Customer Experiences Designed For Tomorrow and Beyond
Nirmala
Aug 24, 2023 | 6 mins read
Diving into ‘Future Proof CX: Omnichannel Communication as a Service Platform’ Powered by Sify, Freshworks and Ozonetel.
70% of consumers point to customer experience as an important factor in their decisions. *
*Source: PWC
The age old adage ‘customer is king’ remains as true as it was. However, while the basic foundation of good customer service is timeless, expectations certainly are not!
Customers have always desired and appreciated service that is timely (if not ultrafast), super efficient and extremely reliable…but these expectations have now certainly been kicked up a notch. The emergence of the digital first era, evolving priorities in terms of both needs and the ideal platforms to match these needs, rapidly changing technology, and yes, a massive global pandemic have all impacted CX like never before.
Customers today expect experiences that are driven by value. With a hitherto unimaginable amount of information and modes of communication at everyone’s fingertips nowadays, people want both self and assisted service options that are convenient, proactive, personalized and most importantly – relevant! With the quality of CX being a major factor in driving customer loyalty and retention, how are enterprises meeting these expectations and working at surpassing them as well?
We explored all this and more, in the insightful and data-packed webinar ‘Future Proof CX: Omnichannel Communication as a Service Platform.’, powered by Sify, Freshworks and Ozonetel and led by our expert speakers Jagjit Matharu, Suhana Somanna and Raghavendran Ramanathan.
In this article, we will explore:
Next-gen Customers & Enterprises
First off let’s take a look at what the Gen Next customers want today:
Food for thought:
70% of consumers say connected processes, such as contextualized engagement, are very important to winning their business.*
*Source: Gartner
Furthermore
80% of consumers point to speed, convenience, and knowledgeable help as the most important elements of a positive customer experience. *
*Source: IDC
Therefore, as Jagjit shared, enterprises today need to operate in ways and plan for friction-less customer experiences across the varied channels of their choice. There has been a need for a clear paradigm shift to a next-gen enterprise model as well, i.e. the digital enterprise; one which is characterized by aspects such as:
Context Drives Contentment
70% of customers says connected processes, such as contextualized engagement, are very important to winning their business.*
*Source: Gartner
Customer communication and experience has become critical today and the bar for what qualifies as good customer communication has been raised as well. One of the major driving factors in ensuring customer satisfaction and delivering great CX, is the often overlooked aspect of – context.
Ever had an interaction with a customer service representative where you had to repeat your issues or queries multiple times, where the agent or virtual assistant had no idea about your previous interactions with the company? How did that feel…frustrating, angering, putting off enough to make you not want to ever engage with the brand and its offerings again? Context in communication matters. Customers need to feel heard; and more importantly feel heard from the very first time until the end of their interaction journey. Context and the access to the data providing the context, saves your customers from having to repeat themselves across channels to agents and ultimately contributes to seamless customer experience.
The Omnichannel Experience
Food for thought:
15 years ago, the average consumer typically used two touch-points when buying an item and only 7% regularly used more than four. Today, consumers use an average of almost six touch-points with nearly 50% regularly using more than four.
60% of internet users start shopping on one device but continue/finish on a different device.
66% of users leverage at least three different communications channels to communicate with a business.
Omnichannel customer experiences are becoming more and more non-negotiable – with customers communicating with brands across varied channels like social media chat, emails, phone calls and text, and expecting a smooth, consistent flow across and through all the communication touchpoints. Adding to that is the expectation for 24/7 assistance and personalized experiences.
Omnichannel communications provide a seamless communication journey for customers across the multiple touchpoints and platforms they choose to use – eliminating boundaries between channels and thereby reducing time wastage, inefficiencies and reduced output. It also boosts agent productivity and helps with customer experience management.
- Fast and easy resolutions to issues and complaints.
- Self-service options to resolve queries.
- Personalized and engaging experiences.
- Excellent response time and experience quality, regardless of the communication channel used.
- Data protection and privacy.
Food for thought:
- Value driven CX chains.
- One-point communication interface.
- Automated interactions.
- 360 degree data access.
- Minimal on-premise infrastructure.
- Ease of speed, scale and agility.
Context Drives Contentment:
- Context ensures ensures conversation continuity and reduces resolution turnaround time.
- Context reduces your customers’ effort.
- Context creates experiences that lead to more sales and better customer retention.
- This is why omnichannel experiences are the only way forward.
Key aspects of omnichannel support, with Ozonetel:
- A connected experience across ALL channels.
- Consistent customer experience across channels.
- Designed for the same customer, with the same issue, communicating from varied channels.
- Ability for agents to have access to and share previous context.
- Ability to access accurate, live customer information from across every channel.
- Personalization across every channel.
Beyond Customer Satisfaction: Delighting Customers
“In this era a customer need not visit your website or drop in a mail to your support team for an issue. What they want to do is just take their mobile phones and use WhatsApp to register their concern. Customers are moving away from traditional channels like websites and email to ones like WhatsApp. It is very important for you as a business to be available on that particular channel where it’s convenient.” – Raghavendran
As was touched upon in our session, in the pandemic and post pandemic era, customers are moving towards more contemporary platforms and expecting omnichannel experiences. Both in urban and remote geographies. Creating delight is going beyond meeting basic needs and instead driving meaningful conversations across the entire journey! Convenient, conversational and collaborative are the key elements to consider in terms of communication and the communication channels both.
Going beyond for customer satisfaction and CX means also bettering your agent experience – the very people responsible for engaging with your customers in a productive and positive manner. Deploying timely help and assistance requires the right foundation at the backend.
A. Drive Customer Delight & Improve Business, with Ozonetel’s integrated platforms:
Encourage delight in customers by:
- Having valuable conversations.
- Providing excellent service through faster resolutions and personalizations.
- Enhancing self-service options.
Created by helping agents via:
- Service automation.
- Simplified ticketing.
- Unified customer profiles.
- AI.
- Co-browsing capabilities.
A. Potential Use Case:
- Powerful & intuitive self service portal
- Guided support & auto suggested support for customers
- AI backed service bots
Value Drivers:
- Optimized channel mix to reduce cost per interaction
- Improve call avoidance with self service
B. Potential Use Case:
- Powerful customer context & connect across every interaction
- Conversational inbox
Value Drivers:
- Ensuring agents have the right knowledge and information across every channel
- Simplifying and unifying agent response across every channel
Why Ozonetel
As Suhana rightly pointed out “You need to have the right partner who can actually help you with the journey.” Success comes from the right support, at the right time, in the right manner.
Learn more about our client success stories: link
Ozonetel’s robust AI powered platform is built on an open API architecture that integrates with almost any other business tool, providing a truly omnichannel experience and improving CX.
Personalize and analyze these interactions at scale.
Automate touchpoints.
Access deep analytics.
Changes to backend systems do not break or affect front-end applications.
Ensure speed and flexibility to meet customers’ expectations.
Ensure consistency, security, and scalability.
Enable smart, personalized experiences, that evolve with Customer preferences, leading to increased customer conversions.
Conclusion
Customers are always ready to engage with a business that is willing to engage with them in relevant and productive ways! No matter the kind of business and vertical, creating value and delight for your customers today and in the days to come, all come down to one major action – ‘Identifying moments that matter’.
In order to create value driven experiences, it is imperative for enterprises to first look for existing issues within the journeys and identify the moments that cause a negative reaction or emotion. Only then can one deploy the right methods and scale customer journeys as per unique needs. Starting well is half the battle won.
And we are there to assist you with the rest…
Are you ready to put your best face forward to face customers and the future?
Gain insight from some amazing customer success stories and learn more about future proofing your CX processes and building better brand interactions: link
For more details on how Ozonetel can help, contact us on:
