People Connect USA

Field Techs are Driving the Customer Experience

August 1, 2018

“Customer experience” is in vogue again. Everywhere you look, there are articles and posts covering how companies can ramp up customer experience to generate more revenue.

And, to be fair, customer experience should always be in focus. As the economy swings back into hyperdrive, consumers are being bombarded with new and exciting offers – the kind that can get otherwise loyal customers to jump ship.

Retaining customers makes sound financial sense – acquiring a new one is five times more expensive than wowing an existing customer away from the noisy competitors and their splashy ads.

Improving the customer experience is a great way to retain your best customers.

Hands down, the best way to retain your customers is by finding ways to make their experience with your products and services hassle-free and completely satisfying. In the world of technology, customers always remember when things go wrong.

Customer disappointments can become a customer experience highlight reel.

Everyone understands that technology likes to act up from time-to-time. How many times has your laptop suddenly run out of charge right before an important presentation, or a 6-hour flight?

For telecoms, the stakes are even higher. Right before a huge pay-per-view fight, the node goes down – and everyone on the block is left without cable. Or a misguided neighbor decides to try their luck at edging their lawn – right next to where the buried cable lines are.

The way to win, in these moments, is to deliver fast, competent help. From the moment your customer service center gets the call, there’s a timer running. Your customer will judge you based on how quickly you respond. And an appointment sometime between next week and next month isn’t going to cut it.

New platforms can provide on-demand, highly-skilled help

Companies can leverage technology to deliver better experiences. For instance, FieldEngineer is one platform that tech companies are using to help shorten the gap between problem and solution. By allowing companies to access on-demand talent, with the skills and experience necessary to complete technical assignments, telecoms and other tech players are dramatically improving customer experience, without the overhead of a traditional (old school) global support team.

The ability to choose assignments dramatically improves the employee experience as well. And, it turns out, happy team members help to deliver an even better customer experience. It’s service with a smile for the digital age.

Freelancing Field Techs solve more than a budget challenge.

There’s a real shortage in the industry. Fifty-five percent of telecoms report that they are struggling to fill open positions. This means that customer service is directly impacted, as in-house tech teams are stretched to the breaking point.

As large firms continue to engage contract firms to help solve customer-facing issues, there are still times when the sheer need of customers facing service outages is overwhelming. Add into this a labor shortage and a disconnected customer service process, and you have a perfect storm for customer disappoints.

It’s exciting to see the gig economy expand into the tech sector. Yes, technology has always supported the gig economy – if you think Uber is a cab company, guess again. But, it’s only in recent years that the freelance marketplace is expanding into more skilled arenas – the kinds of jobs that keep the technology running and evolving.

Having platforms find ways to provide quality service contracts, on-demand talent that’s available locally on a nationwide basis, and who are fully connected to the rest of the business deserves some serious applause. For telecoms, it means a better customer experience and a real opportunity to hold the competitors at bay.

Source: Salesforce

Grab These 4 Proven Customer-Retention Strategies

July 20, 2018

Did you know that only 32 percent of customers are likely to place a second order in their first year as a customer? That means you’re losing most of your customers after their first purchase. Unless you create a strategy to retain them, you’re wasting valuable marketing resources.

Here are just a few reasons you should have a retention strategy for your e-commerce business:

It’s easy to sell: Selling to your existing customers is easier. In fact, an existing customer is three to 12 times more likely to buy than a new prospect.
You can double your revenue: Adobe has reported online retailers that retain just 10 percent of existing customers end up making twice the revenue.

Compelling stuff, right? Still, most e-commerce companies still rely solely on customer acquisition. They undervalue the possibility of retaining and nurturing their existing customer base. Developing and implementing a retention strategy is vital to creating a sustainable business. Here’s how to make it happen.

Demonstrate value.

Most of your first-time customers are filling an immediate need. They’re not necessarily interested in a long-term relationship with your brand. That means you must figure out how to encourage your customers to return more often, spend more time on your site and ultimately purchase from your store.

Publishing useful content on a regular basis is one way to demonstrate value. NewEgg uses videos to engage consumers and ultimately convert them to customers. These posts range from product reviews to in-depth tutorials. On a related note, ensure your product descriptions not only entice visitors to buy but make them remember your brand after the sale.

Under-promise and over-deliver.

Nothing destroys your credibility faster than bailing on a promise you made to your customers. If you offer same-day delivery but can’t realistically uphold that standard on a consistent basis, you’re creating dissatisfied customers.

Instead, try this: Estimate how long it will take to deliver the shipment and then double that time. Zappos promises delivery within five business days, but the majority of orders are shipped overnight. This exceeds customers’ expectations, making a positive impact and fostering trust in the brand.

Create a win-back email campaign.

Email marketing produces a conversion rate nearly twice that of organic search, and it also outperforms nearly all other marketing channels. But an average of 60 percent of email lists are full of “dead” subscribers? A roster filled with inactive hurts your conversion factor and leads to reduced deliverability as messages are routed to spam.

Start a subscription-model business.

The subscription-model economy is rapidly becoming the norm across industries and particularly in ecommerce. Amazon Prime and Sightglass Coffee have supplemented their revenue with this tactic. The subscription model helps ensure revenue from repeat customers. This gives you more control over revenue prediction so you can optimize your expansion plan and set a marketing budget accordingly.

How to Choose the Right Software for Customer Support Services?

July 13, 2018

Choosing the right support software is the first step to tackle after scaling your customer support team or simply realizing you’ve outgrown email as your current support solution. However, there is a ton of different support software out there.

Not only are the options pretty much endless, but every single help desk or support solution provider is obviously trying to put their product a step ahead of others. This means that they all look good at first glance, and choosing just one can be a pretty intimidating task.

The Process of Choosing Support Software:

Choosing the tool for you might seem complicated, but if you approach it in a structured way and involve your team into the process, it’s going to be much easier⁠—and hopefully also fun and constructive.

Here’s what you need to do on a very high level:

1) Figure out what you need as a company

The most important groups to think of when specifying your requirements are:

Your customers
Your support team
Your managers

2) Talk to your team

After you’ve put together a basic overview of your needs and future plans, you should also have a chat with other people in the team. The crucial people are obviously the ones who will be using the tool every day as well as those directly managing them.

However, having this discussion in an even bigger circle is great for unexpected but useful feedback and points, especially if you’ve cultivated an “everyone does support” culture in your company.

3) Put together a list of options

Go through as many unbiased review sites and listicles as you can, and just write down names of support software providers⁠—don’t worry about diving deep into features quite yet.

After doing your own research, ask your own network for recommendations. The best advice always comes from people that have actual first hand experience using these tools.

Who knows, you might be able to eliminate some options from your big list straight away⁠—or add some.

However, be careful to not take these recommendations too seriously. The fact that a solution didn’t work out for another company, doesn’t mean it won’t for yours.

4) Evaluate

You don’t even have to sign up just yet⁠—most serious providers have a list of features on their website or offer demo videos to show you what they have. This will help you see which tools immediately have (or don’t have) the things you’ve established you need for your team.Remove the options that don’t meet your criteria from your list. If the list is still long, you can also rely on your gut a little and get rid of the ones you feel are too complex, too expensive, or that you just don’t like the look of.

5) Play around and choose one

Now that you have your top options, it’s time to sign up and see how you like actually using them. Most awesome support software has a trial or a demo account you can use to get into it.Play around with it to get a feel of how it works and what the features you’re looking for actually look like.

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Source: GrooveHQ

Tag: Business