Anticipating the customer’s needs is a fundamental strategy for the Customer Service’s activities, and a real opportunity for the company to set long-lasting and confident relationships with satisfied customers.
“81% of the customers expects to receive the same service’s quality when it’s in contact with the company through different channels, from the purchase until the Customer Service”, writes Vala Afshar in his research “State of the Connected Customer”.
Right now, in this digital background that surrounds us, there’s no time and space for waiting an answer to receive a service, which sometimes needs to be solicited by the customers.
Also Donald Porter, the British Airways Vice President, underlines that “the customers don’t expect the perfection. They just want that you solve the problems when occurred”.
In this phrase we can notice that the “time” factor has a fundamental importance and that the solution to the problem reported by the client should be found as soon as possible.
The relationship with the customer is put to the test everytime he has to hold the line or has to repeat the same information several times, since those factors influence his patience, the satisfaction and expectations.
How can we change this situation? Through the proactiveness.
Customers expects that the companies operate in a proactive manner to resolve some issues before those become a real problem. For example some communications that anticipate the needs (such as a date’s reminder, a notice for a collection or order, some updates about a purchase or a promotion), are considered by the customers useful and positive.
Companies, to anticipate the customer’s necessities, have to rely to data that can become the bedrock to build a precious and important experience, obviously only if well analyzed.
Acting in a proactive manner avoids the unsatisfied customer’s costs, who will raise his voice generating a negative feedback, also in the web platforms. We should remind that “91% of unsatisfied customers decide to change the supplier and won’t come back anymore!” – 1st Financial Training Services.
To anticipate the customer’s needs it’s important to know him, here some tips:
- examine the customer’s progress and history:
- keep track about all the contacts and interactions held with him;
- understand how the customer prefers to be contacted (phone, e-mail, self-service);
- record the preferences pointed out during the service;
- constantly monitor the results.
Those information can be collected through a deep data analysis, that can be the basis to design a real and detailed customer journey.
The first step to approach a proactive contact strategy that anticipates the customer’s needs is the integration of the corporate systems, namely an internal CRM and a contact’s infrastructure.
Furthermore, is strategic to consider the emerging technologies based on an artificial and predictive intelligence. Thanks to them the Costumer Service team is in position not only to satisfy the client’s needs before they are expressed but also to customize the times that the customer has chosen to contact the company.
In this context filled by expectations, intelligent technology and different channels, the chatbots are the right tool for direct contact, often used for easy problems to solve and useful for demanding customers.
Those tools, for example the PAT ones, Engagent, are the happy medium for the management of the first contact, the customer service and contents and purchase employment. In a proactive way this service can recognize the user/client analyzing how he got into the site and introducing a new service looking the past online access.
The integration with the customer’s management system InfiniteCRM, guarantees that each information is stored in the client’s profile.
This customer-oriented strategy allows to truly know the contacts and to exploit predictive plans of action, helping them to solve the problems! Giving relevant experiences on different channels, increases the satisfaction and the loyalty.