Businesses are well aware that they should make it easy for customers to interact with them on digital channels. However, there are situations when customers need to be able to get in touch quickly and speak to a real live person on the phone. Increasingly it feels as though many companies are deliberately making this harder to do. You can’t find the customer service number because it’s buried deep inside their website. And if you do, you end up waiting endlessly in a phone queue. Or the IVR system goes round in circles, never giving you the option to speak to an agent.
This is a huge mistake. Push customers too far down this path and they will move their business elsewhere.
Let’s be clear, there are big advantages to adopting digital customer communication, for both businesses and their customers. However, there are critical situations where you as a business need to be there for customers with a live person-to-person interaction – and you must be able to recognize those times.
Customers can see the benefits of digital
There’s no denying that many customers prefer digital, especially for routine and non-urgent queries.
The beauty of using an online form or chatbot to get an insurance quote, renew a policy, or request a copy of a mortgage contract is that it’s so convenient. There is no waiting in a phone queue; you can do it any time that suits you (even out of office hours); and you can take your time (without being hurried by an agent).
There is also the fact that some people just prefer the control and freedom of being able to find answers themselves.
For businesses, digital makes complete sense
Businesses prefer digital communication because it can bring significant cost savings and productivity gains.
Getting agents to answer customer queries on the phone is the most expensive way of interacting with customers. If a customer can resolve their query by reviewing the FAQs, interacting with an AI chatbot or using IVR rather than calling customer service, there’s a huge saving.
Even placing a human operator behind a chat session is more productive than having them interact by phone. A customer service agent can manage multiple chat conversations at once but only one phone interaction.
Companies getting overzealous with digital
However, in their zeal to adopt digital, many companies have taken things too far. They’ve made it too difficult to speak to someone when you really need to.
There’s nothing worse for the customer than wanting to speak to someone and being instructed to send their query via email with a promise that they’ll get a response within 48 hours.
In many cases, the default is to deflect customers to the FAQs. But FAQs don’t always cover all the queries a customer will have. And they don’t provide the validation or reassurance that customers sometimes need when having difficulties. At critical times there is no substitute for hearing a human voice at the end of the phone line.
Triaging to strike a balance between digital with human interaction
The smart way to approach this challenge is to find a way of triaging customer interactions so that when a customer needs to speak to a live person, they are able to do it. For example, early on in an interaction, it’s important that a company is able to make an assessment about which channel is best – and that should include the option to set up a live phone conversation.
A variety of data points can be used as part of the triage process to establish the optimum way to resolve a customer’s query. In which instances is it best to get a human agent to step in? And when should it be via a live phone call?
- The nature of the problem: What is the impact this issue/query is having on the customer (for example, is a delay to a loan application jeopardizing plans to make a time-critical purchase?). Is it complex and involved? Does it require specialist knowledge?
- Customer sentiment: With AI/Natural Language Processing it’s possible to analyze the text of a chat,email or social media interaction to determine whether the customer is getting frustrated. Sometimes people want to feel like they are being acknowledged – and you just don’t get that via digital interaction.
- Historical customer data: Is this a repeat problem that the customer has tried to resolve previously on various channels?
- Customer characteristics: For certain types of customers, it might be appropriate to fast track to the phone. For example, if someone is a high-value customer or known to be a vulnerable person.
Blending automation with live phone interactions
Developing a triage system such as this is by no means a simple or easy fix. But organizations should set themselves a challenge to find a way of blending automation with person-to-person phone interactions at those points in the customer journey where they become necessary.
Part of the problem is that creating a complete picture of the customer – understanding what they want and need the instant they begin interacting with your business – is still a work in progress for most organizations. As well as the technical complexity, there’s the fact that siloed channels and systems make it difficult to share information and data points across channels. It’s important to use flexible technology that allows you to plug the gaps between different teams, processes and systems in order to deliver a more connected customer experience. And finding a way to continue to include telephone-based customer service is a must.
