As your company gets bigger, its processes become more and more complex. Processes are an essential part of your business – it is how you get the work done, how you provide customer experience and, in the end, how you earn money. Therefore, providing a better customer experience is closely knit with process improvement.
According to research, organisations lose up to 30% of revenue annually due to inefficient processes. Of course, it is hard to avoid inefficiencies altogether; however, reevaluating your processes and implementing better strategies can help immensely.
How Inefficient Processes Affect Your Business
Whatever the size of your company, if you leave inefficient processes unchecked for too long, it can hurt your business. Among others, processes related to customer experience management can be especially harmful if not set up correctly. Holes in your CX processes can:
- cost you a lot of money,
- increase churn rate,
- lower the quality of your services,
- lower the trustworthiness of your brand,
- waste your time.
If your brand is having difficulty retaining customers or acquiring new ones, it is a sign you need to pay special attention to improving customer experience management. If you are ready to do so, here are some of the most frequent inefficiencies your customers find annoying and corrective actions that can enhance their experience with your brand.
The Most Irritating Processes From the Customer’s Point of View
- Non-existent customer service
Surprisingly many companies do not have proper customer service. Without customer support, you may be losing customers without even knowing it. Make sure you have a trained customer support team and make it known to the customer everywhere, from your website to newsletters. The phone number and email address where customers can contact the support should always be visible and easy to find.
- Multiple touch points needed for resolution
The faster you offer a resolution, the happier the customer. If you fail to resolve the issue upon the first contact, or if the customer has to contact other touch points to resolve their issue, customer satisfaction decreases proportionally. You need to understand the customer’s journey to see what touch points need improvements. If you are unsure where to start, a customer experience platform such as Staffino can help you also with customer journey mapping. Evaluate the number of interactions the customer needs to make with your brand before resolving their issue. Try to provide an effective solution upon the first contact to improve your FCR rate.
- Slow responses
Response time matters, and you should provide a reasonable one. Most customers expect you are available 24/7, so you should do your best to fulfil their expectations. For example, implement a chatbot for real-time support and, if further contact is necessary, have a human employee get back to the customer within 24 hours. Timely issue resolution can considerably improve customer satisfaction.
- Lengthy calls
As you might have already noticed, it is essential to value your customer’s time. When Staffino assessed the customer experience at a call centre of one of its clients, it turned out customers prefer shorter calls with agents. Customer satisfaction decreased proportionally as the average handle time increased. Train your agents to make quick, effective calls and provide them with detailed guidelines to reduce the average time of their calls with customers.
- Providing inaccurate information
Misleading the customers does not show your brand in a good light. Employees provide wrong information from time to time because they are untrained or their data source is outdated. To avoid increased customer complaints and negative word of mouth, give your agents the proper training, tools and up-to-date resources. Also, remember that good customer service etiquette is a must.
- Payment issues and unexplained charges
Payment-related issues are one of the most frustrating from the customer’s point of view. If the customer has made it to the payment, it means they are determined to use your services or buy your products, and it would be a shame to lose them due to improperly set processes. For example, Staffino helped one of its clients uncover that they were losing orders due to incorrectly displayed order values. Informing the customer support, explaining the actual price to customers, and fixing the order process ensured smooth future purchases.
Put Your Customers First
To uncover all the processes that irritate your customers, you have to walk in your customer’s shoes. Customer experience consulting is a great and effective way to get real-time data and detailed reports. Skilled CX specialists have an eye for inefficient processes and can help you reevaluate your customer experience management, quickly uncover defects, and reset the processes in a way that values your customers’ time and feedback.