Over the last couple of years, technological innovation has brought about a rapid change in the customer service landscape. This has forced many businesses to reassess the way they build engagement and offer solutions, because adapting to technological change means adapting to customers’ evolving needs.
Managing Technological Change
What exactly should businesses be exploring and executing to optimise their customer service strategy? While customers may appreciate the level of service they currently receive, they are bound to expect and demand a more sophisticated experience from the companies they engage with. The modern, tech savvy customer wants faster response times to issues. They want a seamless brand experience across channels. And, above all, they want highly competent agents ready to attend to their needs.
Integrate more technologically advanced systems
Unfortunately, not many customer service representatives are able to provide the best value for customers as they still rely on archaic systems, dated user interfaces, and software solutions that no longer play nicely together. In order for businesses to keep up with the digital revolution, they need to adopt new technology. However, when rolling out new solutions they must also ensure that the customer service agents can adapt to the integration.
According to the article, Digital Disruption: More About The Disruptive Than The Digital, more than half of all contact centre interactions are now through digital channels.The article also states that those who are willing to embrace the digital shift will lead the way into the future. However, businesses that introduce new technology to their customer service department, without properly preparing their organisation for the technological shift, can end up making a bad investment. To combat this, they first need to make sure they have a clear and effective introduction strategy in place, and then appoint a capable tech leader to drive the process.
Take the plunge and be one of those businesses with a contact centre that takes advantage of innovations in cloud, mobile, social, and artificial intelligence technology to offer personalised, valuable and instant solutions. This will put your business into a position to make your customer service centre as agile and responsive as can be.
IT professionals are key decision makers within a company
One thing that proves that the role of technology in business is expanding is how the position of IT professionals has been elevated significantly. No longer are they confined to the technical aspects of the job; they are now advising management on what technology to invest in, and providing training to the rest of the company while maintaining knowledge of current trends and developments in the technology landscape.
The role of technology experts has also become more customer centric in recent years. Not only are they required to have an in-depth knowledge of engineering, information systems, and information technology, but also understand the company’s target audience and how to leverage the right technology to deliver customer excellence. Make use of your IT employees; spend some time talking to them to found out what new innovations are out there, how they might help you optimise your current systems or whether you could benefit from replacing certain technologies entirely. If your current IT professionals aren’t able to give you this information, consider investing in additional training or work out some time for them to spend on researching new innovations.
There are true benefits to adapting to the digital revolution, but be aware that the enhancement of the customer service department using technology can only bring rewards when new processes and systems are implemented in the right way. That’s why it is crucial to support new tech rollout with skilled professionals that understand business objectives and customer expectations, whether inhouse or through bpo solutions outsourcing.
About the Author
Rohan Magerman is a content specialist. He has experience writing for clients in a range of industries, including real estate, insurance and customer service.
