…. that Connected Omni-Channel is Critical..
In a survey conducted by Cisco, 93% of UK Contact Centre Managers ranked customer experience as their number one priority. However, although delivering the right experience for customers is a focus for the contact centre, the challenge appears to be in convincing the Board that delivering total customer experience should be an investment priority.
According to Harris Research, UK business are losing £15 billion annually due to poor customer service – a staggering figure that surely should get the attention of business leaders. This is further re-inforced by the Accenture Global Pulse Survey that showed that 62% of consumers have switched providers due to a poor customer service experience.
Getting customer experience right is not about “being nice to customers”. It is about ensuring that you retain customers and it has a very direct impact on business performance. Anyone who has read ‘Leading On The Edge of Chaos’ by Murphy & Murphy, will have seen the figures – reducing customer defection by just 5% can increase profitability from anywhere between 25% and 125% and that a 2% increase in customer retention can have the same effect as a 10% reduction in cost.
The figures speak for themselves – delivering the experience that customers expect has a very real impact on the business and a tangible return on investment.
Omni-Channel is playing an increasing role in the connected customer experience. When interacting with an organisation, 60% of consumers want to use email, 57% want to use live chat and 51% are looking for online knowledge bases.
Again the figures speak for themselves, in order to retain customers you need to deliver an experience that you are proud of and that customers appreciate. This experience is no longer restricted to telephone. It spans the complete range of interaction channels and the customer’s experience is governed by how well you deliver a truly connected journey.
To help contact centre managers to convince their board on the importance of investing in connected omni-channel, view our full infographic.
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