEM around the different departments within your business, mould the departments around your CEM. This might take some time if your business is already up on its feet and is somewhat successful, although trust us when we say that it’s worth it.
Take the time to think of how a customer would view your customer service. They see your business as a business, not as different departments. If they have an issue they don’t contact a specific department, they simply search for your contact details and get in touch. Your customer service should be able to help them with any issues that your customers have, so make sure that your CEM strategy takes that into consideration.
There’s More to CEM Than the Tools
Contrary to popular belief, there’s more to a successful CEM strategy than having a stable software platform to use. Don’t get us wrong, if you get the right software set up, then it can make your life easier when it comes to customer service, although you must understand that it won’t solve all of your issues.
Rather than waiting till afterwards, when you’re developing your CEM strategy don’t focus the strategy around the software you have access to. Again, software might play a crucial part in your strategy, but it’s how you use the software that really matters.
When it comes to putting your new CEM strategy into play, think of it from a customer’s perspective. This will help you to pinpoint the weak links in your strategy and fix those weaknesses before fully implementing the strategy. Remember, just because one aspect of the strategy will make it easier on you or your employees that doesn’t make it right. Don’t cut corners to make your life easier; this will have a negative impact on your customer service in the long run.
Understanding Digital Experience
There are many businesses who don’t fully understand how complex their business digital channels. It’s not difficult for businesses to come up with a digital channelling plan which is overly complicated and put it into place, but you’ll find that these businesses only go above and beyond simply because they can.
Let’s take a business website as an example. Typically, customers can get a lot done through a website such as finding out about the services which a business offers, viewing their account, and finding answers to the questions that they have. In comparison to your typical customer support calls, this is very different. Websites can provide so much, whereas a call centre is only able to help with so much. Understand this and use this to make your customers have a better experience.
Having a digital presence also makes it easier for the different departments of your business to have a voice so that your customers know they are there. On the one hand, this can make things slightly harder for the business to provide a consistently high-quality service, but it makes the customer service side of things so much easier.
With your website, you can gather a lot more information from your customers. Basic details such as website features which they found beneficial, how easy they felt it was to find the answers which they needed, or whether they prefer a digital presence over talking to a customer support agent over the phone.
All in all provided that you don’t overcomplicate things, digital experiences can be a fantastic addition and are almost crucial in modern businesses for reasons which go further than customer service.
Visit the section of customer experience courses to learn more.