Interaction tracking: As operators adhere to customer preferences and diversify communication channels, it's easy to lose sight of what is being communicated. To address this growing problem, it is important to intentionally track how effective communications are across each medium. For example, did the customer receive the message? If so, what was the near-term reaction? Was it a positive experience or did it result in a more expensive interaction later on down the line? Operators are now using Interaction Tracking as a way to quickly assess the value of an interaction channel and tailor their strategy. For example, if only 5 percent of customers are opening email messages, but 25 percent are listening to an automated voice call, that information can help an operator assess the value and expected return from moving traffic from the call center to automated platforms.
Customer relevance: Operators are a trusted source of information and often the communication provided is actually opted-in by the customer. Statistics show that customers are 70-80 percent more likely to open emails and read SMS from operators with which they have relationships. The key to maintain this level of engagement is by providing relevant correspondence across these channels. Operators can tailor communications to customer preferences and gain credibility through personalized cross-sell initiatives.
Operator Customer timeliness: Operators are also dealing with a real-time world and many campaign management systems are simply not built to deal with large sets of real-time data events. Providing a message the day after an outage, or a few hours after a prepaid balance has been depreciated, is too late for the customer. This is especially relevant in the age of social media. Customers expect to be made aware of issues in real-time from their provider. Otherwise they can take to social channels such as Twitter and Facebook to determine if other customers are having the same problem. Once customers start to rely on other sources for information, their relationship with the operator begins to degrade. To avoid such situations, operators need to make a plan for how they will address these types of situations before they reach a breaking point.
Focusing on the customer and the impact of each interaction is a critical factor in turning customer communications into valuable interactions for both the customer and the operator. By taking a closer look at how to unlock more value from their customer interactions operators will not only position themselves to increase customer satisfaction, but drive bottom line results.
