Efficient and productive customer service representatives are a baseline, not a gold standard.

A recent Aberdeen report reveals that forward-thinking customer service organizations have developed strategies to directly benefit customers by making engaging with brands more convenient. These companies understand that effortless service experiences create a competitive advantage.

The building blocks of convenient, customer-focused service

Aberdeen suggests that seven building blocks help companies minimize customer effort.

1. Understand your customers’ journeys clearly

It’s important to capture customer feedback across all channels, to monitor sentiment and feedback. Analytics help you understand how customer sentiment and feedback change throughout a customer’s journey and then identify areas to improve.

2. Ensure all interactions are consistent

Interaction consistency is critical across channels and departments, to avoid frustrating and confusing customers. Integrating disparate systems is essential to this consistency.

3. Be a consistent, authentic communicator

Don’t rely on customers to initiate the engagement process. Be proactive and use alerts, reminders, and notifications to help them anticipate potential issues and to understand that you’re addressing them. Become not just a responder but also a trusted partner.

4. Analyze self-service data to identify common issues

Understand the problems that customers are trying to solve themselves. Chatbots and automated apps can resolve issues that otherwise vex customers.

5. Enrich customer journey management activities

Take advantage of tailored workflows to better manage customer journeys, including workflows to provide personalized self-service options or automate customer requests

6. Give your customer reps the tools to win

The right tools include the training, technology, processes, and data—as well as the authority to use them to full advantage—to satisfy customer needs and solve problems. Without the right tools, your customer service will be a source of customer frustration.

7. Align organizational culture

Provide your employees with the training required to understand how greatly they influence the customer experience. Allow them to suggest improvements to the business of client management.

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