Dr. Ori Faran is the founder and CEO of Callvu.
Many people trace the birth of the consumer internet to about 1994. Soon marketers saw “digital” as the key to transforming customer relationships. It was supposed to provide an inexpensive, magical way to deliver personalized experiences and continuous interactions and relationships.
Nowadays, most people cannot believe life without the virtual, since we dedicate and manage a large part of our lives to it. Email, messaging and entertainment, of course, but possibly more important, since they are the main means through which we interact with essential companies and services. In a recent survey of U. S. banking consumers conducted through my company, for example, we found that 81% of millennials conduct most or all of their banking virtually. For most other people, wonderful visitor service comes down to the quality of our virtual experiences.
Most businesses are thrilled when a customer chooses digital over real-world interactions. But do customers choose our digital channels because they like them or despite how much they dislike them? The American Customer Satisfaction Index reports that from late 2018 until mid-2022, US customer satisfaction dropped almost every quarter. While scores have shown a slight uptick since, satisfaction levels remain at near 20-year lows.
Global visitor experience, or CX, spending is expected to reach $641 billion this year, up from more than $130 billion since 2019. However, despite all the cash invested, visitor satisfaction is nowhere near where we need it to be. Last year, 43% of consumers shouted or raised their voices against customer service staff, up from 35% in 2015. Why do so many corporations get it wrong? Here are my thoughts:
First of all, many other people rely on those ubiquitous and boring visitor satisfaction surveys. Consumers who deal with even a moderately friendly visitor service user will likely feel that the company has put a gun to their head: “Give this user five stars, or they’re going to get fired and it’ll be your fault. “
If the service really deserved 4 stars, or even three, conscious consumers still give it five. And if it doesn’t automatically come to the consumer’s mind, the worker will let them know, “If you don’t give me a smart rating, I probably won’t get a commission,” and my kids probably won’t eat, etc. Just as school principals pressure teachers at low-performing schools, too many corporations have pressured consumers to inflate their workers’ qualifications. Possibly the leaders would not have planned to do this, and neither would the corporations. But those are the incentives they put in place.
Second, many businesses still rely on superseded features when virtual channels fail with consumers. After offering consumers an appalling virtual experience, corporations don’t find it easy for their valued consumers to find their way through a complex and jargon-filled phone tree.
Most consumers don’t want to communicate with anyone, most of the time – 86% expect a self-service option. This fact can save a company a lot of money, if it needs to make it easier for consumers to help themselves. At the moment, it turns out that very few corporations are doing it, but they may just say they do. I’ve noticed that some corporations automate as many common visitor requests as possible (a smart start), but leave open dozens of instances of use where living humans are still the only way to get a response. This is a real missed opportunity.
Third, even companies that offer virtual features offer them through only one or two channels, such as a visitor portal or mobile app. But, in my experience, not many other people rely on a single channel.
How can a company be sure that it is putting the visitor first?
Three concepts hold the key:
That means taking a hard look at the methodology of any surveys you may be conducting—and, most importantly, asking whether your company may be incentivizing customer dishonesty. The “mystery shopper” approach may work better than chasing meager response rates with relentless surveys. At the very least, end policies and processes that require five-star ratings—or this puppy gets it!
Give them as many channels as you can. Deliver easy-to-use portable experiences. Provide your agents with education and generation to improve outcomes – the faster your consumers get what they want, the more they’ll accept it as true next time.
Keep innovating as your visitors’ expectations change. Don’t wait for AI to do it all – focus on what you can right now. Clarify your goals with your progression team and work with them to amplify physically powerful visitor experiences. Keep asking, “If I were the visitor, would it make sense to me?Would it be easy to find my way around? Will I be able to get what I need quickly? »
Ask every member of your team to call customer service or visit your site as if they were prospective customers—and pay one or two outsiders to do the same.
It’s much less difficult and less expensive to retain existing consumers than it is to gain new ones. Making sure your current consumers are satisfied is the most productive investment you can make.
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