One of the most important things about any customer experience (CX) is that it should be frictionless – consumers should be able to breeze through any interaction or engagement and come out of it feeling that their time has been well-spent.
But how do you make an interaction frictionless, or even downright effortless? Two crucial keys are the CX agents who handle the interaction on behalf of your company, and the technology they need to get the job done right and with ease.
The Agent
Expert agents have superior listening skills, quick critical thinking, and emphatic communication ability.
Superior listening means that an agent isn’t just hearing what the customer is saying but is able to identify the root of a concern and what the customer is ultimately looking for, whether it’s validation, conciliation, or remuneration. Where someone else might only hear a complaint, an expert listens for opportunities to increase customer satisfaction and retention.
Quick critical thinking involves a swift yet thorough evaluation of all aspects of an interaction. A critical-thinking agent goes beyond established scenario roadmaps and decides on the best possible solution that addresses a specific concern.
Precise, efficient, and emphatic communication plays a part in both these skills, as an expert can guide the customer through the interaction with ease, simultaneously providing the customer with assurance and comfort, while giving them the information they need, to proceed with clarity and speed. An effective agent never makes the customer feel that they are being pressured, taken from, or confused; instead, the customer feels that they are being presented with understanding and options for greater satisfaction. When done correctly, even suggesting avenues for upselling will make the customer feel that they are simply being given the opportunity to improve their experience.
The Technology
To make the most of all the above, an expert agent needs access to various data sources and the right tools and functionalities to smoothly deploy all the moving parts, in the space of one (or very few) interactions.
Data security, for instance, must be airtight, to ensure customer privacy and safety, yet security procedures must be simple and streamlined enough for end-users to comprehend. AI and analytics can benefit all parties concerned, enabling the agent to personalize solutions that lead to greater customer satisfaction.
Agents need tools that are competitive within the industry. It’s not always about what’s the latest but what works best for each company and its constituents. Customers might be delighted by leading-edge technology, but there’s also a chance that they’ll find it confusing or off-putting, or that developing tech will prove too unwieldy for practical use. It’s important to keep pace with innovation, but not to outpace what your organization can handle.
So all of that, actually, takes a lot of effort—attaining, training, and retaining your experts, along with providing the right technology to suit your strategy, capacity, and budget tolerance—but, to your customers, it will seem effortless. It’ll feel like exactly the kind of CX that brings people back for more.
