Recent research from Avaya and BT into customer service expectations around the world has highlighted some surprising trends. The survey, which polled 5,500 consumers globally, identified a new type of consumer that is gaining prevalence right around the world.
Autonomous customers are so called because they spurn automatic brand loyalty. Super-charged by access to online information, they research and investigate buying decisions like never before. They use self-service to stay in control, are less loyal to organisations, and more difficult to engage. The challenge for organisations in 2015 is to reconnect with these people.
But how? The research highlights six key opportunities for organisations to re-engage with autonomous customers, rebuilding trust and ultimately creating more profitable relationships:
Make it easy:
This has to be top priority for organisations. The research shows 62% of today’s consumers buy more from those brands that make it easier for them – an increase on 30% on last year – while 62% also say they find dealing with customer service issues exhausting. Simplification of customer journeys will help organisations re-engage with their customers.
Fragvergence:
Consumers are using a fragmented range of channels, but expect data to converge and be available across these media. According to our research, globally one in five respondents use super-fast mobile networks, with one in three connecting via fibre broadband. Facebook retains its dominance in social media, but Instagram, Snapchat, Tumblr and Pinterest now have millions of users worldwide, and one in four respondents use Twitter. This trend is presenting organisations with a challenge – to ‘go where the consumer is’ for sales as well as customer service opportunities. At the same time fragvergence creates more opportunities for customer engagement as consumers continue to use more and more channels and media.
Omni-channel:
As a result, the need for organisations to deploy an omni-channel strategy is more pressing than ever before. Omni-channel meets a primary need of global consumers, which is to seamlessly change how they contact organisations depending on their situation – whether they are at work, sitting at home watching TV, in meetings or on a train. For organisations, this means improving the customer journey and doing more than just offering alternative channels: four in five consumers say advisors should be instantly familiar with their details across all channels. As well as making the customer journey easier, it also gives organisations the information to cross and up-sell to customers: omni-channel provides a great means to improve engagement with autonomous customers.
Self-service:
Our research shows the number of people in the UK who believe self service gives them more control is falling. And when consumers do want self-service, these days they have varied preferences about the channel. What’s more, over 75% say there should be a phone number on every website page to offer live support. Underlining the importance of omni-channel, it seems that while the autonomous customer is happy to self-serve, if live help isn’t readily available when they encounter a problem, they are likely to be completely turned off a brand.
Social media:
Social media customer service has been the fastest-growing customer contact channel of the past five years. Today, 25% of global consumers say they have accessed customer service through social media and one in three consumers say that it’s the best way to contact organisations in an urgent situation. It’s clear that social needs to be part of the omni-channel solution organisations offer to customers.
Turning customer service into a valuable business diffentiator requires responding to autonomous customers with omni-channel strategies to create seamless engagement. Organisations will have to work harder, across more channels, but I believe that the end result would be worth it, delivering greater customer engagement and ultimately higher rewards for the brand.
Source: http://www.callcentre.co.uk/a-new-breed-of-consumer-the-autonomous-customer-emerges/
