Today’s landscape has earned the title “Age of the Customer”—for good reason. Your customers have vast amounts of information at their fingertips. They can conduct in-depth research and shift brand loyalties at any time, from any device. Also, your customers can vocalize opinions online and participate with peers in shaping, reinforcing, or even undermining your messages.
The result: today’s brands have to pay close attention to customer sentiment.
If your front-line team’s performance does not meet customers’ expectations, that frustration can cause your customers to take immediate actions. In fact, recent research noted that 90% of consumers have stopped doing business with a company after a subpar customer service experience.
Six Things That Frustrate Your Customers
A key step to improving customer happiness is understanding top customer pain points. According to an Accenture survey, these are six things that frustrate your customers:
- 1. Contacting an organization multiple times to resolve the same concern (91%)
2. Staying on hold for long periods (90%)
3. Speaking with more than one representative and needing to repeat information (89%)
4. Feeling that a brand makes it difficult to do business with them (85%)
5. Perceiving variances between a company’s brand promise and actual experiences (84%)
6. Receiving inconsistent treatment across contact channels (58%)
Importantly, 81% of respondents reported that the brands which frustrated them could have taken different steps and retained their loyalty. Avoiding these unwelcome behaviors is vital for any service-oriented brand.
Assets in Your Quest for Customer Happiness
Applying technology effectively can also help you mitigate customer frustrations. True customer service leaders make the most of their investment in these key areas:
- Contact Management Technologies
Customer experience leaders view customer contact management as a strategic activity. They use contact tools for more than alerts and reminders. For example, proactive contacts, such as service change notifications, can keep customers informed of key issues and prevent unnecessary inbound support calls. Moreover, collecting data on customer channel preferences and past contact history can let your brand connect with customers at likely-to-reach times. This demonstrates to your customers that you value their input and time.
Sentiment Survey Technologies
Best-in-class service providers know that customer satisfaction is constantly evolving. You must survey customers to track your brand’s current customer experiences. Post-interaction surveys are essential tools for in-depth customer sentiment insight. Moreover, real-time survey response alerts can empower you to spot any front-line interaction issues before they morph into customer defections or negative sentiment on social networks.
As your business evolves, you must move beyond generic customer contact and survey approaches. You need to take a strategic view and acknowledge that every customer interaction—no matter how simple or brief—affects your customers’ overall perception of your brand.
