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How retailers can give consumers the personal care they expect

Carey Stoker, senior vice president, customer care services, Radial, believes customer care is the differentiator between a good and a great experience, and there are fundamental steps that retailers should take to stay competitive and stand out as an exceptional brand.

Photo by istock.com

December 9, 2019

By Carey Stoker, senior vice president, customer care services, Radial

Most people can name a negative experience they've had with a brand, and along with it usually comes a declaration of why they will never return to that company. According to the ACSI's latest Retail Report, shoppers are often unhappy with the customer service they receive, referring to it as "lackluster" and "underwhelming."

As the job market grows tighter, finding the right talent has proven challenging. As a result, it is becoming increasingly difficult to deliver the frictionless and authentic experience consumers expect. Whether interactions are via agent, phone, chat, or email, companies need to ensure they are delivering the right messages or lose potential profits in the process.

According to David Clarke, Global CxO, Experience Consulting & Digital Consumer Markets Leader at PwC, 82% of top performing organizations pay the most attention to human experience and outperform peer companies that don't prioritize this. Customer care is the differentiator between a good and a great experience, and there are fundamental steps that retailers and brands should take to stay competitive and stand out as an exceptional brand.

Understand the customer journey

By understanding the customers' needs, preferences, and behaviors, businesses can better map their journey and be prepared to respond in helpful ways.  Data from the customer journey can be used to maximize interactions, drive loyalty, and reduce friction.

According to MessagePro, research shows that more than 50% of consumers would rather text for customer support than call, if given the option between the two. It's a business's responsibility to know how, when and where customers prefer to be communicated with.

While this data is helpful, it's also important to offer customers the choice in how much information they care to share with the company and respect that decision. Retailers and brands should provide customers with choices to opt-in or opt-out of any experience and to determine the extent that they want to share their information to drive personalization.

Leverage self-service

Self-service can pave the way to a more personalized and convenient customer experience for both online and in-store sales. According to a recent report from CFI Group and Radial, when a retail customer is online and a self-serve option is made available to assist them, 57% say they will typically try a self-serve option before reaching out to customer service. While there are many self-service trends on the horizon, providing customers with AI options and visual interactive Voice response technology are two popular and effective tools available.

Among AI options, chatbots are some of the most recognizable for customer care. These virtual agents are ideal for accessing information and completing basic tasks. As a result, customer service professionals can spend their time on value-added services, saving retailers and brands money while providing instant-on service to customers.

Foster a strong customer care team

However, as helpful as bots can be, there's always more complex questions and tasks that should be left to a human. A good customer care professional should be many things, such as patient, attentive, and knowledgeable about the company's product. Unfortunately, these skills are becoming increasingly challenging to find. According to a recent Aberdeen study, 32%of contact center leaders cite finding and retaining qualified staff to be a top challenge, second only to implementing new technologies and channels to address changing consumer behavior (36%).

Building a successful customer care engine should start with the people and be supplemented by the technology. This means that businesses need to be smart in the approach in which they hire, providing compelling work that maps back to the individual's passions and other motivating tools that foster enthusiasm in the company.

Once you have a workforce in place, arming representatives with the best technology possible allows them to better serve customers. Retailers who do not have the systems to enable agents to view consumer history can lose significant revenue. Nearly one in four consumers who have been in touch with a customer care agent say they were less likely to follow through with a purchase when the agent did not have access to their order history.

Ensuring customer care representatives have the tools necessary to be knowledgeable and helpful to customers is critical. Visibility across the supply chain and operations can help businesses apprehend customer experience mishaps before they happen and help to run interference.    

In today's retail landscape, the product has become a commodity. Customer experience has nearly as much standing as the price of the product. The moral of the story here: do not think technology is the end all, be all. In many cases, technology acts to enable the experience but doesn't replace the human experience.  Retailers and brands need to orchestrate a perfect balance of technology and human touch points – by arming customer service representatives with the right tools, everyone will be happier.