The customer experience is already at the center of most of the strategies that companies are currently implementing. They have understood that, in order to succeed in a highly competitive environment, people must be attracted and convinced through unique experiences; therefore, they invest more and more resources in designing exclusive customer journeys . However, these walkthroughs are not without problems or errors; and customers’ tolerance threshold for disappointment is shrinking.
So, to what extent can a single bad customer experience (CX) affect their loyalty to the company? Can a company lose your loyalty and trust if it doesn’t give you what you need at a given moment? Today at ACTIONS we are going to try to answer these questions and tell you how it is possible to avoid these situations with the help of technology.
A single bad experience conditions the relationship in most cases
The first thing we can highlight is that companies have little room for error when dealing with their customers. This is reflected in a recent study carried out among customer experience professionals and e-commerce companies that are present in 11 world markets. It points out that 68% of customers recognize that a single bad experience is enough for their loyalty to the brand to be affected.
And this situation especially affects retail companies, because users recognize that they still perceive that they still have a lot of work to do in this field. Specifically, almost one in two customers (49%) say they believe that these companies are not equipped to offer them completely digital experiences; while 58% of them indicate that their most recent experience with a company of this type did not have any type of personalization .
This perception is not only evident to customers, but is also shared by the companies themselves. That ‘s why 81% of them have chosen to increase their investment in the customer experience compared to last year . An effort that has the Contact Centers as its central axis , since those responsible for them understand that they can help their organizations to be more proactive and unify their criteria to promote CX .
Technology as a ‘key’ to strengthen customer confidence
Therefore, it is very clear that users want direct, personalized and immediate attention . And the best way to reduce that distance between them and retail companies is through a Contact Center . This will be in charge of centralizing communications and will build a customer service strategy around it, which is complete and consistent with the identity ( brand ) of the brand.
But beware, because this Contact Center must be prepared for today’s challenges. By mistake or ignorance, it is possible that some companies start up these facilities without worrying about updating it technologically. In this way, they will not have the opportunity to scale it and they will not have access to current differential solutions, such as Artificial Intelligence (AI) or machine learning .
The data from the aforementioned study also reflects the need to carry out a technological renovation so that the customer experience is as digital as they demand. At the moment, only 19% of retailers use Contact Centers that take advantage of ‘ cloud ‘ technology ; something that up to 86% of companies that do not do so plan to do within two years.
While less than one in three such companies (31%) benefit from AI to improve the performance of their contact centers , which also leads the 84% of companies that do not to propose changes in this aspect a couple of years from now.
The Contact Center as Customer Data Center
And for these workplaces to deliver, retail companies need to learn how to exploit data. Four out of five customer experience professionals (81%) consider that data collection and subsequent analysis in these Contact Centers is important for the business . And up to 72% say they have noticed an increase in demand for customer-related data.
This deep interrelationship with the data increases the complexity of the work. And it implies, at the same time, training and equipping agents so that they can make this information profitable and know how to take advantage of advanced Contact Centers . For this reason, the improvement of the customer experience necessarily also involves an improvement in the professional and technical training of the employees in charge .
In short, given the current and patent fragility of customer loyalty, companies must focus their strategies on two pillars: Contact Centers and digitization. Through proper adoption of new technologies, these workspaces have the ability to exploit and monetize data, with the prospect of getting to know users better and being able to offer them much more careful and personal experiences. Something of vital importance to reduce the possible points of friction and even to help the Sales department to boost its results.
