Seven Tips to Make Your Contact Centre Stand Out from the Crowd

Customer service is fast becoming a key brand differentiator. With this in mind, here are seven tips to boost contact centre performance.

It’s that Mary Poppins moment – practically perfect in every way. Think about when you last recommended a company to a friend or family member.

What was it about the experience you had with them that made them stand out from everyone else? An experience that left you wanting to shout about it.

This is a question we asked our social connections recently. We had some great responses which we’ll discuss within this post. But, to be honest, we were disappointed by the responses we didn’t get.

As consumers, do we take great service for granted? Or, is it just that we don’t often experience great customer service that we want to talk about?

We turned to Walt Disney for some inspiration:

“Whatever you do, do it well. Do it so well that when people see you do it, they will want to come back and see you do it again, and they will want to bring others and show them how well you do what you do.”

It got us thinking, how do you deliver a first-class stand out customer experience?

Take the little boy (Luka) that wrote to Lego after he lost a Ninja mini-figure. The short version is the Lego customer services rep went above and beyond to deliver a stand out customer experience.

It’s relevant because Lego understands its customer. It wasn’t the parent that bought the figurine, it was the boy.

How they responded to Luka and the experience they gave him was key. Hopefully resulting in one very happy lifelong customer who will pass their good experience to the next generation!

So, how do you deliver customer service that stands out from the crowd? A good place to start is the heart of your customer services, your contact centre.

Here are seven strategies that might just help…

1. Delight Customers, Deliver Customer Service That Turns Heads

Invest the time to really understand your customer and identify the channels that they are likely to use.

What expectations do they have? Map these to the channels that you offer and work hard to meet or set expectations.

Use technology to seamlessly handle these channels so that, no matter if Luka emailed, tweeted, chatted or called in, the interaction is delivered to the right place, at the right time.

2. Know Your Customer Inside Out, They’ll Love You for it

Start by understanding the nature of the interaction, and whether there’s any previous history.

Have all the relevant information to hand using a unified agent desktop to allow the interaction to be handled as efficiently as possible. Your agents will thank you for it.

3. Engage your Agents, They Represent Your Brand

Check each channel represents your brand strategy for consistency and ensure agents understand your brand position and tone of voice so they can handle enquiries consistently. And, help them out along the way.

There’s technology around that offers agent guidance about how to respond to enquiries, like that from Luka.
Help them get the language and tone right whether it’s over the phone, via email or in a tweet.

4. Be Social, Address any Customer Pain Points Upfront

We’d like to think it won’t happen, but you’re likely to get it wrong from time to time. Perhaps you didn’t quite meet your customer’s requirements or expectations.

Whether it’s your fault or that of the customer (well they are always right!), acknowledge and empathise from the start of the call.

Provide agents with the relevant information available to understand there is an issue and the guidance to handle the call effectively. And, if you are listening socially (who isn’t?) and you get it wrong, acknowledge it and take it offline.

5. Join the Dots in Your Service, Integrate Systems Across Your Business

This can be an area that really damages the customer experience.

Do you make it easier for agents to find customer information whilst they are doing their day job? Do your systems talk to each other?

Making customer experience important across your entire organisation can be a big win area. Remember, the contact centre is just one area of your business.

Customer experience management can really make a difference across your organisation.

6. Be a Step Ahead of Your Customer, Make it Personal

Update the customer at every touchpoint, even if something isn’t going to plan it will give the feeling they are in control.

If your contact volumes are high, set expectations and manage the priority and flow of interactions in to the contact centre.

You could also offer customers the opportunity to be called back at a time that suits them.

7. Survey Your Customers to Ensure You Hit the Spot Every Time

Gathering feedback helps you identify areas for improvement in customer experience.

For better results, consider using personalisation in your surveys and take the time for social listening to hear what your customers are saying about you.

Don’t like what you hear? Do something about it.