No matter how good your service agents are, customers will always demand more. At the top of their wish list – personalised service and faster issue resolution.
Ironically, the best way to meet those requirements is to stop your agents from having to think so much. This sounds counter-intuitive, but the more tasks and decisions you can automate, the better able they are able to actually take care of your customers.
Disengage brain to assist
Call centre scripts are often heavily criticised by customers because they are stilted, inflexible and impersonal. As soon as the caller asks a question that is not addressed by the script, the conversation falters – and the quality of experience drops.
This is where technology can assist. Using a Customer Service Management (CSM) platform you can define a series of playbooks that help guide callers towards a mutually beneficial outcome. Similar to a script, the playbook outlines various stages and waypoints between first contact and resolution so your agents don’t have to define the journey themselves.
However, playbook can be less prescriptive, allowing agents to use their experience and exercise their own judgment. With access to granular customer data, the agent can further personalise responses to make the experience more pleasant – and to resolve issues faster.
Reducing decisions improves the quality of service
Depending on the complexity of your processes, playbooks will still have decision points that require your agents to make choices. Despite their best efforts, this still leaves room for human error to reduce efficiency.
A good CSM, like ServiceNow Customer Service Management, will increase efficiency further still. Playbooks can be combined with a guided decision engine, for instance, providing agents with the most appropriate actions as they move through the call resolution process. Guided decisions remove much of the uncertainty around next steps – and are calculated to be more suitable to resolving your customers’ needs at any moment in time.
Skip the thought process completely
Decisions start the moment a customer makes contact. Who will take ownership? Who is the most appropriate person to resolve the issue quickly? How do we route the query to the right person first time?
Again, CSM provides a solution. Predictive Intelligence can assess incoming issues and perform routing automatically – another decision your front-line agents don’t have to take. Importantly, a predictive intelligence engine can analyse your entire customer contact history to identify trends that indicate potential issues in advance. CSM can then route issues and recommend relevant solutions for proactive service delivery, or in preparation for when a client does make contact.
Fewer decisions, better outcomes
Your people are your strongest asset which is why you must use them as effectively as possible. By automating workflows and decision-making, your agents are better able to focus on the needs of your customer. You are empowering them to deliver a truly excellent experience that will improve satisfaction and account retention.
To learn more about ServiceNow Customer Service Management and how it can help lighten the load for your agents (and make much smarter decisions) please contact us to arrange a short demo.
Contact the Crossfuze team today to learn more about ServiceNow CSM and how it could help your business improve customer retention and profitability.
