The world global economy has taken a real beating. The UK itself has seen consumer confidence plummet to its lowest level since the global financial crisis over a decade ago, GDP shrink by 19.1% and sentiment around the state of the UK economy reaching a new record low at -88%, with no industry left untouched by the effects of double digit inflation and looming increases in energy bills.. It seems a recession may be on the horizon, so with businesses pulling their purse strings a little tighter, how can you recession-proof your CX strategy?
#1 When two become one… 👫
We’re living in the digital age and, according to Forrester, 56% of organisations are undertaking huge (and often expensive!) transformations to become digital-first companies. With such a shift in the way things operate, the need for new platforms and tools has grown, and many companies now find themselves with costly systems coming out of their ears! Take a step back and look at the tasks your teams carry out and the functionality they need to be effective and efficient. Do you have – or can you find – one platform that does a few of these things? Not only will you be cutting costs by removing systems, you’ll be streamlining your processes too. And as if that wasn’t enough, you’ll be one step closer to the holy grail that is the single customer view – queue the oohs and ahhs!
#2 Get it tailored to the right fit 👚
Though you’re looking to consolidate and reduce the number of systems you need to manage, be sure not to invest in an all singing, all dancing platform with solutions that you just won’t use. If budgets are tight but you need a tool to help you deliver a great customer experience, have a chat with the vendor about the features you just can’t live without. These days, plenty of platforms are customisable (within reason!) and packages can be tailored to your needs, so you’re not forking out for certain tools to just gather dust (metaphorically, of course!).
#3 Slow and steady doesn’t always win the race… 🐢
When implementing a new system, it’s expected that there’ll be a bit of waiting time before things are up and running, but no one wants to be paying month after month for a tool they can’t use because the set up is moving at a snail’s pace! Ensure that the provider you choose has a deployment timeline that works for you, so you can get back to business as usual and start seeing a return on your investment pronto. Like Orlo, some platforms have rapid deployment options available too, so your implementation can take as little as 24 hours!
#4 On the clock ⏱️
The world moves at such a fast pace and thanks to on-demand services such as Amazon Prime Now and Netflix, customers are used to getting what they want in an instant. Failure to respond via social channels can lead to a 15% increase in customer churn, according to Gartner and – in reality – the expectation is for your customer service team to respond as quickly as possible. Empowering your team to respond and act in the moment is critical. Not only will you keep your customers happy, but by reducing the time it takes to respond to and handle a case, you’re reducing your cost to serve too – it’s a win, win! So when you’re looking at software to help you improve your customer experience, ensure you look for functionality that enables cases to be pushed to agents based on their availability or skill-set in real-time, to ensure queries are dealt with as efficiently and effectively as possible.
#5 Get them hooked 🎣
In 2020, the number of active social media users has passed the 3.8 billion mark, increasing by more than 9 percent since the previous year, so when it comes to digital channels, social media definitely leads the way in terms of potential reach! Knowing so many existing and potential customers are out there, seeing your ‘like’ and ‘follower’ numbers increasing sure does feel good – but are those vanity metrics really the numbers to be paying attention too? Comments and shares are often truer indicators of audience engagement with your brand and the more engaged they are, the more likely they are to convert! Whatever a conversion looks like to your business, we all know a higher conversion rate often correlates with a higher number of sales – so in this case, more is certainly more. Focus your strategies on driving engagement if you really want to see your ROI soar.
#6 Keep them smiling from ear to ear! 😄
In research carried out by the Temkin Group, it was found that emotion is the biggest indicator of customer loyalty, so keeping your customers happy isn’t just important – it’s vital if you want to ensure customer retention. And according to Bain & Company, increasing customer retention rates by 5% has the potential to increase profits by a whopping 25% to 95% – those aren’t numbers to be sniffed at! With that said, it’s clear that tools which enable you to understand how your customers feel are necessary. Whether you act on direct feedback or are alerted to disgruntled customers through message sentiment analysis, you and your team are empowered to resolve issues with unhappy customers and keep happy customers happy, so they come back again and again and again…
