More than 70% of all customer interactions are digital, according to MuleSoft. This statistic includes purchases, brand interactions, and of course, support-centric exchanges between companies and their customers.
With such a large percentage of interactions occurring in the digital realm, it’s more critical than ever for businesses to offer user-friendly, digitized support options. Those that do can profoundly impact the quality of the user experience, nurture feelings of loyalty toward the company, improve customer retention, and maximize the lifetime value of customers.
However, solutions that are incomplete or hastily implemented can have adverse effects. Choppy deployments can alienate existing customers and may discourage them from using digital support channels. These missteps also place undue strain on support agents that offer service in traditional channels. Poorly designed support solutions create friction along the digital journey, leading to reduced sales and declining profits.
Fortunately, your business can leverage a few proven strategies to prevent these challenges. The tactics detailed below help you adapt to changing customer expectations while simultaneously providing exceptional support quality.
Understanding the Modern Buyer Journey
Before we explore ways to digitize the support, let’s consider the journey of today’s modern consumer. While many developments have contributed to the digitization of the customer journey, smartphones have played the most significant role. Thanks to smartphones and other connected devices, consumers can interact with brands whenever they want. They can use these devices to do everything from reading product reviews to making purchases and seeking support.
As smartphones became increasingly sophisticated, many consumers leaned away from audio-based communication channels like a phone call. Usage of text- and app-based channels is holding steady, as each appeals to a variety of demographics. While specific reasons for using digital channels vary, some common factors contribute to the trend:
- Convenience
- Flexibility
- Self-service
A key benefit of digitized channels is that they allow users to do other things while waiting for a response. It’s little wonder that countless consumers now prefer to seek assistance digitally.
3 Support Tactics to Optimize the Journey
As a business leader, you need to be responsive to changes in customer expectations. This responsiveness is crucial when it comes to embracing the today’s digital journey. The statistics above make it clear that most brand interactions now occur online.
With that in mind, here are three ways you can optimize the support aspect of the digital journey:
1. Offer Omnichannel Support
There is a critical distinction between omnichannel support and multichannel support. The latter refers to offering customers multiple means of communicating with your business. Chances are you’re already offering multichannel support.
Omnichannel support is the evolution of multichannel support. This model allows consumers to transition from channel to channel without rehashing an issue or re-providing account data. It’s a seamless model designed to deliver easier, more effortless experiences.
Omnichannel support technology eliminates many points of friction along the journey by delivering customer information between support agents and across channels. For example, if a customer tries chat then calls the 800#, the phone agent already has access to relevant insights from interactions that occurred earlier. This automation minimizes frustration while simultaneously expediting the resolution process.
2. Leverage Business Intelligence Resources
“Business intelligence” is a broad term that refers to a multitude of different data collection and analytics processes. However, in the general sense, business intelligence involves gathering information about customers and leveraging that data to optimize the performance of your team. Mastering business intelligence lets you put your finger on the pulse of your target audience. You can gain insights into challenges and concerns that your customer base is experiencing.
These insights reveal critical information about the digital journey, such as whether your app or website is easy to locate and whether your self-service tools are streamlining support delivery. Once you have accumulated business intelligence data, you can use this information to modify support processes. You can strategically eliminate friction points, implement new self-service protocols, and make customer journeys easier.
3. Partner with an Outsourced Provider
Like all other businesses, yours has finite financial and human resources available. Unfortunately, these resource limitations can hinder your ability to modernize digital journeys or leverage the tactics outlined above.
The good news is that you can circumvent these limitations by partnering with an experienced outsourced support provider like Goodbay Technologies. Our team of experts can assist with everything from providing omnichannel support to gathering consumer feedback and implementing business intelligence concepts.
Goodbay Technologies can be a valuable part of your digital transformation initiative. We can augment the capabilities of your existing support staff or become your entire customer service team. Our technicians will work hand in hand with you to achieve business goals and transform the digital journey. To learn more, contact us today.
