Salesforce’s “State of the Connected Customer” report found that a great customer experience is key to boosting loyalty and spend. 80% of customers say the experience a company provides is just as important as its products or services. The same study reveals that 76% of customers now say it’s easier than ever to take their business elsewhere.
Businesses today need to ask themselves, are we doing enough to meet customer expectations? Are we evolving our customer service to keep pace with evolving technologies? Is our customer experience the best possible representation of our brand?
Customers today expect service and support with brands through an ever-expanding network of channels, contexts, and devices. They expect to connect in a similar way that they communicate with friends, from SMS to Snapchat. And they’re willing to pay for it, or leave if they don’t get it.
For many businesses, the call center is the heart of customer service. It’s where customers call in with questions or seek information, and where employees reach out for sales and follow up. It’s referred to as a “call center” because traditional models of customer service are based on phone support as the main method of contact between customers and companies. However, today customer interactions happen through a variety of channels and in order to keep pace with rising customer expectations and preferences, leading call centers are evolving into contact centers.
What is a Contact Center?
The term “contact center” reflects the modern reality that there are a variety of ways to connect with today’s customer beyond just by telephone. The combined trends of increased customer expectations and newer technologies that allow for omni channel communication has created a shift in the traditional call center model. Customers want more than one way to interact with a business and businesses want new ways to interact with customers. This creates an improved customer experience. Learn more about the transformation of call centers to today’s omni channel contact centers:
