Technology may not be able to replace the personal touch, but it sure can enhance it.
Most customers get frustrated punching their way through an automated attendant. But even skeptical customers find it hard to argue with technology that lets LLBean and Lands End put more personal touches in each call. Agents can see order history so thorough they might ask, “Is this for your wife’s birthday? Did she like what you got her last year?”
Yes, customers have embraced, even applauded, some technology – self-serve menus, automated phone assistance, online FAQs and guides. And Vanguard Communications Corporation researchers found technologies that work best have a few things in common.
The main key: Agents know about every contact customers have had with the company, regardless of the channel (from phone calls to texts to e-mails). And they use that information to build customer intimacy.
With that knowledge, technology can help:
- Customers be routed directly to agents they previously talked to
- Agents refer to things that have happened in the past to create a familiarity
- Agents pick up where past situations were left off, rather than make customers repeat information
- Agents offer customers products and services that fit their current needs (and boost the company’s bottom line), and
- Companies reach out to customers via their preferred channel with new or important information quickly.
