Two Lessons 2020 Taught About Customer Service
Perhaps no business function was more impacted by the events of 2020 than customer service. From logistical issues to unpredictable demand, the year had a tremendous effect on most businesses.
What lessons, if any, can be learned from 2020 as businesses move into 2021?
Support For Remote Working Is Critical
As countries enacted lockdowns and stay-at-home mandates, businesses had to rapidly shift to teleworking to ensure business continuity for their customer service functions. Those that relied on a legacy, on-premise solution struggled and, in many cases, failed to adapt to the new normality.
With the forecast for 2021 showing that 25 to 35% of work will be done remotely, it is vital to have flexible system access.
Call Deflection Is A Powerful Tool To Reduce Abandonment Rate
Many industries saw significant increases in their call volumes. Increased call volume without additional staff resulted in long wait times and abandoned calls. With call deflection, businesses can divert simple, repetitive queries to low-cost digital channels or chatbots, and offer automatic callback to keep customers engaged.
According to a November survey from CCW Digital, this type of automation is expected to continue in importance over the coming years.
Future-Proofing Customer Service
In order to address the mobility issues of 2020 and beyond, businesses need a solution that can provide service representatives with any time, anywhere, any device connectivity. Business operations should be not impacted based on physical presence challenges. Inbound and outbound calls should go on as usual, and supervisors should still have the same level of reporting and monitoring capabilities as if their teams were in the office.
Businesses need flexible call deflection options – both proactive and reactive – through IVR Dialers, Outbound SMS campaigns, and automatic callback support. These options can help reduce abandoned calls by 32% or more.
2021 is here. Businesses need a solution that can help them learn from the lessons of 2020 and continue engaging with customers in the future.
