It took brands across the world an entire pandemic to change how they do business. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, companies were forced to work remotely, which called for many agile changes in their processes. It was as if the changes people only talked about experiencing in the coming years arrived almost overnight. And once it arrived, it was drastic.
Before that, we did, however, see some implementations of advanced tech in different industries. Some were successful; some weren’t. For example, in 2019, Hilton’s robot concierge Connie (powered by IBM Watson) proved advantageous for the hospitality industry; whereas, a Japanese hotel that opened as the world’s first robot hotel had to lay off half of its robotic workforce. Their robots created more work than they ever achieved. Fast forward to 2023, brands are now using chatbots, real-time interactive content, personalization, virtual reality shopping experiences, and other automated elements of customer support and experience.
If we try to view it in the context of customer support, virtual customer support has become prominent nowadays. But this instant adoption of remote workflow, self-service support, and so on has also brought forward several newer (and more evolved) issues. And as processes evolve, the problems evolve too, and so must the solutions. Some problems with virtual customer support include:
- Connecting with the customers solely on a virtual level can feel distant.
- Sometimes, virtual interactions lack humanity.
There are several ways to elevate the customer experience in these virtual times. Improving the customer experience includes everything from the level of service to how well the products fit into their lives. This should be the major focus of businesses in 2023. Brands should focus on learning from their failures by leveraging technology-driven solutions. This shall help them build deeper connections with the customers.
Latest tech tools enable businesses to improve customer experiences while engaging with brands or using their products and services. Thankfully the days are long-gone when sporadic customer satisfaction surveys and group testing were the only way to get feedback and find out how well they’re meeting our needs as consumers. However, customer trust and value-based experience remain the strongest trend that drives business. In this article, we’re precisely going to talk about how brands can hit higher goals by elevating their customer support. But first, let’s take a look at what drives exceptional customer experience.
Exceptional Virtual CX is Driven By Employee Input And Involvement
Tech gives us the power to analyze and organize massive data. It allows us to personalize content and experiences for customers. But brands are powerless without the right people driving them. The support tech is rife with tech disruption — self-service, AI chatbots, etc. But you cannot simply automate everything, nor should you.
Do your support executive meet the requirements for a virtual interaction?
It is the support executives who build and nurture the relationships that create exceptional experiences. Empathetic responses are a must to deal with distressed customers. Besides this, your support agents are a valuable source of insight into customers’ preferences. You also need their support for creating tech-powered experiences. Ensure the following things too:
- Ensure that your employees understand that tech is supposed to enhance their performance, not replace them.
- Make sure they know how to interpret the output of virtual interactions. This way, they can figure out where intervention is needed and where not.
- Ensure that your self-service options are an extension of one-to-one interactions with the customers and not a replacement.
7 Tips To Elevate Your Virtual Customer Support Experience
So now we know how important the involvement of support executives is. Let’s look at what other parameters you can take care of to elevate your virtual customer support.
1. Humanize The Virtual Interactions
As your customer support plunges into virtual CX, it becomes more essential to make the customers feel special. It is very easy to fall into the dehumanization trap that online chats often trigger.
Humanizing virtual interactions through phone, email, social media channels, or any other communication channel is the most basic step you can implement. Customers don’t want robotic answers all the time. They need empathetic responses, and they want it fast. You can have a mixture of automated and empathetic responses. For instance, you can implement a chatbot when your agents aren’t available.
The chatbot can collect all the information from the customer and pass it on to a relevant agent, or an agent can take on queries from the chatbot and continue providing support.
2. Experiment With Videos
Multiple customer interactions have moved into the digital realm. Therefore, it has become vital for brands not to lose the human touch. Instead of sending emails (full of pre-formatted text), you can take some time to construct videos. This allows you to deliver the messages crisply and clearly. You can also add videos as a part of your self-service offerings. Short videos, Instagram Reels, TikTok, etc., are the new trends you can provide. Besides, videos also have better click-through rates — which can help ensure that your message reaches more customers.
If you are a brand with customers from across the world, your virtual CX has to be outstanding. Try our helpdesk management software free for 30 days and watch your customer support ratings skyrocket.
3. Real-Time Support
Real-time support is crucial for customer retention. Most of the time, customers do not want to wait until business hours to get an answer to their questions. Real-time chatbots have made a big splash in customer support lately. It cannot fully replace the experince with a genuine support executive, but you should be mindful of when chatbots are valuable and when the interaction requires real support executives.
4. Automation in Customer Support
Benefits of Automation in Customer Support
The level and quality of support that customers receive from the brand are key to customer satisfaction. If your customers know that they’ll have to spend a long time waiting on the phone, be passed between multiple executives, or end up speaking to poorly trained executives who cannot help them solve their problems, they are unlikely to give a higher rating to the brand.
Automated features can take care of all these challenges. You can automate small parts of your helpdesk management software like:
- Ticket routing
- Query escalations
- Ticket assignment
- Feedback processes
- Surveys (if necessary)
- Ticket conversion
- Self-service
- Chatbots
5. Personalization
Personalization is going to be a very strong trend in the future. Brands need to get to grips with the idea of using tech to develop closer and more personalized relationships with their customers at scale. Personalized email headers, subject lines, and even personalized real-time communication can be a good starting point. Later on, you can focus on the micro-moments. Besides this, make sure that you use personalization at the right time and that it reaches the right customer. Personalization is a cutting-edge support challenge that is increasingly solvable — thanks to the tech solutions at our fingertips today.
6. Keep Your Answers Consistent
Whether the customers reach you through email, phone, social media, or any other communication medium, they should get fast (if not instant) and consistent answers from all sources. They should receive consistent answers to the questions regardless of the medium to ask them. Ensure your helpdesk management software lets you practice this and deliver real-time interactive support for your customers.
7. Collect Feedback
Digital interactions are becoming the new normal, so businesses need to collect customer feedback. Customer feedback can provide you with vital information about their concerns regarding their experiences with your business. This direct information can reveal necessary enhancements in your customer experiences.
Also, take your time to ask your support executives how your business operations can be altered to enhance customer experience. They would have first-hand, irreplaceable inputs as they’re the ones who interact with the customers.
The Bottomline
In 2023, customer interactions are moving into the digital realm faster. Besides, the Covid-19 pandemic has altered the way we do business. So, it is important that in this and other times of change, your business keeps a human touch. There are so many ways to connect with customers using virtual tools. But you should adopt them mindfully and frame strategies that have a real impact on every customer experience.
The above-mentioned 7 trends represent very real opportunities and risks for brands across the world. You also need to ensure that your customer support tech is up-to-date and lets you implement these trends in real-time. Check out DeskXpand’s 30-day free trial to get hands-on experience with these latest trends and see how it works for your organization.
