Consumer Duty – How can contact centres help to comply?
Consumer Duty requirements were launched by the UK’s FCA in June 2023 and represent legally binding regulation for financial services. But what does t...
It’s no secret that customer churn is costing businesses huge amounts. In fact, The Callminer Churn Index estimated that customer churn is costing UK businesses a whopping £25 billion a year! That’s why we hosted a webinar with our consulting services partner, Ember Real Results, to show how to identify actionable engagement insights to reduce employee and customer churn.
Customer Experience – the Main Cause of Churn
Customer churn is significantly influenced by the experience your customers are having with your organisation. It’s far too easy and convenient to say that customers only churn because of price. The reality is customer experience is critical to whether customers choose to stay or to leave. In fact, one Accenture survey revealed that of the 61% of consumers who churned, two thirds revealed that they switched because of the experience they had with the company, and not because of the product or price. Amazingly, more than four-fifths stated that the company could have acted to save them from churning.
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Enhancing Employee Experience: Your Talent Retention Toolkit
Learn how conversation intelligence can enhance employee experience and help retain your talent pool.
CEOs Don’t Have their Customer’s View
This is in complete contrast with what business leaders believe is happening in their organisations. When interviewed by Bain & Company, 80% of CEOs said they thought their brand delivers superior customer experience, but just 8% of their consumers agreed. One of the reasons behind this huge gulf in understanding is that most companies fail to analyse every customer interaction. Instead they rely on random feedback surveys or random quality assurance of calls. The problem with this latter approach drives decisions based on a thin slice of the customer experience. It also relies on customers telling you when they have a bad experience. But the same Bain report identified that 96% of consumers said that they did not tell a brand after a bad experience.
How to Create Loyal Customers
The CallMiner Churn Index revealed that call centre experiences are pivotal in shaping the customer experience. In fact, while 68% of consumers surveyed were likely or extremely likely to switch after a bad experience with a call centre, a larger number (74%) we’re likely to stay loyal after a good experience.
Avoid a Thin Slice – Analyse the Whole Pie!
Investing in technology that allows you to analyse 100% of interactions across all channels is vital in making sure every person in your organisation understands which behaviour triggers churn and which encourages customers to stay loyal. Only by seeing the whole picture in a single insight platform, will you be able to see why customers decide to leave. For example, the CallMiner Index identified that long waiting times is the call centre behaviour consumers most want to avoid (42% of people feel this way). If you analyse every interaction you will be able to identify what triggers calls to your contact centre and also which type of calls take a long time to resolve. Armed with this insight you will be more able to predict demand and resource accordingly. Better still, you may be able to eliminate the reasons for the calls – such as making it easier to understand bills or invoices.
Analytics Help Your Agents Stay Loyal
Agents like interaction analytics because it is seen as a much fairer assessment of their performance than a random sampling of calls. This creates a positive mindset and a willingness to accept coaching. If you are analysing 100% of your interactions across all channels, you aren’t just capturing data that can help your customers, you are also capturing data that can be used to help your agents too, by delivering targeted coaching.
CallMiner engagement analytics can go one step further by identifying when it makes sense to connect agents with back office experts who have the specialist information to handle complex problems. This can make agents feel supported and also provide the satisfaction of delivering a great customer experience. Using technology that alerts team leaders when an agent may need extra assistance, is key to making agents feel supported in their role. This leads to improved performance and agent job satisfaction and self-esteem – which, in turn results in lower overall churn.
The contact centre experience plays a major role in customer happiness and churn. Interaction analytics can help you understand why your customers are looking to leave, measure how your agents engage with your customers and keep both your customers and your agents loyal. If you really listen to your customers by automating the analysis of every interaction, you’ll not only understand how your customers want you to behave but also have the insight you need to be able to behave that way.
