Workforce Management Featured Article
Businesses Rethink Customer Experience Strategies
Inflation plays a big part in how consumers spend today, so it comes down to businesses finding ways to remain a part of their customer’s lives as they reconsider what purchases are important to them.
Sure, customer acquisition still ranks high for businesses. However, in Talkdesk’s report, “The Future of Retail Customer Service: Interactive and Unified,” CX professionals place customer retention at higher importance. Businesses must engage with customers more on an individual level to build a deeper relationship.
Forty percent of companies plan to invest in video chat and voice-based AI virtual agents, while almost a third plan to invest in livestream video channels, such as YouTube (News - Alert), TikTok, and Twitch for customer support. Additionally, almost a quarter plan to deliver consistent, interactive engagement through next-generation channels – the metaverse and AR/VR interactions – within two years.
The reason for this is to increase customer loyalty by building deeper relationships with customers and investing in channels that allow ongoing, interactive engagement.
“Brands now understand the strategic importance of engaging service experiences as a way to drive growth and retention," said Shannon Flanagan, vice president of retail and consumer goods, Talkdesk.
Coming to a strategy that requires more investment in interactive engagement to drive retention does come with its hurdles.
One hurdle is creating an interactive and unique customer journey requires fully integrating channels and bridging gaps in data collection and use. Ninety percent of companies describe their customer engagement channels as not fully integrated, which creates a disjointed experience for customers
Another hurdle is retail attrition. There are remnants of the Great Resignation as employees continue to seek better work flexibility, better work tools to achieve their goals and more opportunities for career advancements.
As retailers move forward in their customer service strategies, they need to empower and equip staff to provide high-quality, engaging support to customers and connect doing so with meaningful career growth. They also need to collect and use customer data to create a singular understanding of the customer across interaction and transaction points.
Only then are brands able to move forward and achieve their CX goals.
Edited by Erik Linask
