Sales and Fulfillment
How to Ensure Consistency in After-Sales Service Across All Channels?
Effective customer service is instrumental in creating positive customer experiences and also plays a part in customer retention. In today’s age of stiff competition and dynamic market conditions, consumers expect exceptional customer service at every interaction and across all channels. The availability of consistent customer service at all touchpoints, physical as well as virtual, helps to build trust, bolster customer loyalty, and strengthen a business’s reputation. On the flip side, failing to meet customers’ expectations can erode the trust that they have in the business and drive them towards the competition, negatively affecting profits. This is why maintaining a high level of customer service at every interaction is extremely important. Read on to discover some of the common strategies used to maintain consistently exceptional cross channel customer service at every interaction.
Well-defined standards for customer service
A business’s customer service standards must align with the organisation’s mission and core values. These standards should be based on measureable parameters, such as customer satisfaction scores, response times, and issue resolution rates. Once clearly defined and established, these customer service standards must be communicated to all team members to ensure they know what is expected from them.
Integrated communication channels
Customers may attempt to make contact through a variety of channels or platforms, including telephone calls, emails, online chats, or social media. It is important to provide uniform experiences for customers across all these channels, and the only way to ensure consistency when dealing with various modes of communication is to integrate all the platforms and channels that a customer may use to reach out. This allows for seamless omnichannel customer support with relevant data being shared between channels. Such channel integration ensures that all customer service professionals are on the same page and have access to the same information.
Skilled team members
Customer service teams are most likely going to be the first point of contact for customers who have a question or a problem, and the customer-facing employees in these teams must possess exemplary communication skills and are capable of empathising with customers. Customer service professionals should also possess sound problem-solving skills and be knowledgeable about the product or service.
Employee training
Carefully crafted customer service strategy training sessions for customer facing employees should be conducted uniformly across all channels. Customer service professionals should be well versed in the established language, tone, and procedures so that they can deliver consistent customer service at every touch point.
Modern digital technology
Incorporating the latest technology can make it easier to efficiently maintain omnichannel customer support and offer uniform customer experiences across all interactions. Customer resource management solutions centralise all customer data under a single unified platform and make it possible to efficiently and accurately manage each interaction. AI-powered chatbots are also growing in popularity and can handle basic inquiries while maintaining a consistent service level.
Customer feedback
Feedback from customers can be an invaluable resource for organisations working towards the incorporation or refinement of effective omnichannel customer service strategies. Customer feedback collected by means of feedback forms or customer surveys provides insights into how well existing customer service processes are performing and highlights areas that may need improvement.
Conclusion
Providing consistent cross-channel customer service can help businesses meet and even surpass customer expectations and improve the overall customer experience.
Incorporating the latest technology, establishing customer service standards that reflect the brand’s values, and providing relevant training to employees are important aspects of crafting appropriate customer service strategies. The benefits of having a robust omnichannel customer support strategy include happy customers who remain engaged and loyal to the business and a positive brand reputation, leading to improved profits.
How can Infosys BPM help maintaining after sales offering across all channels?
Infosys BPM After-Sales Offering is designed to help organisations develop customised cross-channel customer service strategies to suit every need. Specialised services on offer include warranty management solutions, service revenue management solutions, service parts management solutions, maintenance repair and operations inventory optimisation and more. Reach out to know more.