How to Deliver Proactive Customer Service

Jeremy Payne looks at how you can deliver proactive customer service and improve your company’s reputation.

Most business models are set up and based on the principle of the straight-though process. An online retailer, for example, might expect around 80% of its business dealings to go through without a hitch. Customers place orders without a problem, the product is shipped, everyone is happy.

It’s that other 20% of transactions where there is some kind of problem that can start to hit the company hard, both in terms of reputation and financially.

It’s all based on the principle of not wasting your time (and theirs)

This is where proactive customer engagement can help in increasing the percentage of trouble-free straight-through transactions that the company conducts.

Courier companies are masters at doing this. They are constantly proactively engaging with their customers and giving them choices, information and, most importantly, options. Do you want to reschedule? Do you want your neighbour to look after the package? Do you want it left in the porch?

It’s all based on the principle of not wasting your time (and theirs) if the driver turns up on the doorstep not knowing what to do when you are not there. It’s all about keeping customers informed and engaged.

Being proactive can also help reduce agent downtime

Proactive customer service can also have a positive operational impact on your customer strategy.

Effectively managing the balance between understaffing and overstaffing can also reduce agent downtime and improve efficiency.

Here are some top tips to help you deliver proactive customer service:

1. Focus on keeping the customer informed at all times

If you are dealing with a request that may take several weeks or even months to resolve, it is only natural that your customer will repeatedly chase you for updates on progress.

Pre-empting this by using SMS text, email and automated voice messages will head off these chasing contacts, reducing unnecessary incoming traffic, saving money and improving customer satisfaction.

2. Offer proactive engagement to complement self-service

By monitoring activity on your website, for example in a FAQ area, customers can be proactively offered further assistance through webchat.

Keeping the customer interacting through the web will avoid them picking up the phone.

Customers wavering over a potential purchase can be offered a chat or call-back to assist with that final purchasing decision – improving closure rates.

3. Use speech analytics to maintain a professional approach

Make sure you use the latest voice recording and speech analytics technology to proactively track interactions between customer service agents and customers and step in where necessary to ensure a professional approach is maintained at all times.

Also, use insights gained from the monitoring process to provide feedback to agents and for training purposes.

While many businesses still persist in being reactive rather than proactive, we are beginning to see a shift in the market. Increasingly, organisations are stepping up to the mark and making sure their customer service operations are fit for purpose.

Once you’ve made the decision to invest the time and effort, the rewards become so much clearer and you can start to appreciate that the perceived pain of making the change today is far outweighed by the real gain of tomorrow.

Maybe now is the time to ask yourself… Have you been proactive today?

With thanks to Jeremy Payne at Enghouse Interactive