how customer service can deliver a competitive advantage in retail

How customer service can deliver a competitive advantage in retail

The challenges

Customer satisfaction in the UK | 2013-2017

Source: UK Customer Satisfaction Index | July 2017

Retail takes the lion’s share of complaints

Source: Consumer Action Monitor

The top three reasons customers complain (%)

Source: Retail Week

0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40

Poor product quality

Faulty product

Poor customer service

Online High Street

Who’s getting it right in the retail space?


• Complaint handling• Staff doing what they say they will do• The attitude of staff• The outcome of the complaint

• Over the phone• The ease of getting through• Helpfulness of staff• Competence of staff

• Getting things right first time• 52% of total inbound calls are not resolved in one call

(Gartner)

Key differentiators between the best and the rest

The economic impact of well-handled complaints


We’re not embracing complaints…

Source: Consumer Action Monitor

Top five customer service complaints

Source: The Direct Marketing Commission

Being unable to get through to a company on the telephone

Not having your phone calls returned by a company

Being kept waiting for an unreasonable period of time on the telephone

Rude or unhelpful customer service staff

Being given conflicting advice on the telephone

…And our contact centre agents are burning out

• 26% mean average attrition rate in contact centres (Contactbabel)

• Compared to 7.9% voluntary resignation rate across all sectors (XpertHR)

• 74% of agents are at risk of burnout (Toister)

• Poor customer service

• Decreased employee engagement

• Increased employee turnover

• Key sentiments of at-risk agents (Toister)

• Company not being customer-focused

• Agents not feeling empowered

• Thinking that their co-workers don’t provide outstanding service

Getting it right first time

“[there is] a clear correlation between organisations who

‘get it right first time’ when interacting with customers, and

their overall UKCSI score. On average the UKCSI score is

82.7 for those organisations where customers said

they had issues resolved immediately, but when this did

not happen, the score drops to an average of 59. “

“’Customers expect to be dealt with quickly and

competently – as soon as they start to feel let down

or ignored, their trust is lost. It’s important that

businesses take this insight on board if they are to

continue the positive trend in addressing customer

needs.’”

Source: The Institute of Customer Service

Consumer expectations

• 85% of UK consumers measure all brands against only a select few – think Amazon, Netflix and Starbucks

• 90% want to engage with brands that are setting new standards

• 74% say brands can set new standards by providing a higher level of customer service

• 61% believe that the best brands make their lives easier

• 90% want brands to push the boundaries

Source: Wunderman ‘Wantedness’ Study, 2017

To summarise:

• Customer service correlates directly with customer satisfaction

• Your efforts are being judged against the best in the world

• With exceptions, retail is not on an uphill trend for customer satisfaction

• To gain a competitive advantage, you need to ‘set a new standard’

• We’re going to address three areas:• Ease of communication

• Reducing the strain on contact centre agents

• Delivering surprise and delight

Solutions

How do customers want to communicate with you?

0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35

Telephone

Website

Web chat

Text

In person

Mobile app

Other

Social media

% of respondents

Source: eMarketer citing Contact Solutions survey, 2015

Most frustrating customer service channels

Source: eMarketer citing Aspect survey, 2015

0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35

Phone

Company website

Live chat

Email

In-person

Messaging app

Twitter

SMS

Facebook

% of respondents

• 40% prefer self-serve to human contact for their future interaction with companies

• 34% would ‘rather have their teeth cleaned’ than speak to an agent

• 30% expect a response within 10 minutes of posting a query

• Millennials switch between laptops, smartphones and TV 27 times per hour

Ah, millennials…

Sources: Ameyo | Parature | Desk.com | Hubspot

Segmenting by customer preference

Source: Ofcom (2015)

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

16-24 25-34 35-54 55-64 65+

Smartphone ownership %

There’s a right and a wrong way to ‘do digital’


The role of SMS in customer service

44% of mobile phone owners would

prefer to complete a customer service

journey via SMS than wait on hold for

an agent.

Effective for:

• Gathering post-purchase feedback

• Up/cross-sales (particularly effective

when coupled with other channels)

• Covering shifts in the contact centre /

store

• Giving employees a voice

• Scheduling call-backs.

Source: Ameyo

Case study: LV=


SMS review

Hi, it’s Esendex. Are you free to discuss

your latest payment? To talk now please

reply YES. For a free call back later today

please reply LATER.

LATER

Thanks for your response, reply with the

number 2 for a call back between 2pm

and 4pm or reply with the number 4 to

have a call back between 4pm to 6pm.

4

Thanks for selecting a call back between

4pm and 6pm. One of our advisors will

call you within this time. Alternatively

reply LATER to try again.

Pros:

• Not reliant on internet access

• Not reliant on smartphone ownership

• 98% open rate

• 90% read within three minutes• Agents can handle multiple conversations at once

• Responses given at the customer’s convenience

Cons:

• Plain text only (but watch out for RCS!)

• Short-form content

• Gathering mobile numbers can be more challenging than

gathering email addresses

• Can be viewed as intrusive if over-used as a channel

Source: Adobe | Forbes

Mobile web apps

Case study: click-to-completion rates for three Esendexcustomers

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

NPS Survey Other Survey Payment

% Sent / Click % Clicks / Completion

Introducing RCS – coming soon!

Chatbots

Range from a basic input > output solution with pre-defined answers to AI-driven

platforms utilising Natural Language Processing (NLP) to provide detailed, accurate

responses to almost any question.

26% of consumers ‘embrace’ interacting with companies via messaging apps ([24]7)

39% are willing to have automated conversations with chatbots ([24]7)

Pros:

• Relieve the strain on your contact centre agents

• Utilise platforms (e.g. Facebook Messenger) with which customers are already

familiar

• Early adoption gives you a chance to ‘set a new standard’ in your vertical

Cons:

• Limited appeal in certain demographics

• Constantly evolving technology can be hard to get to grips with

• Requires development investment.

Email as a customer service channel

Pros:

• Free and convenient for the customer

• Almost ubiquitous (87.9% of adults have an email address)

• Can be any length

• Can include interactive elements – pictures, CTA buttons, links to online

help

• More effective as part of a multichannel journey

Cons:

• Can be time-consuming for companies to respond to

• Doesn’t encourage self-serve – reactive rather than proactive

• Very easy for the recipient to ignore

• Replies can get lost in spam filters

• Difficult to ‘set new standards’ in this space

Source: Office of National Statistics

Live chat

28.9% prefer to use chat technology to interact with retailers (ahead

of phone and email)

This increases to 37% for millennials

Pros:• Convenient for the customer

• Access to conversation history

Cons:• Customer concerns over privacy and security

• Doesn’t encourage self-serve

• Labour-intensive for contact centre agents

Source: [24]/7

26

26.5

27

27.5

28

28.5

29

29.5

% Preference

Chat Phone Email

Social media

• 62% of the adult population have Facebook (Pew Research)

• 20% have Twitter (Pew Research)

• 1 in 4 UK adults used a social media platform to make a complaint in the last three months (Institute of Customer Service)

• Despite being less likely to have a social media account, 45-54 year olds are the most likely group to share experiences of an organisation through social media (Institute of Customer Service)

• Requires a well-trained team:• Literate

• Good judgement

• Enabled to make decisions

• Deep understanding of your company’s values and customer service strategy

Conclusion

Source: Forrester Research

1. Your contact centre agents are essential: invest in them…

2. … but encourage customers to self-serve so that only the most complicated calls reach them

3. Know your customer base and offer multiple channels through which to contact you

4. Solicit and act on customer feedback

5. Adopt new technology to ‘set new standards’

77% of people say that valuing their time is the most important thing a

company can do to provide them with good service.

Any questions?