Watch Out and Get Your Mind Off COVID-19 with these Latest Social Media Trends

The epidemic has been a difficult situation for all of us. Things have been going down for a long time now. Amid this chaos, living at home to prevent its spread has been a daunting task for people around the world.

Whether it is children or adults, we have all reached the point of complete anger. And the thing that has kept us going amid this situation is social media. Despite all its controversial issues, it was the only entertainment for most people.Live Streaming Will Always be Popular

The global health crisis of 2020 saw many businesses go digital but was unable to maintain social confusion and prevent the spread of COVID-19. Face-to-face meetings turned into Zoom conferences and live concerts turned into live streams of artists playing in their homes.

So naturally, there is a rise in the use of live streaming features on social media. Facebook has seen a huge increase in messaging and live streaming, especially in the most influential areas of COVID-19 such as Italy. For example, the number of views on Instagram and Facebook Live doubled there in just one week.

As the situation continues to emerge in 2022, people have become accustomed to being able to communicate with products live without leaving their homes. So live streaming will continue to gain popularity and should definitely be part of your social media marketing strategy.News as a Content Format

More than 500 million users are connected to Instagram news every day. So even though Instagram news has already become a prominent content format for the past year, it is not going to be anytime soon.

Products will need to take a more organized approach and organize News as a content format for their publishing calendars if they do not. Most importantly, the use of video as the news will increase because it seems to outperform images.

A study found that images in the News had a higher pull rate of 5.65% than videos. The referral rate is the number of people who have seen your Story move to the next before completing it. The same analysis also found that photos in the News had more drawings than videos, indicating that people tend to spend more time watching videos.

Not surprisingly, 51% of products already use videos in the news, and the price is likely to increase by 2022. The Reality Is that It Will Start to Become Very  Popular on Social Media

Between orders for homestay and the need for social isolation, people want more meaningful communication almost. Virtual (VR) is one of the current technologies that can provide that connection.

Working with people on VR gives you the feeling that you are really together even if they are in the middle of the world. This is the kind of experience people need at a time when they have to distance themselves from society.

2022 is likely to see the real reality gaining more popularity on social media as platforms move forward with the installation of this technology.

Take Facebook Horizon, for example. Since the beginning of 2021, Facebook has been using Oculus VR a beta test platform a visual world that allows people to explore, connect with others, and play games.

Anticipating the latest trends in social media today can help you build a solid future for the future. You will just know what to look for and how to change your social strategy according to current social trends.

Top Picks for the Best Customer Service Facts, Statistics, and Quotes

The digital revolution continues to cause notable changes and shifts in customer attitudes and expectations. While customer service teams are also expected to adapt and rejig their strategies to meet modern needs, it’s always helpful to have facts and figures available to help teams make informed decisions. Right below are some of our top picks for the best customer service facts, statistics, and quotes.

Bad customer service will cost your business dearly!

1. 50% of Americans would stop a planned transaction due to poor customer service.

             American Express 2017 Customer Service Barometer

2. 33% of Americans say they may switch companies after a single bad service experience.

              American Express 2017 Customer Service Barometer

3. Businesses in the US lose about $62 billion yearly due to poor customer service.

              New Voice Media

4. While Americans will tell only 11 people about excellent service experience, they’ll tell 15 people about a poor experience.

            American Express 2017 Customer Service Barometer

Great customer service boosts business profits and revenue!

5. 70% of US consumers are likely to spend more on companies with great service delivery.

          American Express 2017 Customer Service Barometer

6. A 5% increase in customer retention can boost profits by about 25% to 95%.

         Bain & Company

7. More millennials are willing to spend more if provided with great service.

        American Express 2017 Customer Service Barometer

8. Acquiring new customers can be anywhere from five to twenty-five times more expensive than to retain current ones.

        Harvard Business Review

What do consumers think?

9. Feeling unappreciated would make customers switch companies more than any other reason.

        Newvoicemedia.com

10. 77% of consumers would recommend a business to their friends after a positive experience

       Temkin Group

11. 81% of Americans feel like businesses are meeting service expectations today compared to 67% in 2014.

      American Express 2017 Customer Service Barometer

12. It is still true that customers remember the service a lot longer than they remember the price.

      Lauren Freedman of the E-tailing Group

When it comes to service, going the extra mile pays!

13. As much as 75% of consumers would like to reach a live agent faster.

        Harris Interactive

14. 61% of US adult consumers would prefer to do business with companies offering consistent customer services online and offline.

        Forrester

15. More than 62% of consumers attribute a recent positive experience to the resourcefulness and pleasant nature of a service representative.

       American Express 2017 Customer Service Barometer

16. Your customers should not be viewed as problems. They are a part of the solution so you should ask them to be part of it.

       Alan Weiss, speaker, and author.

Social media is a great avenue for service!

17. 53% of Americans are more likely to post about positive service experiences on social media compared to about 35% who would post about poor experiences.

        American Express 2017 Customer Service Barometer

18. The average wait time to engage your customers on social media is nine hours.

       Shep Hyken, The 2015 Customer Experience Outlook

19. About 35% of customers have reached out to companies on social media compared to just 23% and 17% in 2014 and 2012 respectively.

      American Express 2017 Customer Service Barometer

20. Recommendations from friends and colleagues via social media updates are far more likely to result in sales compared to user reviews on platforms like Yelp and Amazon although those are still important too.

      Jason Mittelstaedt, Yellowstone Growth Partners

21. 54% of customers use email customer service channels last year making it the most commonly used digital service channel.

        Forrester

22. Many customers expect email responses under an hour.

         Toister Performance Solutions

23. Knowledge bases are the most-used service channels among consumers.

         Forrester

24. The single most important thing is to make people happy. If you are making people happy, as a side effect, they will be happy to open up their wallets and pay you.”

         Derek Sivers, Founder, CD Baby

25. “Customer service shouldn’t just be a department; it should be the entire company.”

         Tony Hsieh, Founder, and CEO of Zappos

One Contact Center offers call center support and BPO services for small businesses to startups and international brands.

If you’re keen on boosting your customer experience with reliable support services, please, contact us today. We’ll be more than happy to help.

Innovative Reforms in Customer Experience to Pave the Road Post-Pandemic

In the wake of Global Pandemic, that is COVID-19, several brands have incorporated new reforms to their customer experience (CX) to keep up with the uncertain times. The demands of the consumers have changed significantly and in order to keep the business running, companies have to keep pace with these changes. These changes mostly revolve around personalization, flexibility, and choice.

We were able to summarize several innovative approaches that few successful companies adapted during this pandemic to keep their dough rolling:

• Enterprises and contact centers that solely relied on the on-premise type of solutions before pandemic transitioned their operations to cloud-based infrastructure. This was one of the most efficient ways to keep the business running even through the lockdown. All the companies with fast deployment operations had an edge over the others.
  
• Using instant messaging applications rather than relying on verbal communication has saved countless hours. By merely stating the purpose of business through instant messaging platforms including WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, and Line has helped companies streamline their business processes. Instant messaging has also saved time by trying to reach out countless leads without any profitable conversions.
  
• Big enterprises and brands came up with their own applications incorporated with advanced AI to accelerate mobile customer experience. These applications feature in-app communication modes including instant messaging, video chat, and MMS. These cutting-edge features help several brands stand out from their competition.
  
• As the new consumer base shifted to several digital channels, businesses have initiated to develop the quality of their Omni-channels. Through these channels, it is easy to measure the quality of every interaction an agent has with the customer. This type of performance evaluation helps in future training and coaching of the agents situated at remote locations and improves their quality of interactions with potential customers.
  
• Microsoft Teams was officially declared as the most used interactive platform since lockdown. All types of organizations preferred using Microsoft Teams as if offered all types of features with just a click. Contact centers around the globe preferred working on Microsoft Teams as it allowed agents to communicate with each other as well as reach out to any customers effortlessly.
  
• Enabling remote help desk personnel for service management operations has significantly helped companies during these stressful times. Companies have incorporated ITSM, ESM and automated service management to support employees. These cutting-edge technologies have offered a digital platform for employees as well as customers to easily interact with each other. The assistance offered through the self-service options helped employees stay away from stressful situations.
  
• AI has played a vital role in the pandemic by helping companies transition over digital platforms. Embedding AI into operations helped reduce the load on agents and offer quick, effortless, and easy solutions to customers.

In the end, a customer-centric organization should factorize all the different aspects of changing trends due to the pandemic and make internal reforms accordingly. It is essential that customer experience should not be hampered especially through these tough times. A brand that ensures customer satisfaction through such situations is able to rise above all.

To learn more, contact us today.

Maintaining Business Resilience in the Face of a Pandemic

According to a recent Wall Street Journal article, businesses across the world are scrambling for workers to help attend to and filter out customer calls during this pandemic.

Customers are now facing long hours of wait times either listening to less helpful prerecorded messages or recordings relaying messages of unavailable help. Some companies have gone far as restricting customer service to online channels only while some have struck this out completely.

Businesses need to support their customers now, more than ever.

No matter what your business response and strategy to the pandemic may be, it’s important to make clear plans for call center and support services to reduce annoying issues and frustrations on already burdened customers.

With your business clients unable to go out to visit your offices or physical locations for whatever issue they may have, it’s important to find a way to help them solve their problem right from the comfort of their homes. This is why most businesses need to up their support game and direct more attention to customer support via calls, texts, email, chat, and other offline channels.

Maintaining Business Resilience

There’s no doubt that these are tough times for any business. But regardless, many businesses want to stay resilient and cater to their customers as they would normally. This calls for a great deal of innovation and strategy. There’s great hope that we would get the pandemic behind us very soon. So, it makes sense that businesses leverage this moment to add more value to their clients to earn their trust and loyalty, even long after the pandemic is gone.

To do this would require great innovation and a forward-thinking approach. But customer support will always be at the core of each and every one of your business decisions. It’s normal to want to keep your customers as happy and satisfied as you can. The pandemic leaves little to no room for excuse. This is why customer support via phone calls, text messages, live chat, and more should take a place of prominence within your business response to this and any other pandemic.

Conclusion

The pandemic itself remains a threat to customer support services.

This is especially through for businesses that are solely dependent on in-house support teams. Workers are being told to stay home nowadays, leaving a blank for such companies. If your business is struggling to keep up with customer support during these tough times, you should consider outsourcing to a reputable customer support agency. Whether you’re an e-commerce retailer, health and medical organization, and any other business for that matter, you can delegate your support services to a trusted and experience contact center company, rest assured your customers will get the very best of support services even with all of the current challenges brought on by this global pandemic. 

Learn how we can help, do reach out to us as soon as possible. Call 1-888-680-1663 or 1-818-337-1271.

Remote Training Solutions: Training Simulators and More

It is said that dire need gives birth to innovations. The same is the case when we consider the pandemic of COVID-19. Several ground-breaking techniques, as well as technologies, were launched to cope up with the on-going lockdown. 

Several organizations had to shift entirely on digital platforms to keep their businesses going. This transition was not easy for everyone and impacted many industries resulting in them losing their business. COVID-19 has left a long-lasting impact on all the different industrial and business sectors alike.

Customer services remained the critical pillar of all the businesses. Developing these customer services would make or break any industry, even in this pandemic. However, making customer services efficient by giving excellent training was one of the primary challenges. By doing in-depth research, we developed a few feasible solutions that can be undertaken even in this lockdown.

Training Simulators

was one of the optimum solutions we came across.

We know that customers are the most valuable assets of any company. In an organization, there could be a possibility that a frontline employee would have to deal with customers and clients with little or no training whatsoever. To deal with this problem, organizations can integrate simulation training for new employees and introduce their workforce to user-friendly digital platforms. These simulators are the turnkey solutions that could allow any industry to train the recruits effortlessly. 

• The simulation could create a safe environment for learning, and employees could work on it without costing the company any materialistic loss. 

• This simulation could help train the employees in sales, services, and various technical support jobs.

• Designing the training simulation can be done so that it would mirror the interface of the company’s system. 

• This simulation technique would help the employee develop their soft skills, practice different scripts, and use proper voice modulation. 

• Training simulation also offers extra features such as data analysis tools. Identifying the employee’s caliber, determining the knowledge gap between employees, classes, and trainers can be quickly resolved using these tools. This information is useful in setting the curriculum for continuous growth. 

Few other solutions are as follows:

Managers Have toEvolve, Adapt, and Conquer

When it comes to training new employees, managers should use the latest digital forms of communication. They should be well prepared to use different platforms to communicate and train new employees online. In the “new normal,” leaders are going to be the new learners.

Promote and Enhance Digital Learning

It could be ideal for making e-learning courses for recruits. They could go through these courses and learn about the company’s values and policies. It would also help give unified training to all the company employees to streamline the whole operations of the industry.

Preparing for the Unknown Outcome

Perseverance is the key to success. The new challenge would keep on popping up, but it is essential not to get disheartened and throw your hands in the air. Anything is possible through thoughtful and strategic decision making. It is vital to consider all the odds while making any decisions.

Micro-Planning

Letting the pandemic situation settle and take its due course is not an option fancied by many organizations. The threat of losing the clients and market share overshadows the danger of a pandemic. This threat has surged the need to micro-plan each and everything. Managers should understand when to reschedule or cancel the training due to the ramp up demand for several services. The workers must always be on their A-game, so it is essential to prioritize the type and quality training that needs to be given to the employee. Furthermore, it is also necessary to evaluate every outcome of the training and keep track of each new employee’s progress.

Even in the most trying times, keeping the customer services at the optimum helps you build a business. It is vital to recognize the changes and to embrace it positively with efforts. However, many organizations find themselves at a roadblock, not able to decide how to move ahead. 

To learn more about delivering superior customer experience for your customers, clients, and prospects, email me at armando@onecontactcenter.com or call me 1(513) 510 0604.

How to Hire High-Performing Customer Service Employees to Work Remotely

If your business is like most others, you’re probably seeing an upsurge in customer service demands amid the coronavirus. Chances are you’ll need to hire more customer service representatives to work remotely in a bid to ramp up your customer service efforts.

If you’re contemplating the same thing, you probably want to ensure you hire top performers who your clients and customers would be happy to work with. These individuals can help you achieve and even exceed your targets. They’re not unicorns and with the right strategy and knowledge of what your hiring process should look like, and proper recruiting skills, you can find them!

Updating Your Job Descriptions to Highlight Customer Service Representative Responsibilities

Customer service representatives are tasked with helping businesses develop strong relationships with their clients/customers but this role is as broad as it gets.

There’s a need for a proper understanding of customer service representative responsibilities as regards the roles that need to be filled. This will help give your job descriptions laser precision to attract the right talents for specific customer service roles. While companies differ from each other, here are four customer service roles you might need to fill;

Roles	Responsibilities
Customer Service Representative	1.     Handles basic data entry tasks2.     Attends to customer inquiries via telephone calls, email, online chat, etc
Senior Customer Service Representative	1.     Handles the responsibilities of a customer service representative, like the above.2.     Handles database and records management3.     Handle tricky customer service situations and customer support escalations4.     Involvement in employee training and supervision.
Call Center Representative	1.     Typically handles high volume phone calls in call centers.2.     Roles in inbound call centers can include responding to customer inquiries and other issues via phone, routing calls to the appropriate teams or departments, etc3.     Roles in outbound call centers can include placing calls to other businesses, customers, prospects for product/service offerings, customer information acquisition, lead generation, etc.
Senior Call Center Representative	1.     Handles basic call center representative responsibilities.2.     May be involved in the training, supervision, and management of call center reps.3.     Required to maintain proactive communication with clients and prospects and so must have a good grasp of the company’s products and services, accounts, and work experience.4.     May be required to handle upselling and similar processes.

Highlighting Skill Preferences and Requirements

Every hiring manager wants to hire great customer service reps.

But saying that you only want great employees does not automatically solve the problem. Along with clearly defined job roles and responsibilities, you also have to be specific about what skills are required and preferred to fill the vacant roles. Here’s a list of some of the top skills required for customer service roles;

•  A reasonable level of experience with customer service
•  Significant market knowledge and product knowledge since they’ll often have to take questions from customers and prospects about the company’s products and services.
•  Data entry skills and basic computer skills
•  Phone handling and active listening skills
•  Decent people skills, negotiation, and communication skills
•  Professional demeanor and a generally positive attitude

Managing Candidate Interviews Effectively

While there will be a huge pool of candidates you can always tap from, especially when you’re hiring customer service reps to work remotely, you want to ensure you only end up with top-performing professionals.

You have to be well-prepared for the candidate interviewing process. Even the candidates you don’t hire should not have a negative view of your company. Along with reviewing resumes properly and making notes on areas of interest, you’ll have to ensure you assess candidates’ communication skills and professionalism accurately.

And now that most job interviews now take place online with video chats or via phone calls, due to the coronavirus pandemic, the challenges are now even more significant.

•  What qualities can you deduce from their attitude, personality, and demeanor?
•  Do they ask questions or shy away from this when it appears they need more clarity? Bits from here can send signals about the candidates’ professionalism and communication skills.

What about the right questions to ask?

You might ask questions such as those that test their knowledge of your company’s products or services. While they necessarily don’t have to be an expert at this point, they should at least have done a bit of research and should have a grasp of what it is your company does.

You can also test their knowledge of customer experience by asking questions such as whether they’ve ever had to deal with a frustrated customer or even if they’ve experienced a special customer service experience or moment, personally. You just have to ask the right set of questions similar to these to help you get a better understanding and assessment of the candidate.

How Much to Pay Your Customer Service Employees?

While a lot of variables will come into play, the typical pay for customer service representatives can range from $21k to $45k, according to PayScale. That may appear a bit modest, compared to Salary.com’s figure of about $36k to $48k, eventually putting the average salary for customer service representatives at $41, 260.

Need Help with Customer Support?

Customer service and support is a non-negotiable aspect of doing business, especially now that the coronavirus has put even more strain on businesses. The problem for most small businesses and startups, however, is the lack of financial resources to assemble and maintain a stellar customer service team.

But you don’t need to spend more money on assembling an in-house team when you could re-direct that money elsewhere and get excellent customer support for your customers for far less.

If you’re keen on delivering superior customer experience for your customers, clients, and prospects, email me at armando@onecontactcenter.com or call me 1(513) 510 0604. We have over 20 years of experience in hiring the best talents while reducing cost per hire.

7 + 1 Must-Have Recruiting Skills for Success in a Post-COVID Talent Market

A career in recruiting is as challenging as it is exciting.

Despite the added challenges brought on by the coronavirus pandemic, this industry has largely managed to survive, thanks to the incredible resilience and ingenuity of recruiting professionals. While we can’t deny that COVID-19 has impacted the recruiting sector immensely, we’ve detailed some of the core skills and attributes that could help recruiting teams and hiring managers succeed in the current COVID-hit job market.1. Innovation and Creativity

To attract the right talents to fill open roles, recruiters need to create memorable recruitment experiences to stand out from the sea of other competing recruiters and companies. This is where innovation and creativity come in. This should extend to every part of the recruiting process from sourcing to outreach, interviewing, hiring, and more.2. Proactiveness and Problem-solving Skills

From making fast moves to set up workers for telecommuting to creating virtual candidate experiences, recruiting professionals have to be comfortable under pressure and in the face of sudden changes to be able to properly handle emerging workforce challenges.3. Listening and Communication Skills

Creating strong and productive interview processes, managing candidate experiences, and discovering what candidates, team members, and other stakeholders are looking for in new hires require great listening and communication skills. Adjusting interview questions to conversations, being friendly and personable, proper structuring of messages, and being able to deliver both positive and negative feedback, among other efforts will help improve listening and communication skills.

4. Interpersonal Skills

Social distancing in the era of the coronavirus now means that communications and connections between recruiters and clients or candidates will be mostly virtual.

Still, clients want recruiters to exhibit deep expertise, trustworthiness, and responsiveness, among other traits. To succeed, recruitment professionals will require the best possible interpersonal and communication skills to adapt to the reality and challenges of a post-COVID job sector.5. Critical Thinking and Analytical Skills

Recruitment professionals have to be proactive.

This, of course, requires thinking ahead and as well as leverage available data to gain insights and discover emerging trends. Professionals must develop an entrepreneurial mindset in this regard, to easily and quickly identify current workforce challenges, future-proof their businesses and operations, and create new opportunities for their clients.6. Organizational Skills

Lots of companies will want to rehire employees furloughed or laid off during the COVID-19 crisis. Some others will need to hire new talents to fill open roles and positions. Whatever the case may be, recruiting professionals will need top-notch organizational skills to win here.

Recruiters will have to manage different candidates at different stages of the interviewing process without overlooking or losing high-quality candidates in the pile of resumes.

They’ll need to follow up on candidates that are the right fit for the company. Managing multiple candidates and different phases will require the right tools and skills to help recruiters stay organized and productive to ensure the best possible candidate experience.

Image Credit: Job Scan Blog

7. Empathy and Intellectual Curiosity

Recruiting professionals must exhibit a keen desire to understand the different aspects and goals of their clients’ businesses. This show of empathy and intellectual curiosity should be manifested in how deeply they care for the businesses’ workforce as well as being a proactive force behind the businesses’ workforce strategies. Above all, the clients’ goals must be seen and used as a measure of performance, on the part of recruiters.

8. Change Management Skills

Lastly, recruiters must show enough ability and capacity to initiate and navigate discussions around changes and transformation. It’s obvious that change management skills will be a critical factor for success in a post-COVID workforce. Recruiters must be able to proactively identify and handle changes and develop plans wherever and whenever they are needed.

Need to create better and more positive experiences for clients, candidates, and others?

You’ll be better off with a dedicated support agency to help your business grow. If this sounds like something your recruiting business will need (and it should!), email me: armando@onecontactcenter.com or call me: 1(513) 510 0604.

How to Adapt Recruiting to COVID-19

This pandemic has already forced millions out of work and at the same time opening new roles and challenges for HR and recruiting teams. While COVID-19 threatens every area of business and work, recruiting is one key aspect you’ll never want to abandon as the need for hiring and talent acquisition will still be key for business success and continuity.

We have compiled this post to help you understand how to adapt your recruiting strategies for success in the era of the coronavirus. Leggo!

1. Improve Your Employer Brand

A lot of hiring and rehiring will need to be done.

To attract the best talents, efforts should be made to make your employer brand more relevant, credible, and distinctive. Employers should come across as supportive and empathetic, considering the times we are in. These efforts should include leveraging web, social, and other digital platforms to shape how candidates view your company in order to leverage this advantage for your staffing and recruitment processes.

2. Consider Remote Working

Remote working has been dragging on for some time, and the pandemic has given this a further push. While only about 7% of US employees were working from home before the pandemic happened, a recent Gallup research revealed that about 62% of US workers now work from home due to the coronavirus. While hiring remote employees could be quite challenging, recruiters should nevertheless put plans in place for passive recruitment strategies and to accommodate remote working skills. Not only will this reduce job loss and boost productivity, it could also provide an edge for recruiters in a labor market where 54% of workers are now willing to quit their jobs for one that allows them to work remotely.

3. Make Informed Decisions

HR teams and recruitment professionals will have to make certain decisions that could impact the company’s hiring and staffing needs. It’s very important to leverage accurate facts and data to help you make better-informed decisions while comparing and contrasting strategies. Professionals should not shy away from using the necessary tools and resources for analytics to ascertain what works and what doesn’t.

4. Improve Candidate Engagement and Nurturing

Employers need to find ways to continue nurturing relationships with their candidates to increase their odds of acceptance and success in a COVID-disrupted labor market. Developing nurturing programs and creating a brand community, among other things will help keep candidates engage throughout and after the recruiting process. This will also prove vital towards building a talent pipeline that never runs dry.

5. Create a Plan for Communication

Whether it’s dealing with prospective candidates or furloughed workers you’re planning to bring back on board, later on, ensuring genuine communications will help ensure that people feel valued. This will also help ensure the company engages its people (both workers and candidates) and never loses existing relationships. This will also help improve the employer brand as well, so the company can also benefit from improved brand reputation and credibility.

Finally…

Communication can come in different ways, from providing support to offering enough information for candidates and employees. For support, smart businesses, especially small and medium-sized companies engage the services of dedicated outsourcing agencies like One Contact Center to ensure positive experiences for candidates, employees, clients, and more. Your business, as well as its recruiting team, could benefit from this to improve candidate experience and maintain stability in a COVID-hit job market.

Learn what we do naturally to improve candidate and customer experience, brand loyalty, retention, increase in revenue and lower costs. Email me: armando@onecontactcenter.com or call me 1(513) 510 0604.

Leveraging Customer Experience to Win at Retail & Ecommerce

Customer experience is key across every industry.

If there’s a single industry where customer experience matters the most, it would no doubt be the retail and ecommerce sector. According to Statista, global retail sales in 2019 stood at $24.78 trillion. In the US, this industry is the largest private employer with about 29 million people directly or indirectly.

Graph showing retail sales since 2018 (Image Credit: Statista, 2020)

The ecommerce aspect of retail is also a key aspect for retailers to consider.

That sector, according to Oberlo, raked in $3.5 trillion in sales in 2019. While this represents a little over 14% of total retail sales, growth in this sector has been steady over time. Analysts expect this to rise to about 22% by 2023.

Graph showing ecommerce sales since 2017 (Image Credit: Oberlo)

Re-Commerce, Customer Experience & the Coronavirus

The world of retail and ecommerce has always been very competitive and challenging, even before the coronavirus happened. Consumers want the very best and will look elsewhere in most cases, after the smallest inconvenience or a negative experience.

While we won’t overlook the added challenges that COVID-19 has brought for retailers, even that will not be enough excuse in the face of impatient shoppers with high expectations. Talking of challenges, here are a few of the issues many retailers have had to grapple with, in the wake of the coronavirus;

• Inventory shortage risks that could arise from possible disruptions to the global supply chain due to flight restrictions in certain countries and regions of the world as a response to the COVID-19 outbreak.
• Delays in customer shipments that may also occur due to a variety of reasons due to the current crisis.
• Reduced in-store visits as more customers may prefer shopping online to reduce public exposure to ensure social distancing, etc.

Whatever the case may be for your business, you’ll need a solid response to ensure business resilience, ensure smooth operations, complete with responsive customer experience and support.

Leveraging Customer Experience to Unlock Growth

Take this infographic from Unicomcorp, for example;

This infographic shows the grim situation that may play out when a retail business decides to neglect their customer experience, and the COVID-19 situation is unfortunately not an exception. While customers will likely share happy experiences with others, they are often more likely to share negative experiences with even more people.

While the coronavirus might bring on additional operational challenges, keeping customer services at close to 100% will not just make a difference; it can be the key to growth in this sector and at this time.

One Contact Center – Making Your Customers Happy Is Our Hobby

The problem for most retail and ecommerce businesses is that they lack the deep pockets of large companies like Amazon and Walmart to assemble a stellar customer support team. There are dedicated and professional customer support agencies like One Contact Center for those who need to outsource support services.

Learn what we do naturally to improve customer experience, brand loyalty, retention, increase in revenue and lower costs. Email me: armando@onecontactcenter.com or call me 1(513) 510 0604.

COVID-19 Pandemic: How Banking and Financial Services Sector Can Leverage Exceptional Customer Experience to Keep the Lights On

Customer service has always been a key to success in the banking industry.

This has always been the case, even before the COVID-19 pandemic caused the greatest economic disruption that most of us have yet to witness throughout our whole lives. Clients in the financial services sector want personalized services and an exceptional experience. While businesses may think it isn’t fair comparing their service quality to other businesses outside the financial sector, say like Amazon, the modern standard for customer service; as much as 41% of clients may switch banks due to a poor experience.

That is enough to get anyone or a serious business to rethink their strategies.

So, even if you have a good customer service strategy and reputation already, there’s almost always ample room for improvement. This guide will help banks and other players in the financial industry to get a better glimpse of how they can improve customer service, in these most challenging times. But before then, perhaps we should take a close look at the current state of health of the financial services sector.

Implications of the COVID-19 Pandemic in the Financial Services Sector

The financial industry, much like every other sector did not have the luxury of time to respond and adjust to the current coronavirus pandemic. This industry was in a very good position, stronger than anything we’ve seen since the 2008 financial crisis. The unprecedented growth in this sector, coupled with the impressive digital transformation going on in the sector, have however been threatened by the coronavirus.

It’s no longer business as usual and hardly will banking ever be the same again. Banks and other businesses must adapt their services and operation to the current reality. These businesses and employees must also rethink how they conduct businesses as well as how consumers get to manage their finances.

There is a need for a comprehensive reinvention amidst the disruption. Players in the financial sector must understand how consumers expect them to respond to their financial needs at a time like this. A whole lot of aspects of the financial services industry need reevaluation from how companies use data to impact marketing and innovation to how they can improve the digital delivery of financial products and services for the best possible customer experience.

Redefining Service in the Age of the Coronavirus

At a time like this, banks and financial institutions have a duty to reach out to their customers to show genuine care and support. Businesses can expect their consumers to need more guidance and advice in these uncertain times. So, there should be strategies to ensure constant updates, education, and engagement.

And as far as customer communication and engagement are concerned, two things are important;

1. Expanding relationships and personalization, and
2. Doubling down on innovation and digitalization

But all of these point to one thing, improving customer experience.

Banks and financial institutions need to commit more efforts to improve customer experience in their bids to build strong and resilient businesses that can survive the pandemic and just about any other crisis.

One Contact Center – Making Your Customers Happy Is Our Hobby

Learn what we do naturally to improve customer experience, brand loyalty, retention, increase in revenue and lower costs. Email me: armando@onecontactcenter.com or call me 1(513) 510 0604.