Customer Experience Analytics Arm Call Centres with Data for Converting More Bookings
Call centres are valuable in aiding conversions, especially in service industries and travel. Due to COVID and a high number of cancellations, especially for travel companies, delivering a “trusted” customer experience and the ability to reassure travellers is a high priority for sales. This article discusses how technology and digital transformation can enhance and add value to customers from the call centre perspective, a key touchpoint for any business.
In general, Call Centres haven’t always had the best reputation for routing calls, solving issues efficiently, or having effective offshoring teams. However, with intuitive technology and using analytics to determine the next best action, call centres have the potential to offer actionable insights for sales, well-curated personalisation and great service established in an all-in-one CRM.
According to McKinsey & Company, “In this way, advanced analytics has fundamentally changed the role of contact centres from a basic service offering (and a net cost to the business) to a strategic differentiator that can make dramatic improvements in customer satisfaction and financial performance. Companies have already applied advanced analytics to reduce average handle time by up to 40 percent, increase self-service containment rates by 5 to 20 percent, cut employee costs by up to $5 million, and boost the conversion rate on service-to-sales calls by nearly 50 percent—all while improving customer satisfaction and employee engagement. While analytics is only one of a broader set of improvements, including operational changes such as coaching and process simplification, it is a powerful tool for companies to implement.”
Call Centre Agents Offer Reassurance to Travellers
Current travel issues have added uncertainty, and travellers are feeling an extra layer of anxiety. Savvy travel brands are providing the tools to their call centre agents to enable them to have the right information at the right time and to provide the support needed to help travellers regain confidence and equip them with the latest data needed to answer questions about regulations, COVID testing requirements, precautions, and options for insurance policies. This human touch and trusted guidance shine through; success here can help to differentiate travel businesses from their competition.
Trends have shown that travellers dreaming of holidays are still cautious and concerned about the higher costs and the risks of cancellation. Talking to a live agent about concerns, backup plans, and what fellow travellers are experiencing in-destination are ways to eliminate stress and convert an inquiry into a booking.
Call Centres are a valuable touchpoint for sales, and businesses are looking to shift from being information centres to revenue-generating and sales avenues. By deploying tools during a digital transformation, companies can use tech and chatbots to manage information and FAQ calls, then route them to the call centre at the appropriate time leading to conversions. Unify Agency helps clients evaluate their data, tech and CRM options.
How the Cruise Industry is Proactively Equipping Call Centre Operators
In the Phocuswire article, VOICING OPTIMISM ABOUT THE FUTURE OF TRAVEL CALL CENTERS, they look at an example of how travel businesses are responding to changes and cancellations proactively. Travel brands will evaluate the types of topics that can be serviced via automation versus a live agent, using technology, i.e. chatbots to handle FAQs and then routing to a live agent at the right time.
“One such example is happening right now and illustrates the benefits for the business and for travelers of next-generation call center technology. Flight cancellations are common in the current climate, and this has a direct impact on cruise lines, both for fly-cruise packages and also for passengers who book their flight independently. Call center managers with access to a dashboard providing AI-driven analysis of call transcripts can identify common themes in customer calls and empower agents to respond accordingly.
For example, if the analysis shows that Airline A is announcing flight cancellations that are impacting departures, agents can be prepared for the calls to come by having access to Airline B as an alternative. This helps the solution rate for the call center and the sentiment rating from the client.”
Digital Tech Solutions to Support Call Centres
- Connecting products like Vonage, Service Cloud, Sales Cloud, Einstein, and other Salesforce APIs gives companies the data they need at the right time and the right touchpoint with an all-in-one snapshot or dashboard of customer experience analytics.
- Implementing automated call handling helps teams to see if specific marketing campaigns are driving inquiries.
- Having a CRM that is fully integrated allows any team member to see the complete customer journey providing a 360° customer view.
- By tracking calls, companies identify where calls are coming from and the triggers with geographic location and web pages viewed before coming into the call centre.
- Equip agents with relevant customer information within the CRM.
- Delivering a self-service option using a chatbot and IVR with the option to move to a live agent.
- Resourcing robust analytics and machine learning-driven chatbots to handle many FAQ and information-only calls.
- Manage workflows and automated processes with CRM tools—equips your Call Centre with workflows that guide your agents with contextual and dynamic information driven by business processes.
Customer-service representatives (CSRs) have the opportunity to create seamless experiences for customers while closing sales. This McKinsey & Company article discusses skills for mastering the revenue opportunity. “CSRs therefore need a holistic view of each customer (including interaction history), together with more-sophisticated tools to sell, support, and guide customers. These steps involve costs, but a careful balancing of net-promoter scores and return-on-investment data can help leaders make better-informed trade-off decisions.”
Customer Experience Analytics Guide Agents in Closing and Upselling
As Call Centres enrich data gathering from search behaviours and web journeys—agents are supplied with details to personalise and up-sell to a more engaged customer. With actionable insights for marketing, agents can be provided with real-time actions to help to guide the sales journey.
The insights gathered from call centre interactions should not be underestimated. Just as the FAQ page of your website or chatbot shows where customers need the most assistance—call centre data to help identify triggers, keywords, and where turning points occur in each booking journey.
These CRM data points can then be used to recommend promotions, guide call centre agents to ask the right questions, give the correct answers, upsell additional products, and convert successfully.
About Unify
Unify Agency uses the power of data empowering travel, financial or manufacturing businesses with a single customer view and their CRM data to drive smarter business decisions and create better customer experiences. Contact us!