By Greg Gatherer, Account Manager, Liferay Africa
As a result of the pandemic, today’s client expects ease and easy access to products and services via digital platforms, and will abandon a company or brand after a bad experience. Indeed, according to a Zendesk customer experience trends study, more than 60% of customers will deflect after a single poor experience – up 22% from 2021.
Businesses have had to revise their strategies and prioritise customer experiences. And, while customers today expect more and are willing to put up with less, executives have had to manage resources and ensure that providing flawless experiences does not eat into corporate profitability. When done right, reducing costs can actually improve customer experience.
In this article, we’ll examine three strategies that can help CX leaders reduce their cost-to-serve while maintaining a high level of service quality.
1. Allow customers to self-serve
One approach to cut costs is to allow customers to self-serve. Self-service is not only the preferred method for customer interactions, but also helps businesses save more than $7 (R110) per interaction for a B2C company and $13 (R205) for a B2B company.
Self-service enables clients to quickly obtain the answers and information they require without having to contact a sales representative. Consumers can access necessary information online via FAQs, blogs, and forums. This saves customers time and allows customer support employees to focus on more complex issues.
2. Automate personalisation
Customers have grown to expect the same amount of personalisation from businesses as they do from businesses such as Amazon and Netflix. According to studies:
- 74% of customers feel frustrated if there’s a lack of personalisation
- 80% of consumers are more likely to purchase from a brand that provides personalised experiences
- 66% of consumers say encountering content that isn’t personalised would stop them from making a purchase
While customers may desire more tailored experiences, having a single customer service agent manually personalise the experience for a few clients is neither efficient nor cost-effective. CX executives must seek out tools that allow their teams to customise digital experiences based on roles, products, location, and business without having to touch every encounter.
Different personalisation strategies that can be handled through automation include:
- Surfacing relevant content and product recommendations based on user role and purchase history
- Tailoring catalogues and pricing based on their organisation
- Targeting web pages for different audience segments
- Building custom workflows according to unique business purchasing processes
- Triggering automated alerts when specific products are back in stock
3. Making changes without involving IT
Increasing the time to market for consumer solutions has become important to corporate success, even more so in light of the changes brought about by the pandemic. If, however, customer experience is contingent on IT teams, solutions will obviously take longer to deliver.
The good news is that emerging tools, such as low code and no code can empower businesses and non-technical teams to create and deliver customised solutions without involving a developer.
The right tools for experience not expense
While providing an exceptional client experience should be a top priority for every organisation, this does not mean it should be the primary expense. Businesses can provide the experiences their customers desire with the right strategy and resources in place.