Contact center agents strive to make a positive impact on customers. Today’s agents need to seek, meet and exceed customer needs. Being proactive will satisfy customers and employees.
Customer Support: Proactive vs. Reactive
Proactive customer support means not waiting until the last minute to offer a solution. While reactive support is the standard for most businesses, due to lack of knowledge or lack of resources, agents only take action when there’s a problem. Proactive service, on the other hand, is about anticipating problems as well as reacting to them.
Delivering Customer Delight
The term “customer delight” refers to a customer experience school of thought that believes brands should actively provide customers with personalized service that exceeds their expectations. Customers can have an experience that’s high in customer delight after putting in a high amount of effort or a low amount of effort, but low effort and high delight is the optimal combination.
For example, let’s say a customer is looking for cooking supplies online and he decides to purchase a specific set of pots. When he gets to the checkout page, he realizes that the pots ship from overseas. The shipment is going to cost a lot and take several days to arrive at his house. The customer uses web chat to contact customer service. The agent performs a quick search and finds a set of the same pots that ship from within the U.S. She calls the customer to securely take his billing information over the phone, places the orders and offers free expedited shipping. Once the phone call is over, the agent e-mails the customer a coupon that can be used on their next purchase. The customer is left feeling appreciated, having had their needs met without spending extra time or effort.
When contact centers focus on delivering a better experience for customers, the customers in turn want to do more business with the company, which encourages agents to help customers even more. This creates a positive customer service cycle.
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