According to 2018 data, 62% of U.S. customers contacted customer service sometime in the previous month. This is in stark contrast with how businesses and customers want to communicate.
Customers expect technology to meet the high bar set by cutting-edge companies. We find that they want it easier, friendlier and always available. Businesses know that, as the pendulum swings towards customer experience, reactive service is not a sustainable or winning model.
Instead, it’s time for proactive service.
Bridge the gap between inbound service and outbound marketing.
Proactive service, as we call it at Relay Network, is a new way of thinking for businesses that have invested heavily in call centers and marketing blitzes. Proactive service places customer convenience at the center of its engagement strategy, preemptively delivering information and support before the customer has to make the ask. It’s outreach, but targeted and prescient, customer service.
Consider banking. The moment you open a checking account, a number of questions about your new account may arise. Instead of leaving you to navigate the bank’s website to find the information you need or telling you to call customer service (just to wait on hold), your bank immediately reaches out to share your account information, a link to activate mobile banking and answers to common questions, such as how to set up a direct deposit. You receive one personalized experience containing everything you need.
According to a Deloitte report, digital banking customers are frustrated with banks’ lack of clear follow-up during onboarding. Forcing the customers to reach out, the company says, is “a clear, and frankly elementary, customer service failure by banks.”
In the age of anywhere, anytime, customers won’t tolerate waiting on hold, being bounced around service agents or navigating websites to find the answers they need. To be on time is to be early, and to be relevant is to be personalized. Real convenience comes with sending proactive solutions before customers are even aware there’s an issue, not reactive solutions people are impatiently waiting to receive.
By reaching out ahead of frustrations, companies can simplify and improve the customer experience. That builds customer loyalty and, just as important, reduces the costs of managing inbound calls, emails and outreach.
So, what does the path to proactive service look like? Here are three steps to take:
Step 1: Move customers to more engaging digital channels.
In order to deliver proactive service effectively, businesses need to create an easy, accessible digital connection to their customers. According to a McKinsey survey of customer-care executives, digital care channels are the future for most customer-care interactions, with 48% of service interactions expected to happen over digital channels by 2020.
Yet, many companies are finding that downloadable mobile applications aren’t earning the level of adoption and customer engagement they expected. In fact, Gartner predicted 20% of brands would abandon their mobile apps by this year. How will businesses bridge the digital divide?
Businesses must work hard to meet consumers’ expectations for convenience. To be successful, they will need to find a more efficient way to reach customers digitally, via the platforms customers want to be reached on. By establishing a brand-customer connection at the start of the relationship (for example, during onboarding or an application), businesses will have a better chance of engaging customers in their key decision moments.
Step 2: Look at friction points to identify your best opportunities for proactive service.
Every customer relationship has moments that would be improved with proactive support. The trick is not to try to address them all at once, but to prioritize the low-effort, high-impact experiences that can make the biggest difference for you and your customers.
To do this, look to your friction points to expose areas where your customers could use guidance. What are your biggest inbound call drivers? What customer segments have the lowest satisfaction scores? What products or services are being underutilized? Our clients typically rank onboarding, service installations, billing and renewals as some of their most important customer moments.
This approach has two big benefits. First, you can reduce your customers’ perception of the effort required to get something done (we find this to be a proven way to increase Net Promoter Scores). Second, you create more engagement moments that drive value and build trust with your customers.
Step 3: Connect customers to your tools and resources to help them make decisions.
Customers quickly lose patience when it comes to finding answers. Proactive service puts the customer on the quickest, most direct path to get things done. If you can bring information front and center, eliminate unnecessary logins and always move toward convenience, you can build a valuable relationship.
Consider that same checking account example. Maybe after a few months of banking, you’re ready to consider a credit card. If you’re left to search out answers, you’ll find all kinds of opinions. If the bank proactively sends a product suggestion — say, the first time you have an overdraft fee — it can shape the conversation and add context.
I believe proactive service will soon become the new normal. It lets businesses deliver the experience that customers now expect, and allows them to tap into more customer conversations in a way that builds trust and value. The more often your customers feel taken care of, the more they’re likely to value your company and what it offers.
