Don’t Risk Diluting Your CX During Uncertain Times

Businesses are potentially facing one of the toughest periods in a generation. With inflation rates, fuel costs and customers tightening their belts, the cost-of-living crisis is going to force many business owners to look at cost savings.

In such times, the automatic response is to look at cutting costs and do more with less. However, if you cut too much, or the wrong things, then you could risk seriously damaging your customer experience (CX). Customers are thinking about their budgets, too, they’re being choosier about where to spend. Disappointing them with a poor experience is a mistake you can’t afford.

To thrive in uncertain times, you need resilience and you can’t build it just by cutting costs. Instead, focus on getting more return on your customer experience (CX) investments. 

Here’s four proven ways to boost efficiency, keep customers coming back, and protect your bottom line.

1. Retain Your Customers and Keep Them Happy

Customer loyalty is a crucial element of business which is sadly often overlooked. It costs a business at least five times more to find a new customer than to keep an existing one, so it is vital to make sure that you are not losing customers due to poor experiences.

Make it easy for customers to reach your contact center at their convenience with a call, click or tap on a mobile device. An omnichannel experience allows them to reach you in new ways. Use your customer knowledge to personalize the service you offer. Even a simple acknowledgement that the customer has contacted you before about an issue can help drive better interactions that build trust and loyalty.

2. Boost Efficiency Without Damaging CX

You can’t afford to just cut costs without thinking about the impact. Instead, focus on improving efficiency by using technology to work smarter, perhaps by encouraging remote working or using fewer, simpler and more integrated systems.

Reducing friction creates happier customers and savings for you. Effective self-service, shorter wait times and faster resolutions are more efficient for your operation and more satisfying for your customers. Equally, you also need to equip your team with the right tools and information to work efficiently. A single platform that displays customer data and relevant information while allowing the agent to have everything they need at their fingertips before, during and after every interaction.

3. Develop and Retain Your Talent

Real time support will give agents confidence that help is there if they need it, without interrupting the customer experience during an interaction. Meanwhile, use speech analytics and sentiment analysis in conjunction with call recording to pinpoint each agent’s development needs. Personalizing skill development means more meaningful growth opportunities to keep agents engaged and more likely to stay with you.

4. Choose the Right Technology Partners

Give your business the power to innovate, choose a telephony and CX platform partner who’s recognized as an innovator and leader. Choosing the wrong partner will cost you more in the longer term, so ensure you  consider what’s important to you. Maybe it’s native integration into your CRM, maybe it’s an exciting product roadmap, or maybe you’re looking for a customer centric partner who’ll be with you throughout challenging times.

Choose wisely, the right partner can help you differentiate today and be ready for whatever comes next.