Do you want to know how to face the new digital scenario of your contact center? In this post, we tell you steps to follow to implement a digital strategy that will help you increase efficiency and move toward the transformation that your contact center needs.
How the digital strategy improves your Contact Center
The spread of digital media and constant connectivity, have changed the way customers communicate with organizations. Conversations are no longer limited to the traditional voice channel. Today, these relationships are developed through multiple channels, such as chat, mobile, video and social media.
This transformation brings great benefits both for the internal management of the contact center and for the end-user experience. They enable faster resolution of customer issues, reduce operating costs, improve user experience, and thereby drive business loyalty and profitability.
Furthermore, digital accessibility is not only a matter of preference for customers, but also an advantage for those responsible for customer service. It helps to better distribute the workflow and increase the profitability of the agents. In addition to improving working conditions and reducing burnout, it is a much cheaper investment for any contact center.
Digital strategies to improve the experience of your contact center
Like any transformation, it involves fundamental changes to operations that will take time to introduce and collect to see results. To help you in this process, we tell you the best strategies that will allow you to improve the efficiency and increase the results of your contact center.
1. Decide the role of your contact center
As a part of the digital transformation process, one of the main questions to decide is what role you want your contact center to play. That is, do you want it to be the last resourse for customers, or do you want it to play a more active role in the user journey?
The most common answer is that the contact center is used only when there is a problem and the client cannot solve itself, being a tool to solve problems for which there is no online process.
However, a contact center can be much more than a last resource for customers. Digital channels allow you to play a much more active role in the user experience. For example, a chat on your website allows you to answer questions and guide the person during the purchase process. The chances of the action being carried out successfully is thus much higher.
2. Choose the digital channels
The second (and fundamental) step is to identify which channels to use based on the target audience. Today, there is a wide range of digital channels to choose from, but we recommend first integrating a chatbot system to resolve customer queries quickly and efficiently. This feature simplifies and shortens the process for agents, and is a much more pragmatic and accessible solution for the customer. In addition, it is also a way to obtain information about the consumer, whether it is about their preferences, the purchase process or possible obstacles along the way.
From here, and depending on the type of customer the company is targeting, it will be more or less necessary to implement other digital channels. Even so, if your company targets a heterogeneous audience, it is absolutely vital to implement different communication channels, united by a centralized system to generate a seamless user experience, such as an omnichannel software like EVOLUTION.
Remember that choosing the technologies that best suit your company and your target audience is an important step in any digital transformation process. There is no point in introducing channels that are not beneficial for you and your customers, so you must know who your product or service is aimed at before making a decision.
3. Train your agents
Once the channels have been chosen, it is necessary to guarantee that the agents in your contact center know how to use them correctly. Therefore, the third step is the training of the customer service team. Each channel has its good practices. The language and style required for live chat, for example, is not the same as for email or phone calls. Therefore, it is necessary to carry out specific training for each new channel that is introduced.
4. Omnichannel is the future
Omnichannel is about connecting all existing channels in the same space, to ensure that customers can effortlessly jump between them whenever they want. In this sense, it is essential that there is synchronization between the new digital channels and the existing ones.
The danger of offering so many different contact and self-service options can lead to confusion for both the customer and the agent. For this reason, and since the contact center is the main source of information, a consistent experience must be guaranteed in all digital contact points.
This requires the unity of all departments and teams. Also, make sure that all contact center teams work at the same level and have access to the same information.
5. Digital strategy based on automation
In the first section, we already commented on the need to integrate chatbots to speed up the resolution of queries and improve customer service, since automation is an essential resource to guarantee the transformation of any contact center.
Integrating chatbots or automated call distribution software is essential to meet the expectations of today’s customer, who needs answers immediately, often without taking into account the working hours of agents.
Chatbots also offer other benefits, such as shortening customer queues by responding immediately and moving to a live agent if needed. Also, as more material becomes available in your knowledge base, your chatbot can respond to an increasing number of customer inquiries without the intervention of an agent.
An AI chatbot does not replace your active agents, but instead offloads minor queries to allow more human resources to be dedicated to more contentious interactions.
6. Use the data to create preventive actions
The goal of any digital transformation is to offer better service and meet new customer demands. Even so, it is not enough to take action; It is also essential to collect the opinions of consumers to know if the actions undertaken have had the expected success.
By collecting this information, you can continue to improve the UX and strengthen customer service.
Another good practice of digital transformation is to use data to offer preventive customer service. This strategy not only serves to anticipate the needs of customers, but also encourages them to interact with the contact center more actively.
Result: A digital strategy that makes you more efficient
To help you in the digitization process of your contact center and to be able to respond appropriately to the changing needs of users, you only need to incorporate a good digital strategy in your Contact Center.
We recommend investing in the most complete omnichannel tool on the market: our software EVOLUTION. Keep the channels integrated in a single platform and facilitate the daily life of your agents with just one click. Request a demo!
