The coronavirus has changed the landscape of the world today and its long-term effects on individuals as well as societies at large appear hazy at best. The pandemic and the government efforts to contain it have already had a fundamental impact on the economy and on individual businesses of all sizes and across every industry.<\/p>\n
Many organisations are now scrambling to balance the need to protect their customers and employees with the imperative to continue providing much-needed services in a way few have been forced to before. In many industries, working remotely is simply not an option. In those sectors of the economy where it\u2019s possible, meanwhile, organisations are faced with the reality of their team members having to suddenly balance working from home with life under stay-at-home orders for their entire household.<\/p>\n
Understandably, this has put tremendous pressure on teams responsible for managing customer interactions \u2014 all at a time when those customers may need more assistance than ever before.<\/p>\n
But the most important element in taking care of customers during this crisis, as with any unforeseen event, is not inherently complex. In times like this, you want to be able to assure your customer, \u201cHey, we\u2019re here for you, you are taken care of.\u201d<\/p>\n
Many brands that we interact with on an everyday basis have done that for all of us already. They\u2019re taking a proactive approach, communicating on a weekly or even daily basis. These brands are looking to continue to interact with their customers, offering them a level of comfort that\u2019s going to pay dividends in the long term.<\/p>\n
On the other side of the spectrum are organisations that are struggling with their staff working remotely, leaving customers looking for answers \u2014 often in already precarious circumstances \u2014 without a response. No matter what type of organisation you have, if you can\u2019t reach people when they have an issue, they\u2019re probably going to choose a competitor. As a brand, that\u2019s ultimately what you risk by not being there for your customers.<\/p>\n
In times like these, you can\u2019t sacrifice your day-to-day interactions with your customers in any sort of way.<\/p>\n
So how do you assure customers that you\u2019ll be there when they need you?<\/p>\n
The basic first step is to assess, realistically, how you can provide customer service in these circumstances. Then, you\u2019ll be able to determine the next step: What are the means?<\/p>\n
Organisations need to be realistic about their capabilities in a situation where their teams could be drastically reduced in their capacity to work. Managing customer expectations, however, is the ultimate goal.<\/p>\n
The solution will depend on the level of complexity you\u2019re prepared to initiate across your organisation in a trying time. Essentially, you need to be able to tell the customers, \u201cHey, we\u2019re not going to get back to you until this time, and our promise is to get back to you by then.\u201d<\/p>\n
There are tactical differentiators between various cases in what customer agents are able to do during these time, but there\u2019s also a simplified view of what an organisation must be able to achieve once it takes an honest appraisal of its current capacity.<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s an approach to one hypothetical case:<\/p>\n
\u201cHey, look. Let\u2019s make it really simple. We\u2019re only going to have 12 people out of the two dozen that we usually have answering customer interactions, and we\u2019re going to shift everybody to digital.\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n
The solution in this case is about facing reality.<\/p>\n
The subsequent steps have to do with focusing on key channels in order to support the customer load. By limiting the channels to those where you can deliver predictability, you\u2019ll be able to avoid a chaotic mess arising from trying in vain to serve customers across all of them.<\/p>\n
Particularly with so many people around the world working remotely, it\u2019s important to be able to leverage from the web. You can change your web page, or set up a special landing page that has a customer communication element, or at the least instructions on how they can get in touch with you. Web chat is key, as is ensuring there\u2019s agent staff from a web chat perspective.<\/p>\n
In this regard, organisations will need to have a clear assessment of their customer service staff. When deciding how to allocate team members, the first step is to understand the skill set of your agents across the whole pool. You don\u2019t want to throw someone into something they\u2019re not used to doing \u2014 because it will fail.<\/p>\n
Some people, after all, are not comfortable taking phone calls. Others, meanwhile, may not have the best grammar or spelling skills, or may have difficulty thinking of solutions on the fly without a heavy knowledge base of information they can pull from. For an organisation that decides to go mostly or all-digital, the solution presents itself: agents who are good at writing can typically handle any digital interaction, no matter what it is. Organisations that want to continue operating phone lines will need to be more selective.<\/p>\n
And regardless of the channels your organisation decides to focus on, it also helps to have a little assistance from smart technology.<\/p>\n
In the communications industry, the use of artificial intelligence and bots has been a topic of tremendous interest for years \u2014 and some firms are able to deploy such systems already. Organisations that have been able to bring forward artificial intelligence have an advantage during these time, as they\u2019re often able to meet the needs of the customer before the conversation has to go to an agent.<\/p>\n
Integrating artificial intelligence and bots allows for assisted self-service at the beginning of a customer interaction, which can reduce the load on the agents. During periods of uncertainty in particular, that could be key to ensuring enough agents are available to address more complex issues.<\/p>\n
You can solve a lot of your problems with the chatbot getting into your knowledge base, pulling all the relevant information and solving potential problems. Then, when the conversation gets to a level of live interaction, the bot will escalate the issue following the rules which you\u2019ve already structured based on a level of priority. And at that point, you\u2019ll be able to tell the customer, \u201cWe\u2019ll get back to you within these timeframes.\u201d<\/p>\n
If you have the automated systems and machine learning capabilities in place, you\u2019ve basically already built out your ability to triage and make customers feel like you\u2019re there for them \u2014 even though it\u2019s being automated. What\u2019s more, you can typically retool a chatbot in a more agile fashion than you can retool an entire customer contact center or organisation.<\/p>\n
AI and chatbots allow organisations to leverage their agents\u2019 talents while augmenting and streamlining the customer experience. What\u2019s more, these technologies make it possible for brands to tap the talent pool they already have, playing to their agents\u2019 strengths and filling in where needed.<\/p>\n
The coronavirus pandemic is devastating on many levels and its end may be nowhere in sight \u2014 but this too shall pass. However, this will not be the only disaster that an organisation may experience.<\/p>\n
There will be times when organisations have to get shut down because there\u2019s a water pressure problem, or the toilets don\u2019t work or any other issue where they have to send everyone home. So what do you do in that instance? What if it\u2019s more than a day? What if there\u2019s a bomb threat?<\/p>\n
There are all sorts of things in our environments today that are going to really make CIOs, COOs, CTOs, IT leaders and businesses in general rethink what we\u2019re all experiencing today. Hopefully, this experience will be a learning one and will help companies truly grasp how they\u2019re going to service their customers \u2014 because that\u2019s the lifeblood of their organisation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The coronavirus has changed the landscape of the world today and its long-term effects on individuals as well as societies at large appear hazy at best. The pandemic and the government efforts to contain it have already had a fundamental impact on the economy and on individual businesses of all sizes and across every industry. …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21,"featured_media":31117,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-31116","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business-best-practices"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n