Why is Customer Effort Reduction in the Spotlight Now?

Today’s customers expect quick and easy solutions to their queries. Customer effort reduction is in the spotlight now as the risks of upsetting them are even higher. Hence, making customers’ lives easier is the primary step towards brand loyalty and success.

Interactions involving more efforts on the customers’ side lead to frustration, reduced satisfaction and increased churn rate. According to the Institute of Customer Service, over 50% of customers stop dealing with companies as a result of poor customer service, and more than 70% of them actively discourage others from engaging with such companies.

The two biggest annoyances for customers are having to repeat themselves and being transferred from department to department. This causes untold harm to the overall reputation and revenue of an organization.

The less effort on the customers’ part boosts their experience and comfort level with your company. Hence, reducing their efforts, making service seamless for them needs great attention. A major area of effort reduction largely depends on the interactions and relationships of customer service agents with customers. Today, leading contact centers like Avaya have been applying various methods like CTI integration with Salesforce and more to offer a higher level of customer experience.

Here are some of the steps organizations can follow to reduce customer efforts and enhance customer satisfaction.

Anticipate Customers’ Needs

Companies must leverage Machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI) to predict customer needs and behavior to act accordingly. This will ensure the best response and engagement channels as per the customers’ requirements.

Keep Customers Informed

Don’t immediately end the conversation once the customers have done any transaction with you. Many people move on to something else straight away instead of informing customers about future actions and listening to them.

Be proactive by setting up automated follow-up systems and using modern messaging solutions like WhatsApp and emails to confirm your discussion and keep customers informed. This will enhance their experience and significantly reduce their urge to connect with your representatives again.

Automation has a Long Way to Go

Customers are the decision makers as they directly contribute to the overall revenue of your brand. Don’t let them feel down by making them do all the work. Leverage Live Chat to perform more mundane tasks with automated responses for quicker resolutions. It will tangibly boost the CX and loyalty levels.

Omnichannel is the New Multichannel

Modern customers look for a consistent and effortless experience and want organizations to recognize their history and previous interactions for a seamless journey and refrain from repeating themselves. The latest technology solutions are the need of the hour for great CX across multiple channels.

Strictly Monitor All the Feedbacks

Companies should take direct and immediate action on all the feedback to improve service areas and inform customers about the same. They must take advantage of the feedback received across all channels and consider every suggestion and support request. This can surely be a more effective and efficient way to spot areas requiring much effort.

Alert Customers About Identified Faults

Leading companies have a protocol to alert your entire customer base to any identified faults that are flagged up to save their time and efforts.

To summarize, organizations must put themselves in customers’ shoes and see what they actually experience. The immediate mission for corporate leaders is to lay emphasis on mitigating disloyalty by reducing customer effort. Whether it’s Avaya CTI integration with Salesforce or any other step, companies can do a lot to diminish customer efforts by designing and implementing practices and experiences that are simple to understand and use. However, a major area of effort reduction is related to the interactions and relationships of your agents with customers.