Four Strategies for Using Customer Experience Automation to Improve Customer Satisfaction

Customer satisfaction is a key driver of success for any call centre. Keeping your customers happy means that they are more likely to recommend your business. This means repeat customers, favourable reviews, and ultimately, a better bottom line.

But how do you improve customer satisfaction? One way is through automation. You can use software to streamline processes and reduce customer wait times. These systems can also quickly give customers access to information.

Automation can empower your business to provide better customer service and improve efficiency and cost savings. It makes it easier to track customer engagement, interactions, and preferences. This lets you offer personalised experiences, which customers appreciate. 92% of businesses associate increased customer loyalty with improved customer service. 84% see an increase in revenue, and 79% report cost savings.

Customer Experience Automation (CEA or CXA) is a technology-driven approach to customer support. With CEA, you can perfect the process of providing customers with personalised communications. But it's not limited to phone support. CEA is also used for building marketing automation and customising customer experiences.

There are many benefits to setting up CEA. First, it reduces costs associated with manual labour by automating tasks. Second, CEA improves overall efficiency by reducing wait times.

Finally, it also provides customers with a more personalised experience. Using predictive analytics, CEA systems can rapidly anticipate their needs. These systems can enable your company to respond quickly and effectively when issues arise.

Phone support is vital for improving customer experience. A system like IVR (Interactive Voice Response) makes it easier for your customers’ calls to come through quickly. This is critical as 90% of consumers say that quick resolution of their questions is at the top of their list when it comes to requirements.

Your software choice matters, too. Software that integrates with your CRM and your call screens creates a seamless flow of information. This makes it easier for agents to answer customer questions and resolve issues swiftly. This results in shorter call handling time because agents don' have to waste time switching between tabs, pages or apps.

Setting up AI-powered chatbots can save you and your team time by providing automated responses to customer feedback. They also offer a method of 24/7 support, since they can keep answering inquiries and customer communications in real-time, even outside of business hours when your agents have clocked out.

Machine learning (ML) algorithms can analyse customer data to predict their needs, target certain demographics, and provide information for new product development. For example, an algorithm can analyse customer data such as past purchase history, demographics, and previous interactions. It can then route the customer to an agent with the most appropriate expertise. A customer who frequently purchases electronics can be routed immediately to an electronics sales specialist, ensuring a faster resolution.

Fast resolutions = happy customers

Automation software can be set to manage routine tasks such as order processing and invoicing. This can help save your team time and ensure accuracy. Updating your communication tools to ensure that your channels are covered by specialist software is key. Although omnichannel communications platforms might sound appealing, it's really important to ensure that your software isn't just a jack of all trades, but master of none.

It is also vital to stay on top of technological advancements like call analytics and reporting software. This technology can track important call metrics such as duration, wait times, and first-call resolution rates. These insights allow call centre managers to identify bottlenecks and pain points in the customer journey as well as spotting top agents and those that might need extra support and training. This gives you the ability to make data-driven decisions that proactively address customer concerns.

65% of your customers expect at least part of their customer journey to be automated. The difficult part is finding the best part of that journey to automate. This requires taking a close look at customer journey touchpoints. How are your customers interacting with your business through phone calls? Use your customer feedback to find problem areas.

Once you find the areas where automation can provide immediate value to the customer experience, consider what tasks are repetitive or could be automated by technology to direct customers to the solution. For example, if you have an issue with wait times, you could choose an asynchronous option like Front did. This could be scheduling callbacks or using IVR to get data about customer queries and calling them back later.

Keep the phone call element of the customer lifecycle in mind when identifying opportunities for automation. Analyse customer interactions and their needs through phone calls to identify which processes could be automated. It’s also important to evaluate which tasks take up the most call time so that these can be sped up. FAQs could easily be answered by AI or a ChatGPT plugin, for instance.

When implementing any sort of new automation, there are best practices for getting this done, let's take a closer look.

This might go without saying, but ensure customer satisfaction by choosing the right software for your business. Identify the exact goal of your automation, then find the tool that best fits your needs. Not all automation platforms do the same tasks, so don’t pick an option that can't deliver on what you need. You may need a platform that offers analytics, integrates your calls and CRM, or turns your call transcriptions into something useful– all of which Cordless does seamlessly.

Once you have selected the right tools for your business, integrate them with your existing tools. Done right, this will ensure a smooth transition for customers and employees alike. Look for features like customisable IVRs, automated call routing, and integrations with top CRMs.

User accessibility is a key element of an easy transition to automation. Think about how your customers interact with automated services. What barriers to communication exist? Can everybody easily understand your automated communication? If customers struggle to understand what is being asked of them, they can’t provide the necessary information.

In addition to highly digestible scripts, you need your employees on board. Take time to train them on how the new automation system works. This will ensure that they can effectively assist customers.

Automation requires ongoing monitoring to ensure peak performance. Don’t fall into the trap of thinking that automation automatically equals improvement! Be ready to reassess the pain points you automated in the first place. How have your key metrics, like response times, customer satisfaction scores, and resolution rates, changed?

By connecting components within existing systems together through APIs or other integration methods, businesses can create workflows that automate repetitive tasks while still allowing manual interventions when necessary.

To recap:

• Customer Experience Automation is an approach to perfecting the customer service experience through automated tools and software.

• Two of the most powerful automation tools alongside phone support are chatbots and predictive analytics.

• If you’re not already looking for ways to automate your processes, you risk getting left behind by the competition. Your customers won’t wait forever.

• When setting up CEA take your time choose the right tech for your business. Consider integrations and creating accessible, intuitive flows for your customers to ensure a smooth experience.

• Monitor your data. Analytics can provide powerful insights for continuous improvement for both product and support.

If you're ready to begin on your automation journey, Cordless can help. Our platform allows you to begin implementing automation strategies, improve customer satisfaction, and ultimately grow your business.

Get in touch today for free consultation.