If you have customers, they are going to have some form of ongoing support or service need. You may think this does not apply to you, but we challenge you to think about any business or industry where you can deliver your product or service and have no chance that the customer may encounter a problem or question.

And even if you can, what a wasted opportunity it would be if you didn’t give the customer a chance to ask questions when they are making a decision on purchasing or repurchasing. It is therefore key that businesses have an effective customer experience strategy in play.

This may be obvious to some but did you know:

  • According to a recent Enghouse Interactive survey 50% of customers would refuse to do business with a brand or company when they fail to deliver.
  • In the same survey, 75% of customers see it as important that a company provides Online Communication capabilities (50% increase since 2014).
  • By 2022 (only four years away) Gartner predicts that 72% of all customer interactions will involve an emerging technology i.e Chatbots, AI or IoT sensors.

All the data points above are meant to illustrate one thing -that in order for your business to continue to be successful and grow, you need to think about the support and service experience you provide for your customers. It cannot be an afterthought- you not only run the risk of losing customers because of a poor experience but in the process, spend a lot of money to do it.

In the complex world of deciding upon your customer experience strategy, there are numerous decisions to make – some of the more obvious ones are about whether you do it in-house with precious FTE resource or outsource it. Once that is decided you need to figure out where you will do the support from i.e Onshore, nearshore or offshore. Lastly, what support modalities you want to offer your customers (Phone, Chat, Email, Social, SMS or a combination of all the previous and do you tie them together in an omnichannel environment). All the options have a cost, quality and risk element that needs to be considered for your business. We have not even started to think about GDPR and the impact of Brexit on customer support, particularly if you support more than just the UK, or how your companies digital strategy needs to include support and service elements.

Here at ERA, we are able to help you work through the tough decisions and to identify a cost-effective solution. Get in touch with our cost reduction consultants today.

Article by: David Rickard