Introducing live chat to a company's Web site can reduce call centre costs and also improve a customer's overall experience with the company.
This is according to Graham Mansfield, Oracle senior director for CRM solutions for the Middle East and Africa, who argues that companies need to pay careful attention to customer experience with regard to their customer relationship management strategies.
Speaking at an Oracle customer experience event earlier this week, Mansfield said today's customers are disappointed if their expectations are not met at every point of interaction with a brand. For this reason, he said, companies must ensure they deliver a seamless experience at every touch point.
According to Mansfield, many customers today would rather engage with a company online. He argued that introducing live chat on a company's Web site can dramatically cut call centre costs by reducing the time agents spend on calls.
Mansfield also suggested that companies use tools to track a customer's engagement with their Web sites. He explained that if a customer is going back and forth between menus, they are probably stuck. According to Mansfield, at this point, a contact centre agent should be alerted so they can initiate a live online chat with the customer, offering assistance.
Mansfield also stressed that contact centre agents must have fast access to a customer's billing records and service requests so they can ensure the customer's needs are met.
Consumer age
Peter Silvester, Oracle business development director for Fusion Middleware in Europe, Middle East and Africa, said customer experience is a significant differentiator.
He argued that, today, all products work, and most products are not very different to competitor products. For this reason, he said, companies have to ensure they meet customers' expectations in order to retain them.
Ian Tickle, Oracle VP for customer experience and social sales for EMEA, said many customers are prepared to pay extra for the same products and service if they know the brand will look after them. He also said that, in the current highly commoditised market, people do not have brand loyalty and will quickly drop a brand if they do not have a good experience with it.
He added that these customers are also incredibly verbal about their interactions with a brand and will quickly take their criticism of a brand online, complaining on social networks.
Speaking about his own experience with an airline, Tickle said he sent an e-mail complaining about the airline's service. According to him, the response he received stated that the airline was experiencing extremely high demand and would take six to eight weeks to get back to him.
He pointed out that, apart from the fact that six to eight weeks is a long time for a customer to wait, the message was not personalised, which is something today's consumers expect.
According to Tickle, defining customer experience is complex, because the concept of customer experience has changed over time. He explained that the totality of a customer's experience used to be their experience from walking into a shop, buying an item, and leaving the shop.
Today, however, customer experience depends on a company's Web site, the courier that delivers a purchased item, as well as the call centre, said Tickle. He added that while many companies outsource these services, from the customer's point of view, they all represent the same brand.
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