Case Study Swoon Editions
Understand the Importance of Contact Centres
Improve Your Contact Centre Offering
The last few years have shown that customer service is still important to customers. Many businesses have lost most of their customer base due to poor customer service, support or communication during more testing times.
To help your business understand how to retain its customer base and improve its customer services, in-house or via an outsourced contact centre, we have compiled a series of fact sheets highlighting the areas customers find necessary. These fact sheets help explain why businesses must continue prioritising customer service and what communication tools will be the most effective.
Contents Overview:
The Value of Caring Improving Customer Service Effective Communication
Have customers changed post-Covid?
Since 2020, there have been fewer opportunities for face-to-face interactions with businesses and increased communications with contact centre agents. At the pandemic's start, businesses had to react drastically to the crisis, and customers showed leniency toward substandard services. The pandemic quickly became part of our everyday lives, so it was no longer a valid excuse for poor customer service.
Empathetic service valued by customers
It’s no surprise that customers want:
- Quick resolutions
- Access to customer service at their convenience
- Offered preferred channels of communication
- Proactive support
But Zendesk's report reveals that customers also value more helpful and empathetic agents;
“Customers still value speed, but increasingly
want empathy and access to preferred channels”
Being helpful and understanding has always been key to providing good customer service, but it holds more value in a post-pandemic era. With more customers likely to go online or pick up the phone to engage with businesses, more interactions occur with contact centre agents, so having a caring and humane workforce holds more importance.
What do customers want from a Contact Centre?
To read about the importance of being socially responsible and how to involve staff when creating company policies, download the Value of Caring fact sheet:
Download the 'Value of Caring' Fact Sheet
Prioritising customer service
The contact centre industry has faced unpredictable challenges during the pandemic. While many organisations coped by reacting quickly and efficiently, others struggled. With customer expectations and knowledge on the rise, those wanting to survive must provide a high standard of customer service.
Retention and loyalty
According to the Customer Experience Trends Report 2021, companies must prioritise their service or risk losing customers.
Retaining customers through excellent service
Customers are willing to pay more
Customers want and demand higher levels of customer service as it offers them reassurance and trust in the company they are dealing with. The Institute of Customer Service found that customers were even willing to pay more for excellent service:
For detailed information on customer satisfaction via sector, areas to improve on and recommendations for organisations, download the Improving Customer Service fact sheet:
Download the 'Improving Customer Service' Fact Sheet
Customer communication channels
The COVID lockdowns and social distancing rules resulted in fewer face-to-face interactions. Customers still need to reach organisations, so they seek different channels.
The Institute of Customer Service (ICS) found face-to-face interactions fell from 42.8% to 36.2% between 2020 and 2021. To make contact, customers use alternative methods such as websites, contact centres, email, apps, web chat, text messaging, and social media.
The range of channels the organisation offered was tested, as was their response to customers. With fewer face-to-face experiences, the strain on the other channels showed as customer satisfaction fell for email, app, and web chat experiences.
Customer satisfaction by channel
Download the fact sheet to learn more about the tools used and thought to be effective by contact centres, and how automated chats were preferred for more simple tasks.
Download the 'Effective Communication' Fact Sheet
Contact Centres You Can Count On
Why choose Whistl for your outsourced order fulfilment services?
Whistl is the UK’s leading provider of personalised contact centre solutions. With over 20 years of experience and a support team of over 350 agents, we tailor our support to your needs to provide exceptional customer experience.
How Whistl can help your business
At Whistl, we can provide tailored customer service solutions for your business needs. Whether you require a dedicated team for all enquiries, your office has reached capacity, or you need help managing peak periods, our inbound customer service management could solve all these challenges.
When outsourcing your contact centre services to Whistl, you receive the very best support and customer service as we work to be an extension of your business. We mirror your brand guidelines and ethics to ensure that our connections with your customers are aligned with the relationships you want to create directly. By outsourcing some or all of your contact centre solutions to Whistl, your business will access a wealth of customer service experience and improved technologies. Working across several different business and industry sectors, we can manage all your customer interactions across relevant channels while providing your business with a seamless experience for every customer.
Gain more understanding of your customers’ interactions with relevant insights from our tailored reporting solutions. Whether you need to understand more about the patterns of contact, the reasons for contacts or how to improve trust or financial returns, Whistl is on hand to support your business with insight for guidance and improvements for your customers' experience.
