How customer service can deliver a competitive advantage in retail
Transcript of How customer service can deliver a competitive advantage in retail
How customer service can deliver a competitive advantage in retail
The challenges
Customer satisfaction in the UK | 2013-2017
Source: UK Customer Satisfaction Index | July 2017
Retail takes the lion’s share of complaints
Source: Consumer Action Monitor
The top three reasons customers complain (%)
Source: Retail Week
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40
Poor product quality
Faulty product
Poor customer service
Online High Street
Who’s getting it right in the retail space?
Source: UK Customer Satisfaction Index | July 2017
• Complaint handling• Staff doing what they say they will do• The attitude of staff• The outcome of the complaint
• Over the phone• The ease of getting through• Helpfulness of staff• Competence of staff
• Getting things right first time• 52% of total inbound calls are not resolved in one call
(Gartner)
Key differentiators between the best and the rest
The economic impact of well-handled complaints
Source: UK Customer Satisfaction Index | July 2017
We’re not embracing complaints…
Source: Consumer Action Monitor
Top five customer service complaints
Source: The Direct Marketing Commission
Being unable to get through to a company on the telephone
Not having your phone calls returned by a company
Being kept waiting for an unreasonable period of time on the telephone
Rude or unhelpful customer service staff
Being given conflicting advice on the telephone
…And our contact centre agents are burning out
• 26% mean average attrition rate in contact centres (Contactbabel)
• Compared to 7.9% voluntary resignation rate across all sectors (XpertHR)
• 74% of agents are at risk of burnout (Toister)
• Poor customer service
• Decreased employee engagement
• Increased employee turnover
• Key sentiments of at-risk agents (Toister)
• Company not being customer-focused
• Agents not feeling empowered
• Thinking that their co-workers don’t provide outstanding service
Getting it right first time
“[there is] a clear correlation between organisations who
‘get it right first time’ when interacting with customers, and
their overall UKCSI score. On average the UKCSI score is
82.7 for those organisations where customers said
they had issues resolved immediately, but when this did
not happen, the score drops to an average of 59. “
“’Customers expect to be dealt with quickly and
competently – as soon as they start to feel let down
or ignored, their trust is lost. It’s important that
businesses take this insight on board if they are to
continue the positive trend in addressing customer
needs.’”
Source: The Institute of Customer Service
Consumer expectations
• 85% of UK consumers measure all brands against only a select few – think Amazon, Netflix and Starbucks
• 90% want to engage with brands that are setting new standards
• 74% say brands can set new standards by providing a higher level of customer service
• 61% believe that the best brands make their lives easier
• 90% want brands to push the boundaries
Source: Wunderman ‘Wantedness’ Study, 2017
To summarise:
• Customer service correlates directly with customer satisfaction
• Your efforts are being judged against the best in the world
• With exceptions, retail is not on an uphill trend for customer satisfaction
• To gain a competitive advantage, you need to ‘set a new standard’
• We’re going to address three areas:• Ease of communication
• Reducing the strain on contact centre agents
• Delivering surprise and delight
Solutions
How do customers want to communicate with you?
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35
Telephone
Website
Web chat
Text
In person
Mobile app
Other
Social media
% of respondents
Source: eMarketer citing Contact Solutions survey, 2015
Most frustrating customer service channels
Source: eMarketer citing Aspect survey, 2015
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35
Phone
Company website
Live chat
In-person
Messaging app
SMS
% of respondents
• 40% prefer self-serve to human contact for their future interaction with companies
• 34% would ‘rather have their teeth cleaned’ than speak to an agent
• 30% expect a response within 10 minutes of posting a query
• Millennials switch between laptops, smartphones and TV 27 times per hour
Ah, millennials…
Sources: Ameyo | Parature | Desk.com | Hubspot
Segmenting by customer preference
Source: Ofcom (2015)
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30
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16-24 25-34 35-54 55-64 65+
Smartphone ownership %
There’s a right and a wrong way to ‘do digital’
Source: UK Customer Satisfaction Index | July 2017
The role of SMS in customer service
44% of mobile phone owners would
prefer to complete a customer service
journey via SMS than wait on hold for
an agent.
Effective for:
• Gathering post-purchase feedback
• Up/cross-sales (particularly effective
when coupled with other channels)
• Covering shifts in the contact centre /
store
• Giving employees a voice
• Scheduling call-backs.
Source: Ameyo
Case study: LV=
Source: UK Customer Satisfaction Index | July 2017
SMS review
Hi, it’s Esendex. Are you free to discuss
your latest payment? To talk now please
reply YES. For a free call back later today
please reply LATER.
LATER
Thanks for your response, reply with the
number 2 for a call back between 2pm
and 4pm or reply with the number 4 to
have a call back between 4pm to 6pm.
4
Thanks for selecting a call back between
4pm and 6pm. One of our advisors will
call you within this time. Alternatively
reply LATER to try again.
Pros:
• Not reliant on internet access
• Not reliant on smartphone ownership
• 98% open rate
• 90% read within three minutes• Agents can handle multiple conversations at once
• Responses given at the customer’s convenience
Cons:
• Plain text only (but watch out for RCS!)
• Short-form content
• Gathering mobile numbers can be more challenging than
gathering email addresses
• Can be viewed as intrusive if over-used as a channel
Source: Adobe | Forbes
Mobile web apps
Case study: click-to-completion rates for three Esendexcustomers
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10
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40
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70
NPS Survey Other Survey Payment
% Sent / Click % Clicks / Completion
Introducing RCS – coming soon!
Chatbots
Range from a basic input > output solution with pre-defined answers to AI-driven
platforms utilising Natural Language Processing (NLP) to provide detailed, accurate
responses to almost any question.
26% of consumers ‘embrace’ interacting with companies via messaging apps ([24]7)
39% are willing to have automated conversations with chatbots ([24]7)
Pros:
• Relieve the strain on your contact centre agents
• Utilise platforms (e.g. Facebook Messenger) with which customers are already
familiar
• Early adoption gives you a chance to ‘set a new standard’ in your vertical
Cons:
• Limited appeal in certain demographics
• Constantly evolving technology can be hard to get to grips with
• Requires development investment.
Email as a customer service channel
Pros:
• Free and convenient for the customer
• Almost ubiquitous (87.9% of adults have an email address)
• Can be any length
• Can include interactive elements – pictures, CTA buttons, links to online
help
• More effective as part of a multichannel journey
Cons:
• Can be time-consuming for companies to respond to
• Doesn’t encourage self-serve – reactive rather than proactive
• Very easy for the recipient to ignore
• Replies can get lost in spam filters
• Difficult to ‘set new standards’ in this space
Source: Office of National Statistics
Live chat
28.9% prefer to use chat technology to interact with retailers (ahead
of phone and email)
This increases to 37% for millennials
Pros:• Convenient for the customer
• Access to conversation history
Cons:• Customer concerns over privacy and security
• Doesn’t encourage self-serve
• Labour-intensive for contact centre agents
Source: [24]/7
26
26.5
27
27.5
28
28.5
29
29.5
% Preference
Chat Phone Email
Social media
• 62% of the adult population have Facebook (Pew Research)
• 20% have Twitter (Pew Research)
• 1 in 4 UK adults used a social media platform to make a complaint in the last three months (Institute of Customer Service)
• Despite being less likely to have a social media account, 45-54 year olds are the most likely group to share experiences of an organisation through social media (Institute of Customer Service)
• Requires a well-trained team:• Literate
• Good judgement
• Enabled to make decisions
• Deep understanding of your company’s values and customer service strategy
IVR
Conclusion
Source: Forrester Research
1. Your contact centre agents are essential: invest in them…
2. … but encourage customers to self-serve so that only the most complicated calls reach them
3. Know your customer base and offer multiple channels through which to contact you
4. Solicit and act on customer feedback
5. Adopt new technology to ‘set new standards’
77% of people say that valuing their time is the most important thing a
company can do to provide them with good service.
Any questions?