Until the mid-1990s, the phone channel accounted for most business-to-customer communications, complementing in-person, fax, and postal communications. Then, the advent of the Internet and the World Wide Web and the subsequent adoption of broadband communications led to an explosion of business-to-customer communications through electronic channels such as email, chat, web collaboration, social media, and web self- service.
Driven by the dot-com boom and generational changes in channel preferences, businesses started focusing on e-channels for customer service, building channel silos in the process. With phone customer service being labor-intensive and phone infrastructure being inflexible and expensive, businesses optimized e-channels and let phone service deteriorate. According to a Forrester study of business and IT executives, 57% of survey respondents thought that their company’s phone customer service was average, below average, or poor.
Even as e-channel communications surpassed phone communications in volume many years ago 1 , the phone continues to remain popular both as a preferred single channel for some customers and transaction types, and as an important part of the omnichannel mix for many others. In fact, Forrester surveys on channel usage show that 73% of respondents continue to use the phone to get assistance. Today, innovations across technology, process, and people, such as VoIP, customer engagement hubs, multidimensional knowledge management, and multishore sourcing models have reconfigured the economics and flexibility of phone customer engagement. As most companies struggle to find ways to provide superior customer service experiences, a savvy few are already grabbing the “low-hanging fruit” that has been there for the taking—the clunky old phone channel! By innovating in the phone
arena, while integrating with other channels, these companies are enhancing brand loyalty, extending their competitive advantage, and reaping operational benefits.
This paper discusses seven such innovations—some incremental and some rule-changing—that you can leverage to get your phone customer service to new levels, boost customer loyalty, and drive business growth. Focused on agent-assisted phone service, the paper does not cover IVR innovations and best practices.
Resource Sponsored By
Please fill out the form to access the content
