Your Contact Centre Can Earn Money for Your Company, Too
In today’s changing economy, companies are seeking ways to optimise spending and do more with less. That’s especially difficult at contact centres, where siloed data, disconnected systems, and labour shortages already lead to long wait times and higher costs for your business. While these challenges may affect your contact centre revenue, they also significantly impact customer experience.
The good news? A few practical steps can help you increase customer satisfaction and turn your contact centre into a revenue generator. Here’s how.
1. Reduce call handling time with tools for service agents
The cost to operate a contact centre can reach US$5.60 per 3-4 minute direct consumer call. One of the best ways to cut costs and boost contact centre revenue is to reduce call length and ensure that customer requests get resolved in just one phone call. This requires equipping your service agents with the proper tools.
For starters, a 360-view of the customer — including order history and relevant profile information — will ensure that agents have all the data they need to understand each customer’s unique experience or issue. Collaborative tools like a digital HQ can also help speed up resolutions by removing team silos and streamlining communication between sales, service, marketing, and other teams.
One of the most common reasons that customers contact support is to check order status. With self-service options and order management tools, you can eliminate most of these calls — and save a significant amount of time and money. If customers do call to check on their order, a connected order management system can streamline the request. In fact, one report found that the right order management tools can improve first-call resolution by up to 20% and reduce call handling time by 25%. Connected tools give service agents a comprehensive view of order and inventory data, better equipping them to quickly handle customer requests.
2. Implement self-service to save time and money
Technology, including chatbots and artificial intelligence (AI), can handle straightforward questions, requests, and transactions so agents can prioritise high-touch matters. During Cyber Week 2022, global chatbot usage grew by 57% year over year as retailers used automation to keep the biggest shopping week of the year running smoothly. In fact, 88% of service organisations that use automation technology reported benefits such as reduced errors, more time to help customers, and more time to tackle new projects.
Technology also frees up time for service reps to help new customers configure products, up-sell and cross-sell shoppers who have complex requests, and more. The result: higher average order value, increased customer satisfaction, and lower call volume — which all add up to more contact centre revenue.
You can also implement digital knowledge centres so customers can quickly find answers to frequently asked questions without calling a rep. Online communities where customers offer each other advice and discuss your products is another way to reduce call volume while driving brand loyalty.
Contact centres are a critical piece of the puzzle when it comes to customer experience. Customers want a genuine human experience with your brand. It’s just important to ensure that calling a contact centre isn’t the only way to reach your company for answers or help.
3. Focus on the post-purchase experience to drive loyalty
Customer acquisition can be a major cost for companies. Fortunately, contact centres can turn every call into an opportunity to retain customers and drive loyalty. This is especially impactful during post-purchase calls.
Common post-purchase transactions include exchanges, returns, modifications, and even discounting. These types of transactions can be a make-or-break moment when it comes to retaining a customer. One study found that more than three-quarters of shoppers (76%) who highly rated their returns experience with a retailer said they’d shop with them again because of it.
So, how do you ensure reps can make the most of these valuable moments? Start by making sure every customer feels heard. The contact centre is an important part of your feedback loop, and it’s critical to give service reps the right resources to flag any issues with product quality. Returns reporting tools can help you track patterns over time, which means you can course-correct as quickly as possible to ensure customer satisfaction and avoid boomerang products.
Boost cost centre revenue by unifying marketing and customer service
Your marketing and customer service teams share the same goal: to deliver exceptional experiences for every customer, at every point of contact. The key to unlock these experiences? Give your sales, service, and marketing teams the right resources to make every part of the customer journey feel seamless. This will do more than just improve your customer experience: it will reduce costs and drive contact centre revenue.
Stay on top of the latest service trends. Find out how to take your contact centre customer experience to the next level from our State of Service report.
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This post originally appeared on the U.S.-version of the Salesforce blog.
