Companies need to collate and analyse the huge amounts of customer data they store, creating a central repository that can build profiles of customers. Using insights into their location, previous purchases, personal data and other information, customer management systems can react as soon as a customer contacts the business. A bank customer rings an automated number and is prompted to enter an account number. Triggered by the unique number, the technology 'knows' what services the caller already has, what issues they may have inquired about in the past, and then builds a profile of the customer and offers choices or remedies to suit their individual needs. Behind all this waits an agent, monitoring several calls. Should a customer become irate or frustrated, the agent can intercede and provide a valuable human contact, knowing exactly what the customer is trying to achieve.
Using analytics can be the difference between a positive and a negative experience for the customer. Yet businesses often don't make the best use of these insights. Companies seem happy to rely on canned, scripted responses, poorly trained agents and clunky systems to deliver customer services. It's therefore no surprise that so many people have horror stories. While 30 years ago, word may never have leaked out about a poor customer service incident, now it can be found as easily as searching on Google.
What companies need to remember is that maintaining, or perhaps even acquiring, an outsourced customer service infrastructure could be the difference between (maintaining a cadre of loyal customers during the downturn and being first off the line when the race restarts), and (being left behind). Outsourcing like this is not an indulgence; it is a crucial part of business