The great entrepreneur Harry Gordon Selfridge made it a point long ago to say that “the customer is always right.” This motto aimed to convince customers that while shopping in Selfridge’s stores, they would receive excellent service and their voices would be heard.
Since then, it’s been the gold standard for customer service. Following this code dramatically improved the customer experience for shoppers at Selfridges and went on to do so in businesses the world over.
The conclusion to draw from this is a simple one: quality customer service makes money. To that end, businesses now have access to CX platforms that can add a modern, automated touch to the customer experience.
Things like happiness and satisfaction are largely subjective, so how does a business quantify them? There are many ways to do this, but they all boil down to data collection.
One of the most widely used methods of customer data gathering is customer surveys. These can be conducted on almost any channel, and depending on their criteria, can receive simple and complex answers.
A CX platform can automatically send those surveys to customers through any channel and keep the answers collected and secure. It then allows users to access the collected data on a single platform. This platform can also store data on key metrics such as net promoter score (NPS), customer satisfaction score (CSAT), and customer effort score (CES).
This single platform for customer data and conversations is also extremely helpful in managing CX. Modern CX platforms leverage AI for intelligent routing and automated workflows. Nothing ruins a customer’s experience quite like waiting, which this technology aims to mitigate as much as possible.
AI integration also provides deeper real-time analytics. Instead of relying solely on the likes of CSAT or NPS, a modern CX platform can provide insight from each individual customer interaction. This provides essential data with minimal effort, tracking sentiment and minimizing churn across an entire customer-base.
With the platform gathering all the data you need, your customer service teams can focus instead on high-level CX strategies and fostering a customer-centric culture.
Most customer interactions occur online now, which is both a blessing and a curse. With extremely limited face-to-face conversations, many traditional strategies for maintaining a quality customer experience don’t work nearly as well. At the same time, technology like CX platforms can be used effectively in these interactions to still show customers you care.
Chatbots and auto attendants may seem cold and unfeeling, but by resolving more mundane issues, they give live agents the time and resources to better assist the customers who need them.
CX platforms also include customer relationship management (CRM) support. With this, agents can leverage data to personalize the customer experience, providing high quality service even through a computer screen.
Modern CX platforms come packaged as cloud-based solutions that fit a hybrid work environment incredibly well. They all have the capacity to integrate with multiple channels and come with advanced features like intelligent routing and integration with third-party applications.
Here’s a list of some of the best CX platforms on the market today:
You’re probably thinking, “a customer experience platform? Isn’t that a contact center?”
While terms like Contact Center and CX platform get used interchangeably, they aren’t the same thing. Broadly speaking, they’re deployed for the same purpose, accomplish the same goals, and are almost always integrated with one another. Still, it’s important to understand the difference between the two.
For more information about that, however, you’ll need to check out part 2.
In the meantime, why not talk to us at Continuant about your next CX platform? With more than 28 years of experience in the world of telecommunications, we can help your organization find and properly manage the perfect platform. That’s how we became Genesys’ partner of the year, after all.