It’s happened to all of us. We make an online purchase and, instead of an automatic confirmation, we receive a notice that our order has been placed on hold. Suddenly, our confidence turns to confusion as we wonder why our order didn’t go through.
What happens next is critical. Are we treated like a customer or a criminal? It’s a thin line that companies need to walk carefully. Unfortunately, this is where many companies trip up. They make it difficult for otherwise good customers to re-place their order, and the experience goes from bad to worse as customers face complicated IVRs, long hold times, and a merry-go-round of well-meaning agents who keep asking the same questions.
Bad processes, not bad people, are the problem
It’s well documented that poor customer experiences like this lead to lower customer satisfaction, lower sales, and, ultimately, customer defection. Just think of your own experiences. Maybe you were using an expired credit card, entered the wrong billing address, or had an unpaid balance from a previous order. Mistakes happen. What shouldn’t happen is that customers are treated poorly because of poor communication. If you’ve ever experienced that—and most of us have at one time or another—you know how frustrating it can be.
The problem in most cases isn’t bad people but bad processes. For example, let’s say you’re a medium enterprise with a modest-sized call center. When an online order is flagged as problematic, customers may receive an automated text or email stating that the order is on hold pending resolution. Regrettably, the onus of fixing the problem is usually placed squarely on the customer’s shoulders. They need to reach out to your customer service team, which means: navigating your IVR system, speaking with an agent to triage the problem, being transferred to another agent who needs them to repeat everything they just told the previous agent, and waiting on hold while the new agent speaks with their manager or colleagues to resolve the issue. Just thinking about it is enough to make your blood boil.
A Gwen-win situation
Now, let’s imagine a different scenario using the Mitel CX solution. Your customer, who we’ll call Gwen, receives a text message that her order is on hold. Included in the text is a link she can click to initiate a call/text chat with a customer agent. She chooses text chat, and the Mitel CX solution quickly routes the message to the next available sales agent, Jim. Jim immediately gets a screen pop of Gwen’s account and sees that Finance has put a hold on the order. Jim also sees from his Ignite agent interface that his colleague in Finance, Mark, is available to handle the issue and transfers the message to him.
Mark also gets a screen pop of Gwen’s account through his Ignite client and sees that her order was placed on hold because of an outstanding account balance. Mark texts Gwen back, informs her of the problem, and offers to initiate a voice call to resolve the issue. Gwen accepts and the two are soon talking to resolve the issue. Gwen pays the outstanding balance, and the order hold is now lifted. Gwen gets a confirmation that her order is being shipped—all without requiring that Gwen do anything more than open a text message and click on a link.
As a bonus, Mark’s manager, Tessa, can see on her Ignite dashboard that Mark has successfully helped Gwen resolve her issue and sets up a quick video call using MiCollab to congratulate him on a job well done. The entire customer journey, from the initial text to the final resolution, is captured in the Mitel CX solution for auditing and analysis.
Unifying communications with your call center
So, you’re probably wondering how the Mitel CX solution ties all these touchpoints together? The answer is unity. The Mitel CX solution combines unified communications (UC) with contact center functionality into a single, seamless solution. This means that employees don’t have to step outside of their day-to-day UC environment to interact with agents and customers. Customer data is readily available at the click of a button, intelligent call routing makes the right connections, and real-time visibility into presence status ensures that the “ball” moves swiftly and never gets dropped.
More importantly, the Mitel CX solution makes your customers feel like they’re number one by respecting their time, solving their problems, and demonstrating that you know and value them. We’ve all been Gwen at one time or another, yet nobody likes Gwen through the process of bad customer service.
But what happens when you, and not the customer, are at fault? Can the Mitel CX solution smooth over those experiences too? Check out Part 2 of the series.