Today’s consumers are demanding the convenience to digitally engage with businesses 24/7. Customers don’t want to make a phone call and they don’t want to sit on hold. Instead, they’d prefer to send a quick message from the convenience of their own device.
According to Statista, 87% of smartphone owners use messaging. WhatsApp alone has hit 2 billion users globally, while Facebook Messenger sits in second place with over 1.3 billion users. For contact centers to resolve issues promptly and achieve a high level of customer satisfaction, offering omnichannel customer service is becoming more and more critical. In today’s world, social media is where most customers are. By incorporating social media and messaging apps, contact centers can boost customer experience, improve response times and improve agent productivity - all while lowering the cost to serve.
By offering the convenience that customers are looking for, contact centers can make immediate improvements to critical KPIs including customer satisfaction, agent effectiveness and cost.
Customer Satisfaction
A recent Washington Post Article indicated that 70% of customers prefer to message businesses rather than call them, and customer satisfaction rates are 25% higher over messaging than over the phone. Social media and mobile messaging apps offer consumers a more convenient method to digitally engage with businesses. And convenience is what customers want. By allowing customers to use their preferred channel of communication (WhatsApp, Facebook, Twitter etc), contact centers can increase customer engagement without the customer experiencing the frustration of waiting in a long call queue. The improved customer experience can result in increased customer satisfaction scores.
Average Handle Time (AHT)
Referring to the time from when the agent first answers to when they disconnect, Average Handle Time (AHT) can also be improved by offering social and messaging apps as service channels. Unlike phone calls, agents can handle multiple message conversations simultaneously and take advantage of automated workflows such as response snippets to fast track response times to customers.
Cost Per Call (CPC)
Social media and messaging apps offer a far lower-cost model than voice. By expanding beyond voice to digital service channels, contact centers can reduce costs while deflecting calls to more responsive channels. This results in improved agent productivity, better allocation of resources and an overall improvement in CPC.
Metrics aside, contact centers must adapt to changing consumer demands. It’s time to start behaving the way customers want by providing an omnichannel customer experience. By adding popular social media and mobile messaging apps such as WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger as customer service channels, contact centers can deliver a convenient customer service that ultimately delivers a far greater customer experience.
Considering integrating social media messaging into your contact center operations? Learn how Local Measure Engage for Amazon Connect can help.
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