• by Andrew Kokes , March 26, 2013

In an era when consumer products and services rapidly commoditize, the customer experience has become the point of brand differentiation. It matters more than ever before – as evidenced by an increasing number of businesses adding a Chief Customer Officer to their executive leadership team. A good experience has the power to unlock a lifetime of loyalty and advocacy. A bad one can be relayed across the world with just the click of a mouse. More than 86% of customers say they will simply stop using a brand after one bad experience, and 82% of customers will communicate their bad service experience with others. The quality of a customer interaction is becoming one of the top reasons for recommending a company.

The new role of the contact center is connecting the dots to deliver customers the experience they want, when they want it, in the channel of their choosing. This ever-increasing demand for personalized services and more caller-friendly services is driving companies worldwide to invest in solutions that gain access to the full history of a customer’s past activities and prior interactions over important communication channels. Equally important, the new contact center must demonstrate the ability to truthfully engage with customers, valuing their opinions and demonstrating they’re prepared to adapt products and services to the needs of a new, emerging consumer. 

In today’s omni-channel environment, competing means enterprises must be at the right place, at the right time, with the right offer. This is pushing marketing to play its biggest role ever in customer care operations: to optimize touch points with granular understanding of customers’ preferences

For example, during this most recent holiday season, we observed more customers browsing via mobile devices during the morning and early part of the day. However, we did not experience the corresponding conversion activity until much later in the day or early evening. Also interesting is that many times the conversations were happening on different tablet devices, on PCs or over a live phone conversation. Consumers are browsing on their smartphone while they commute to work and then buying when they get home. As customer experience professionals, we must align our staffing to have available skilled workers ready to meet the customer online or on the phone when they’re ready to transact – regardless of channel.

While technologies and best practices are enabling brands to make strides in improving customer retention, increasing revenues are helping to optimize total operating costs. It’s people on the front lines, dealing directly with customers on a daily basis, that make the biggest impact. Every day, customer care representatives serve as brand ambassadors. They must tactically execute as close to flawlessly as possible, while strategically thinking about ways to build continuous improvement.

Well beyond traditional outbound telemarketing campaigns, leading businesses are transforming core support processes to optimize them for creating revenue. Each positive contact resolution should be linked to a value-add offering for additional services, warranties, refills, peripherals and enhancements. Sixty-nine% of business-to-consumer (B2C) organizations consider contact centers to be critical to revenue generation.

Executives across the enterprise are recognizing that every customer touch point must first retain a customer and then turn positive experiences into improvements to the bottom line. Recent research shows that companies need to become far more innovative, rebooting their strategy to emphasize quality and customer experience, not pricing. In a fast-moving and ultra-competitive marketplace, the customer care agents who are listening and engaging are the part of the business creating meaningful value at moments of truth that matter.

Customers want better service. Customers say they will pay for better service. Customers are leaving when they don’t get expected service. We all need to optimize the customer experience and establish clear brand differentiation. Companies will need the right strategies and partners in place to address the rising importance of the contact center, or face losing their most value assets to the competition.