Successfully engaging customers requires more than a simple back and forth conversation between a customer and a contact center representative. To be remembered and make a positive impact on customers, contact centers need to think outside the box and come up with creative techniques that will help establish lasting relationships with customers.
The following four ideas are unique approaches to customer engagement that will help make a lasting, positive impression.
1. Collaborate with customers. Customers appreciate the opportunity to provide feedback and most customers do not have a problem sharing their opinion about their experience with a contact center. Contact center management should make it as simple as possible for customers to provide feedback and offer suggestions for company improvement. One of the easiest and most accessible methods for customers to collaborate is social media. Contact center management can post on their company profile and ask for ideas. After customers have submitted ideas, a contact center team should acknowledge the idea, thank the customer, and outline any plans they have for implementing the suggestion.
2. Gamification. One of the best ways to increase customer engagement is to improve agent engagement. It is up to the contact center agent to offer the highest level of customer service, so a happy, motivated agent leads to greater customer engagement. One of the best ways to better agent engagement is to gamify the contact center. By implementing friendly competitions between agents and teams, agents become more motivated to excel and often improve their productivity and ability to quickly assist customers. Gamification is especially effective when contact center management offers an incentive that rewards agents with the highest level of customer satisfaction.
3. Ask customers how they would like to be contacted. Each customer has a preferred method of communication, and knowing that preferred method helps a contact center team offer superior customer service. Knowing if a customer prefers phone calls, texts, emails, or chats allows agents to conduct all future interactions through the customer’s favorite channel. Omni-channel contact centers should create, or use software to generate and send brief forms to their customers asking which method they prefer, and at the end of interactions ask the customer if the method just used is the method they prefer.
4. Let customers know when information is updated. If there is a change in a customer’s information that needs to be entered into the contact center system, the customer should be notified when the information is updated. Contact center teams can use software to automate emails that inform customers of updates.
By implementing these four ideas, contact centers can demonstrate their commitment to customer satisfaction and increase customer engagement to increase conversions.
