Inside the Customer Experience

 

This statistic should not be surprising – virtually all customers expect to communicate with a business through any channel they offer, whether it’s phone, email, social media, or online chat, and get consistent information.

 

While this may not seem like an issue that companies would face, a new study indicates that it might be. A study conducted by Synthetix revealed that there is still work to do.

 

According to the study, which you can download from their site, there are some key takeaways with regard to the multichannel experience:

 

 

That 65% statistic is a bit high, but not terribly surprising. While companies have started incorporating multiple channels of communication, the message consistency remains a challenge.

How can companies improve multichannel communication? There are some easy ways companies can work through this:

1. Consistent training: make sure training guidelines are consistent for all employees, no matter what portion of the customer experience they are responsible for. Conduct regularly scheduled testing of procedures, guidelines, and role playing scenarios to evaluate performance and message consistency.

2. Cross train staff: allowing staff to learn different roles, especially ones in which customer communication is required, can be effective. Not only does it allow for cross training and seamless communication and messaging across channels, it also allows employees to learn more about the business. The deeper integrated they are with their work,the more successful they will be.

3. Communicate with & monitor franchise locations: this is a unique challenge where franchises are concerned – franchise locations are independently owned and operated, though still need to mirror the corporate branding, which includes customer communication. Ensuring that your franchise operations have all of the tools needed to communicate the corporate messaging and resolve customers issues consistently is key. Monitor franchise locations to ensure that their messaging coincides with corporate’s communication structure.

4. Do your research: customer feedback is vital; after all, they are the ones that receiving the messaging. Asking for their feedback after communicating with your company can provide valuable insight. Did they feel their needs were met? Did any part of the communication process seem confusing or unclear? During the resolution process, did they receive any conflicting information? If so,what was it? Looking at trends and feedback data can provide insight into customer perception, and, if there is inconsistency, it will help you to drill down to find out where the breakdown occurs so you can rectify it.

Multichannel communication is difficult to keep up with. These days we have information coming at us from all different directions, and companies are no different. Managing the communication messaging and consistency can be challenging, but is extremely valuable to your customer relations.

 

Companies who engage in social media sometimes struggle for content – of course you don’t want to continually self-promote, but what else can you do?

 

One trend I’ve seen a couple of companies use not only provides information to customers who are engaged in a company’s social media program, but can also help with customer service.  Simply put, it appears as though companies will take a look at call center data, specifically what type of questions are coming in during a particular day or week, and provide that information on their social media sites.

 

One company Tweeted: “We’ve noticed a high call volume this week related to questions about our new mobile app. Here is some information on the app and how to use it.”

 

I thought it was great that they used the data to make the most of their social media content. This is a good tip to consider when creating social media content – evaluate your consumer touchpoints, specifically the questions and concerns posted online, via customer feedback channels, and call center/chat conversations, to see what topics are trending. From there, create content around these topics. It’s likely that if there are many similar calls or questions surrounding a specific topic or product/service, others who are not calling/inquiring may need the same information.

 

This also shows social media users that the company is in tune with what their customers need and that they are truly listening.

 

This is a win-win situation in that you have content to work with and you demonstrate excellent customer service to the public.