There’s a reason contact centre is an ever more relevant term than call centre.
In the age of digital transformation, a basic phoneline HQ is a bygone concept.
Customers are changing the way they get in touch with us, cherry picking from all manners of devices and digital channels. As contact centres, we’ve got to be ready to engage on all of them.
So how can contact centres get down with the digital age?
In five rather simple steps…
1) CONTENT
Content is PARAMOUNT to acing digital transformation, or indeed any aspect of business.
The bottom line is that our digital channels need to perform as well as our voice channels; ideally better. That way the customer experience will feel just as personal, whilst being faster and more efficient.
The best way to do this is to create content online which allows customers to self-serve.
For instance, we might populate a chatbot on our website with our FAQs. This is more user-friendly than expecting customers to trawl through chunks of text online, or spend time and money on the phone to an agent.
We could also consider creating different ‘personas’ to respond to various customer personalities on different digital platforms.
Once we’ve identified processes which can be moved to digital, don’t just ‘move’ the processes. We need to create quality content to successfully transition online. If we don’t invest in strong new content, we might as well stay in the dark ages.
2) THE NATURAL ORDER OF THINGS
Before you consider shutting the phone lines to launch your business into the digital world, hold that phone.
Phonelines should remain live throughout, and likely beyond, the digital transformation process. Launching digital channels takes time, investment and hard work. If we make digital platforms our sole port of call immediately, we’re essentially disappearing into the ether without a forwarding address for our customers.
Instead, we need to focus on making our digital channels as fantastic as they can be, and ultimately make them more appealing than a phone call.
Once we’ve done this, we can get our phone agents to promote our digital avenues. This is where self-serving processes can act as great hooks. Perhaps people can only apply for a specific service online, or full details are on our website….
It’s also worth thinking how our digital channels can interlink smoothly. Not only technically, but with consistent content, style and tone across various platforms. In the long run, we’re looking to create an omnichannel experience for your customer, which means seamless transitions between our digital platforms and a consistent brand message.
3) DATA
Digital channels are great at logging their own data automatically…what a wonderful opportunity to get to know our customers.
Data will detect problems and pain points in our customers’ journeys, giving us an opportunity to solve them. We should use this new pool of data findings to improve our content, banish these problem areas, and in turn reduce our agents’ workload.
This kind of analysis will also put us in a stronger position to design bespoke content for our client base, as it acts as constant and live feedback.
4) DEVICES
Think about the devices our customers are using.
Dead giveaway: it’s probably a mobile phone. We’ve been spending more time on these than desktops since way back in 2015 (progress.com).
Mobile currently accounts for half of all global web pages served (statista.com)
We need to consider that a mobile phone screen is often what our customers will be reading our content on. This means it’s reaching them on a pocket-sized rectangle, not on a huge monitor.
We need to adapt our content to suit this medium.
This means keeping text as short and punchy as possible, making website dimensions mobile friendly, and always considering how content appears physically to customers.
5) OUR CUSTOMER’S JOURNEY
Considering our customers’ journey goes beyond deducing which device they’re using, we need to work out how they’re using it.
More than 80% of mobile minutes in all markets are spent in apps (smartinsights.com)
By which token, developing an app is also probably a pretty smart idea. But it needs to work intuitively with our phonelines. Anything slow and clunky, however digital, is a waste of our time.
We can identify our digital priorities by following our customers’ habits. We need to think about what they are doing, where they are, and what they’re looking at. (newgenapps)
This isn’t about being creepy, it’s about designing the best digital customer experience, and investing in the best technologies to implement that in our businesses.
Digital transformation is the process of closing the gap between customer expectations and businesses services (scripturaengage.com)
To close that gap, we simply need to study our customer, curate compelling content and channel it in the digital spaces they already choose to spend time on.
But there’s little benefit in inhabiting those digital spaces, if we don’t hone that content. If we’re willing to invest in digital experts to make platforms perform, let’s not leave the CFO (Customer Facing Output) to Gwenda in accounts. Invest in the content too.
For more guidance on digital transformation, or expert advice on content production, drop Adexchange a line….we’re already helping some of Europe’s most successful brands…
