KONTAKT +49 681 857 67 0
Regardless of whether a company is a B2B or B2C organisation, it’s customer base (along with its staff) is it’s most important business asset. Retaining existing customers and gaining new ones can only be achieved by delivering exemplary customer service through to use of, professional customer service software. Phone and email systems alone can no longer maintain a standard of service which customers expect today. Following, we introduce some approaches taken by different dedicated customer service software solutions and what companies should consider when selecting a particular vendor.
There are numerous different customer service software solutions. e.g. Customer Relationship Management Systems, virtual assistants and chatbots, as well as response management software. Also Automatic Call Distribution Systems (ACDs) to distribute phone calls are widely-available,. Descriptions of these are numerous, for exampleTrade magazine CRM Manager provides a good overview of CRM systems. The role of virtual assistants and chatbots in contact center digitization is clearly illustrated by corporate advisors Bearing Point. Generally, market leaders such as e.g. specialist magazine teletalk are a good starting point for a market overview. At the same time, new solutions are frequently briefly presented in trade magazines, such as Callcenter Profi.
There are special solutions for individual contact channels such as chat or social media, as well as multi-channel and omni-channel. Various operating and licensing models are offered, from classic on-premise installation to cloud-based SaaS solutions (Software as a Service). Whether corporate licenses, volume or user-based, there is virtually no limit to the potential configurations possible.
By deploying the “right” customer service software organisations can benefit from:
Given the multitude of solutions, there is a danger of investing in stand-alone solutions which are not adequately integrated with other enterprise systems (making it impossible to obtain a 360-degree view of the customer). Also, a complete customer contact history is a strong basis for delivering good customer service. No customer today wants to explain “for the fifth time” why they’re calling, or to repeat details of what product they have. Customers expect companies to store this information centrally and be able to access it in the event that a customer contacts them – regardless of whether they call a service employee by phone, send an email, or use chat.
Recent years have seen customer service become considerably strained by the demand for faster and more complex communications. This is primarily thanks to the abundance of new digital channels and the accompanying increased enquiry volumes. At the same time, contact centers are facing significantly-increased service expectations from customers.
The use of customer service software is imperative, in order to offer high quality, consistent customer service in this sensitive area and to meet all relevant KPIs. It is critical that all channels relevant to your customers are covered. Phone, email, social media, messaging services and live chats, as well as letters and faxes – yes, these are still used today in isolated instances! – should ideally be handled via a centralized omni-channel customer service software. The software should be able to “grow”, integrate with other key enterprise systems and offer opportunity for transitioning the level of automated replies, all of this with the customer experience at the front of mind. Artificial intelligence-based systems can offer great potential in this respect, provided that they have precise text and topic recognition.
Delivering the best customer service is increasingly becoming the core success factor in the modern commercial marketplace. Today’s customers are no longer “Brand loyal” because of marketing alone and are migrating ever faster (churn) due to the increasing ease of moving to an alternative. To avoid this companies are using modern, intelligent and intuitive customer service software to promote customer service as a true differentiator and unique selling point, enabling businesses to develop a competitive advantage having long-term positive effects on a company’s economic success.
Our online demo allows you to cast your eye over ReplyOne with no obligation to proceed. You’ll get a concise overview of the capabilities of our customer service solution in under 30 minutes.