Three Customer Support Strategies That Can Bolster CX in 2022

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When customer support strategies contribute to creating happy customers, magic happens for companies. But to what degree is customer support truly reinforcing a great customer experience (CX) within today’s businesses? New research commissioned by Mitto examining the state of the customer experience highlights that there’s still room for improvement when it comes to the role customer support strategies play in delivering optimum CX.

This finding isn’t surprising when considering the challenges that customer support faces. The shift to digital, which has been fast-tracked by the pandemic, together with high expectations from customers, have created a perfect storm for customer support teams. No doubt many teams are feeling the pressure during this current holiday season, when supply chain disruptions and such factors are causing a massive surge in support inquiries.

Ignoring customer support challenges is not an option for brands. Over half of customer support teams believe that customers will be more demanding in 2022, and failure to comply with those demands would have a negative impact on the customer experience – an outcome sure to hit any business hard.

Given that finding smart strategies for delivering customer support should be a priority for any business in 2022, here are my top three considerations:

1. Adopt new channels

The average consumer uses a wide range of channels to communicate with friends, family, colleagues and other connections in their network – from SMS to chat apps and social messaging. When it comes to how consumers want to engage with brands, it’s no different. As customers continue to adopt new channels, businesses aiming to deliver an exceptional customer experience must update their own digital communication offerings and have a strong presence on their customers’ channels of choice.

Email (76%), voice (54%), and SMS (42%) are the top channels that customer support teams currently leverage to connect with customers. This reinforces that many customer support teams need to evaluate their digital communications channels. Although rates can vary depending on the relevancy of the subject for subscribers, the average open rate of email can be as low as 18%, compared to 98% for SMS. When you need to communicate an important message to a customer to guide them through a problem or to an answer, you want to be sure they’re going to see it at the very minimum. Again, considering the best channels is a critical step in the right direction for customer support teams.

2. Break down silos

With more communications channels than ever, it’s key to coordinate communications across channels. Our research shows that brands that engage with customers in a mature omnichannel environment outperform those that offer limited, disconnected touchpoints in the areas of customer loyalty and revenue growth. It’s clear to see why when you look at a tangible example: customer support teams operating in a mature setting respond to customers much faster – over half say they respond in real-time or less than an hour compared with less than one-third of companies with an immature omnichannel strategy.

So coordinating communication matters, but the unification of channels doesn’t just stop at the customer support team. A vital component of a successful omnichannel strategy is unifying channels from across all departments that touch the customer journey (e.g. marketing) to achieve a 360-degree view of the customer. If your company struggles with unifying channels, you’re not alone. Our research found less than one-third of customer support teams have completely unified the channels they use to interact with customers.

3. Don’t try to own the customer experience alone

The above considerations can set customer support teams up towards success by achieving visibility into the customer and the ability to reach them where they are. Both matter greatly when it comes to customer support’s role in enabling excellent CX. However, when it comes to CX, the buck does not stop with customer support.

While survey results show there is inconsistency surrounding ownership of the customer experience, more than one-third of this survey’s participants report the CEO ultimately makes the final decision about the customer experience strategy. Businesses where CX is championed from the top-down reported a higher average NPS score, more significant revenue growth in the last 12 months and greater customer loyalty. The results also show that within these companies, omnichannel maturity is much more prevalent. So, to achieve the top results of a mature omnichannel experience set-up — with robust tools and solutions to keep all touchpoints cohesive and in sync across the customer journey — it’s important to get the buy-in of senior leadership.

Conclusion

Most businesses have implemented an omnichannel strategy to some extent, and taking that first step is often the biggest hurdle. However, our research shows a clear link between reaching a mature omnichannel level and the satisfaction customers get from the experience brands deliver. That’s why heading into 2022, customer support teams should consider the channels that will get results and how they can best collaborate and unify technology across all parts of the business to drive towards the mutual goal of delivering the best CX.

Sean Whitley
Sean Whitley is the VP of Sales, Americas at Mitto, a leading provider of global omnichannel communications solutions. His focus is building and leading the growth of the Americas Sales team. Sean also co-founded OneRep.io (now Sales Clover) in 2018, which helps organizations engage decision makers into meaningful sales conversations.

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