Part 3
The omnichannel & data advantage
Phone, chat, Q&As, webpages — the average consumer uses two different channels for CX, and 30% of consumers use three or more.7
Be sure to offer your customers multiple ways to contact you and resolve the issues they might have with your products and services.
Use customer insights to help you navigate which channels are preferred and which ones make the most sense for your business.
But that’s just the start. You must remember that customers are not simply moving between channels, they’re also moving between devices — mobile to desktop, phone to smart speaker. The experience must be optimized for all interfaces and channels must be integrated to offer a seamless, omnichannel experience.
Self-service: Help your customers help themselves
One-in-four (25%) consumers actively want to solve their own problems.
Yet, only 3% currently prioritize self-service as their channel of choice and only 10% of respondents believe, based on their experiences, that self-service can provide the level of assistance they need.8
Self-service presents a major opportunity for organizations and for disruptors if it’s set up the right way. Answers must be easy to find on the website, with online Q&As and bots. A well-structured self-service not only participates in increasing customer satisfaction but also helps reduce the cost to serve as simple requests and issues can be resolved without the intervention of an agent.
Automation
You can leverage automation to offer the best possible service in terms of solving requests and availability. However, you need to get it right. Despite the fast progress made by AI, machine learning and technologies such as natural language understanding (NLU)...
... Foundever research shows that just 17% of consumers believe they could get the assistance they need from an automated or digital channel.
As for the most common kind of automation in CX, chatbots, 22% of consumers say they want to use them, but only very few do so on a regular basis.
New technologies offer new opportunities. One of them clearly stands out and will change CX automation: generative AI. It’s evolving fast and will soon be able to offer natural-language conversations instead of closed-choice questions.
Of course, generative AI is not a one-size-fits-all solution. The unique needs of your customers, within the context of a specific customer journey, must be considered — along with the business requirements of your brand — when defining how, when and if generative AI is to be used as part of the broader customer engagement strategy.
Case study
An award-winning chatbot for a fashion retailer
This well-known retailer partnered with Foundever to launch a digital agent. Besides personalized and fun 24/7 support, it also offers tailored shopping advice, order tracking and product exchange automation through automated image analysis with an automation rate of over 80%.
The project has expanded to include 9 bots in 6 languages and 32 countries.
To help with high volumes of contact and provide support on the brand’s website, Facebook and WhatsApp, Foundever implemented a tailored chatbot solution, including automated image analysis for exchange requests and efficient integration with Salesforce for order tracking and returns.
The 3D bot persona provides a fun and human-like experience that goes beyond digital CX to become the brand’s ambassador on social media.
+244%
Average ROI growth per year
10 days to 15 sec
Decrease in real-time resolution of exchange requests
62%
Sales conversion increase with the Personal Shopper feature
Social media as a CX channel
Social media has become part of everyday life, and more consumers use it every day to interact with brands.
That makes it the perfect opportunity for your brand to meet customers where they’re at and connect with them on these platforms.
Offer your customers social media care, a specialist service that extends your customer support beyond traditional mediums to the social media channels your customers prefer. Brands can use their social media channels in previously unimagined ways. You can provide superior customer support, protect your brand’s reputation, sell to customers, and identify opportunities by staying ahead of trends and competition.
The power of your data
With digital CX channels in place, you have access to a wealth of data about your customers and their sentiment regarding your brand.
Collecting this data is the easy part. And many of your customers (38%) are willing to share personal information if it improves their experience with your brand.9
However, to unleash the power of your data, you need to add analytics to the mix and transform basic information into actionable insights. Analyzing all interactions with your customers will then allow you to understand customer trends and sentiments and personalize their experience.
Insights for your business
Insights can be used as powerful decision-making tools and allow you to develop a truly customer-led business strategy.
To achieve this, you need technology such as speech and text analytics and a level of expertise that you might not find in-house. Fortunately, there are partners you can team up with to make the most of the wealth of data at your disposal.
One thing to keep in mind — be careful about data security! Even if more than one-third of consumers are willing to share their data for better CX, they need reassurance that their personal information is protected.
Make sure you team up with a partner that offers a cream-of-the-crop data security policy.
Spotlight
Social media CX by Foundever™
Foundever has more than 15 years of social customer experience recognized by top awards and analyst agencies, such as a Global Leader in Social Media CX Services according to ISG Provider Lens™.10
We match your pain points with the right solution for social care, whether it’s to address negative brand sentiment, high reply time, brand crises or having no insights from customers.
Proven, measurable results from some of our clients using our social media care solutions after one year:
200%
improvement in brand sentiment
100%
improvement in reply time
66%
reply rate improvement
57%
AHT improvement
Key takeaways
Create an omnichannel experience
Create a seamless omnichannel experience. Provide communication channels that your customers prefer as well as ones that make the most sense for your business.
Incorporate self-service opportunities
Incorporate well-structured self-service opportunities and integrate automation to streamline work processes and assist customers in getting answers quicker.
Implement robust data analytics
Implement robust data analytics into your digital CX channels and use the insights to personalize experiences. Tailor your strategy to fit your customers’ expectations — while ensuring data security is a top priority in your customer care.
7 Foundever, “Disrupt the competition, not your customers,” foundever.com.
8 Ibid.
9 Foundever, “Foundever™ CX landscape 2022-2023,” foundever.com.
10 Foundever, “Sitel Group® Named leader in 2022 Provider Lens™ Contact Center — Customer Experience Services Quadrant and Archetype Reports,” foundever.com.