Advanced strategies to optimize your contact center
In the industrial sector, after-sales service (after-sales service) plays an important role in customer satisfaction, loyalty and the reputation of your brand. Effective after-sales service makes it possible to quickly resolve technical problems, keep equipment running and ensure the continuity of customer operations.
However, industrial contact centers often face specific challenges, such as product complexity, diverse technical issues, and high customer requirements. These challenges can hamper service efficiency and hinder customer satisfaction.
The importance of after-sales service in industry
After-sales service is a key element in the value chain of manufacturing companies. It contributes to:
- Reduce unplanned downtime: Effective after-sales service makes it possible to quickly diagnose and resolve technical problems.
- Gaining market share: An efficient after-sales service can be a differentiating factor compared to competitors.
- Reduce maintenance costs: Proactive service can help prevent major breakdowns and reduce long-term maintenance costs.
Diagnosis and evaluation of your existing processes
1. Audit of your communication channels (telephone, email, chat, etc.):
Assessing the communication channels your contact center uses is critical to understanding how customers interact with your service and identifying potential areas for improvement.
Common communication channels used in industrial service include telephone, email, online chat, online portals, and social networks. It is important to analyze the use of each channel to determine:
- The volume of requests received by each channel.
- Average problem resolution time per channel.
- The level of customer satisfaction for each channel.
- The cost of managing each channel.
By analyzing the strengths and weaknesses of each channel, you can make informed decisions to optimize resource allocation and improve customer experiences.
Methodologies for measuring the effectiveness of each channel:
Several methods can be used to measure the effectiveness of each communication channel:
Historical data analysis: Examining historical customer interaction data, such as the number of requests, resolution times, and satisfaction scores, can provide valuable insights into the effectiveness of each channel.
Customer Survey: Surveying your customers to get their impressions of the different communication channels they use can help you identify the strengths and weaknesses of each channel.
A/B testing: Testing different approaches to managing requests across channels, such as using chatbots or a QR code, can help you determine how best to serve your customers on each channel.
2. Using data to identify areas of friction
By analyzing customer feedback, you can identify areas of friction in your service process, such as long wait times, difficulties in reaching an agent, or resolving faults.
By identifying these friction points, you can take steps to correct them and improve the customer experience.
It is important to offer your customers the opportunity to choose the communication channel that best suits them. This makes it possible to meet their individual preferences and improve their comfort when interacting with your contact center.
According to A Salesforce study carried out in 2022, while the telephone remains the preferred communication channel for customers (59%), the use of video chat has grown rapidly in recent years, with a rate of 21% between 2020 and 2022.
This trend highlights the importance of offering diversified communication options and integrating innovative technologies such as video assistance by telephone.
3. Assessment of the skills and effectiveness of your teams
Assessing the skills and effectiveness of your experts as well as your field technicians is essential to ensure that they provide a quality service.
Several methods can be used to assess your teams:
- Observation of recorded calls: Observing your teams' phone call management can give you insight into their communication and problem-solving skills.
- Evaluating the performance of your contact center: Evaluate agent performance based on metrics such as average resolution time, first call resolution rate, and customer satisfaction scores.
- Self-assessment: Asking your teams to self-assess can help them identify their own strengths and weaknesses.
Importance of continuing education
Continuing education is essential to keep the skills of your teams up to date and to enable them to keep up with the latest technological developments and best practices in the sector.
Technological integration and automation
1. Emerging technologies:
Integrating emerging technologies and automating your service processes can transform your contact center by making it more efficient, more accurate, and more customer-centric.
Artificial intelligence (AI) and advanced ticketing systems are among the emerging technologies that can revolutionize industrial service.
THE AI: AI-based chatbots like our PASS can provide 24/7 online support, answer frequently asked questions, provide technical documentation to solve simple problems, and even direct inquiries to the most qualified experts.
Advanced ticketing systems: Les advanced ticketing systems like Kolus can automate the process of creating and managing tickets, track the status of support requests, and provide detailed reports on the performance of your service department.
Video assistance: Integrating video assistance solutions like Kolus's into your service contact center can offer numerous advantages:
- Faster problem diagnosis and resolution: Video assistance allows experts to see the incident in real time, which can facilitate the diagnosis and resolution of technical problems.
- Reduction in the travel of itinerant technicians: Video assistance can reduce the travel needs of field teams, which can translate into significant cost savings.
- Improving customer satisfaction: Video support can provide a more personal and engaging customer experience, which can improve satisfaction.
2. Process automation:
Automating repetitive, manual tasks can free up your service teams to focus on more complex, value-added tasks, which can reduce response times and improve accuracy.
For example, automation can be used to:
- Qualifying customer requests: Identify the type of problem and direct the request to the most qualified agent or team using PASS.
- Send automated notifications: Inform customers about the status of their request, appointments with field technicians, and important updates.
- Generate automated reports: Get information on the performance of your service department, problem trends, and areas for improvement.
Examples of processes that can be automated:
Making an appointment: Your customers can schedule appointments with your technicians directly via a Chatbot on your website or by scanning a QR code on your equipment.
Spare parts requests: Customers can order spare parts online and track their delivery status.
Call routing: Our automatic routing system can direct calls to the most qualified agents based on the type of problem, customer language, or other criteria.
FAQ answers: The PASS, our chatbot, or interactive voice response (IVR) systems can answer frequently asked questions, freeing up your experts to deal with the most complex problems.
3. Interconnectivity of your systems:
Seamless communication between the various platforms used by your contact center, such as CRM, ERP, CMMS, and communication tools, is essential for a smooth customer experience and effective operations management.
Integrating these systems can allow you to:
- Share information in real time between your experts :
Allow your agents to access relevant customer and status information in real time. - Have a complete view of customer history :
Access customer information, such as past interventions and interactions with customer service regardless of the source (telephone, chatbot, e-mail, etc.), from a single platform.
Continuous monitoring, measurement and optimization
Establishing relevant key performance indicators (KPIs) is essential for measuring the effectiveness of your contact center and identifying potential areas for improvement.
What KPIs should you follow to measure the effectiveness of your contact center?
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How many support requests do you receive per day, per week, per customer, and per device?
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Where do your requests come from (email, phone, chat, etc.)?
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How many requests are pending and how many have been processed?
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What are the most common problems?
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How long does it take to respond to a request?
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How long does it take to fix a problem?
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How many issues are resolved upon first contact?
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How many requests are pending and for how long?
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What do your customers think of your support?
- How to make a difference between the two:
Who are your most successful experts?
- '():
Is it easy for your customers to solve their problems independently?
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How many calls are forwarded to other services?
How to use these KPIs to make strategic decisions?
By analyzing your KPIs, you can identify trends and areas where your contact center can improve. You can then use this information to make strategic decisions, such as:
- Reallocate resources: assign more technicians to channels that have a high TMA or a high average resolution rate
- Train your teams: Identify areas where your service agents need additional training and provide targeted support.
- Update your service processes: identify inefficient processes and adapt them to improve efficiency
- Investment in technology: invest in new technologies such as video assistance and Ticketing from Kolus that can help improve your KPIs.
