With 2016 now upon us, many contact centres will be readying themselves for another busy year ahead. One of the key trends for the coming 12 months will be improving the quality of their services in order to increase customer satisfaction.
This is because today’s constantly-connected consumers have far higher expectations than ever before, and very little tolerance for poor experiences. But increasingly, they won’t just stop doing business with a company and tell a few family and friends – they’ll also publicise it to the world on social media and business review sites.
As such, companies that don’t place customer experience at the top of their agenda are likely to struggle in 2016 and beyond. That’s why this year, being more proactive when it comes to serving consumers will be a key priority for many firms, and this will typically mean making better use of data.
The need for proactive customer care
A recent survey of companies in the communications sector conducted by Gauvus revealed that proactive customer care is the number one issue for the next two years, and many of them will be relying on a more data-driven approach to achieve this.
Almost nine in ten telcos (87 per cent) have either already implemented a strategy for turning their customer data into insight, Gauvus found, or are in the process of doing so. In 2016, developing a more proactive customer service solution will be the number one use case for this information. Some 57 per cent of respondents highlighted this as a priority, ahead of improving revenue and delivering more targeted offerings to customers.
Founder and chief executive of Gauvus Anukool Lakhina said: “In a world of mounting competition, providing a seamless customer experience holds the key to safeguarding operator revenue streams. It’s no surprise that proactive customer care is the top area for investment in big data.”
The challenges posed by data
However, turning this wealth of information into action is a challenge for all parts of a business, and the contact centre is no exception. For instance, many firms are still struggling because their customer data is siloed away in a disparate range of systems and databases, few of which are effectively integrated with one another.
Gauvus’ survey revealed that telcos list this as their number one challenge, with 28 per cent of respondents highlighting this as a barrier to a more effective, data-driven business. This placed it ahead of poor quality information (25 per cent) and finding people with the right skills to make the most of the company’s data (22 per cent).
In the contact centre space, this problem may be exacerbated by the wide range of channels now being used for customer service. If an agent cannot quickly pull up all the relevant details of a customer, including their previous interactions across all channels, this is likely to lead to delays in any issues being resolved and lower customer satisfaction.
The right technology solutions
In order to tackle this, having the latest contact centre technology in place is essential. In an era where customers may wish to get in touch via email, phone, live chat or social media, having a single, omni-channel solution that can collate information in a single system can make operations much easier.
A cloud contact centre solution takes much of the hassle out of building a data-driven customer service, and can not only help agents access the data they need to be of assistance, but also support self-service tools that consumers can use to help solve issues.
Good use of data can only help companies be proactive, enabling them to spot potential issues and get in touch with customers directly, before it becomes a problem. As more people than ever will be taking advantage of new technology to conduct conversations with contact centres in 2016 and beyond, putting the right technology in place now can ensure that firms are able to meet their customers’ high expectations and deliver the best possible service.
Find out how the Aspect Customer Experience Platform can help your business create a complete omni-channel solution.
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