Cloud Contact Center Featured Article

In the Cloud, Customer Experience Will Be 2016's Biggest Draw

By Steve Anderson
Contributing Writer

The phrase “customer experience” is on a lot of lips and minds alike lately, and with good reason. This ongoing journey of a customer from first contact to death is what helps turn browsers into lifelong customers, and makes focusing on it worthwhile. A new report suggests that customer experience is going to be the big draw in 2016, and those that focus on the experience will likely be rewarded.

Customers have never had so many choices; as they’re able to jump ship at virtually any time, businesses can subsequently be faced with customer losses at any time. The only real way to protect against this is to make customers not want to leave by providing the best in customer experience. This led to a report from Gartner (News - Alert) that says 89 percent of businesses will be mainly competing on the strength of customer experience, and by 2020, 85 percent of customer relationships will be managed without any sort of contact with a human being. That makes customer experience the key to ultimate success, even beyond such mainstays as product and price.

A report from Economist Intelligence Unit underscores the key points of the best customer experience. Fast response to complaints or questions tops the list, followed by ease in the purchasing process itself. Tracking orders in real-time is next, followed by easy-to-use product information and the ability to use several different channels in interacting with the company itself. That omnichannel experience, as it's known, may not be the most popular, but it's important nonetheless.

Much of this can be addressed with the proper tools; those fast responses and omnichannel experience can be offered with the right breed of cloud-based contact center tools, and Aspect Software does a great job of offering a variety of options for users. Aspect (News - Alert) can offer mobile access, audio and video chat tools, and a complete slate of tools geared toward getting businesses to that desired—by customers as well—omnichannel level.

It's not just the tools, either; it's also about the data. The personal touch can be a huge draw for the best customer experience, and knowing the customer is a great way to make suggestions. Anyone who's been on Netflix lately knows that some movies are more likely to be enjoyed by some users than others, and anyone who recommends “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre” to someone whose last rental was “Pride and Prejudice” might only just be laughed out of the room. With the competition available, a subscription might be canceled as well.

The point is to not only know what the customer wants, but also be able to offer it. When it's clear what customers want, those businesses that provide it are most likely to come out ahead in the end. The right tools and the right frame of mind will do wonders in making a great customer experience, one that makes customers keep coming back.