3 Ways Successful Businesses are Boosting Customer and Employee Loyalty
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“The whole is greater than the sum of its parts.” Aristotle’s philosophy of mathematics is all around us today. It can even be applied to customer and employee experience.
As our world becomes more digitized and daily interactions span multiple channels, customers and employees expect seamless interactions and communications. Whether customers need to chat online after hours with a live service representative or employees need to communicate quickly with a colleague to answer a customer’s questions, a virtual component is a given in almost every interaction.
Additionally, customer and employee outlooks on what makes an optimized experience evolve alongside the business environment. Both groups need tools to easily toggle back and forth between the online world and the real one. Businesses are becoming aware of better support for employees and customers in a primarily digital world.
But how do you know you’re creating the best possible digital experiences and will be able to adapt as expectations change?
There are three parts to creating a balanced equation of customer experience (CX) and employee experience (EX): Context, Collaboration, and Control. Businesses that deliver on all three are a testament to Aristotle’s philosophy and create an optimized digital-first experience that delivers exponential value across the organization.
Personalization is a prime factor for success. Both customers and employees want their individual preferences taken into account. As work and life continue to overlap, people everywhere want to shop, work, obtain services, and generally transact comfortably and conveniently for their lifestyle. Personal considerations like brand values and ease of interaction have become just as (if not more) important than price and quality.
To meet these demands, companies must invest in unified communications to empower employees to do their jobs well and deliver curated products and personalized customer service.
For customers, the right technology will enable easy transitions from an online chat to a voice call to a video conference. For employees – such as those at a multi-channel contact center – it will ensure they can connect with colleagues via VoIP conference calls and access relevant data on-screen, all while assisting customers in a personalized and frictionless manner. When you eliminate clumsy application switching, all users can interact via their mode of choice. Personalized = Empowered.
The same tools used to create context also facilitate collaboration. When employees have access to tools that simplify collaboration, customers are more satisfied (and so are employees). Half of the employees surveyed in research conducted by S&P Global Market Intelligence expect the amount of time spent collaborating across different business divisions will increase over the next two years. Additionally, a recent Mitel survey found that 84 percent of organizations across the globe say that modern communications solutions are vital for business success.
With many employers now utilizing a hybrid work model, ensuring everyone has access to each other, the necessary information, and the right workflow tools is even more critical. Unified communications and collaboration technology help businesses solve the “How.” Employees can easily and quickly communicate with each other via voice, video, and instant messaging. Shared workspaces make it easy to work together on projects, track progress, and share files and ideas. No matter where employees work, the right communications tools ensure teamwork always remains a part of the equation. Integration > Separation.
Customers and employees expect a sense of control and choice at all times. Employees want control over how they work as well as flexible work arrangements. Customers demand the ability to engage at any time, instantaneously. To compete, your organization has to differentiate the experience you offer by catering to employees’ and customers’ sensibilities.
Both groups measure absolute value by their ability to get what they want, the way they want when they want it. Fortunately, modern technology can help you maximize that experiential differentiator. A robust communications solution gives your employees options. They can choose to communicate in the best way for them – voice, video, messaging – while also benefitting from powerful collaboration tools and mobility. The ability to do everything on any device, from anywhere, enables your employees to better cater to your customers.
Whether it’s chat, SMS text, email, voice, or even social media, customers want to be able to choose the method most convenient for them at the time. They also want to move from one form of communication to another without repeating the information they’ve already shared. Your technology needs to support a consistent omnichannel experience, so you provide the choice and control of your customers’ demand.
A broad spectrum of self-directed and easily navigated options is a winning formula. Speed x Options = Autonomy.
As you evaluate the three Cs about the CX and EX, keep an eye out for our upcoming blog on the qualities needed to make them happen: the three As of Agility, Autonomy, and Alignment. You can also learn more about the employee experience by visiting our Employee Experience Hub.
Categories: Customer Experience