The share of GenZ is becoming larger and larger among modern consumers, and if we look at the stats, those born between 1997 and 2012 could become the main target of future-proof businesses. With more than $143BN in spending power these days, Zoomers, amassing over 40% of worldwide consumers, is the core element around which customer services build their strategies and behaviors.
The relationship between consumers and the assistance of customer support agents must not just be a match made in heaven but also come with an ultimate goal. What businesses must achieve these days from interactions with the younger generation is respect, which only comes by offering answers to questions, solutions to problems, and highly satisfying cooperation over the phone or through the business website.
One of the main priorities for investment in your business should necessarily be your customer support’s advancement of operations, and the areas of improvement existing in almost every enterprise are as follows.
Mobile-friendly experiences
Customer support, as with any type of service, comes down to offering consumers the best experience possible on all fronts, whether we’re looking at the mobile gate or the in-store environment. As research reveals, smartphones are the main smart device choice for 3 out of 4 zoomers, having them consume around 375 minutes on-screen per day. For this reason, there aren’t only the customer agents in charge of providing qualitative services and abiding by customer service etiquette, but also the employing company, which can only ensure the right environment for employees to perform at their best if they’re delivering the right tools and equipment.
The proper, customer- and employee-oriented technology and tools to assist the team during their job will bridge the gap between them and the caller while setting a strong foundation for long-term success. Through this, we mean offering possibilities like callback options. Often, the callers’ volume and the bandwidth to answer each requester simply get out of control, which is why the callback option can prove a blessing in disguise.
Also known as a virtual hold, such practice decreases the number of callers kept on hold and having their nerves tested, offering them the possibility of hanging up and waiting for the CS agent’s callback once they’re free. This is the key to keeping every customer calm and satisfied, which takes us to the following modern trick – the hold music.
Music for their ears
Literally, playing some strategically chosen songs and musical notes for customers who are kept on hold for any period of time can work wonders, especially if you consider how impatient and demanding consumers are becoming by the day. Callers want quick and prompt solutions for their issues – preferably, have them solved before your agent can even answer the phone. This, unfortunately, is not a feasible thing, regardless of how many AI-driven tools and systems you implement.
What can, nevertheless, take customers’ experiences to the next level when they need over-the-phone CS help is adding on-hold music suitable for the services offered, the type of customers soliciting the service, the purpose behind their waiting, and several other factors that you’re deliberately considering. You can instill optimistic and lively feelings, make customers feel relaxed and as if they’re contributing to their own journey, or engage every step of the proves. You can choose different sensations and moods that you want to be evoked, some specific sounds your customers would rejoice over, and other special features that are easily graspable at Melody Loops, easing both your CS’ work and customers’ waiting. This practice helps boost customer retention numbers, which you’ll see quickly after completing such an upgrade.
Possibilities are endless, and it’s only up to you how much your interest in your customers’ CS experience reflects in the techniques you adapt to make their waiting smoother. Indeed, no one wants angry customers who feel like their nerves are being stepped on, but it’s sometimes an easily neglectable aspect. Take the matter into your own hands and adapt your CS strategy to the customers’ wants and needs – just like you would with your offerings.
Omnichannel support
Consumers are won over by answers and solutions for even their most specific and difficult questions offered at a brisk pace, which more and more often translates to the lack of necessity of interacting with agents. Instead, what Zoomers want today is effortless, straightforward communication that takes two forms:
- They either want to have their questions already formulated and answered, which comes in the form of abundant answering sections in FAQs
- They want a highly receptive chatbot or live agent to tackle issues with them on the spot and as they go.
A perfect example to gain inspo from can be the strenuous effort put in by consumers today to prevent communication with agents, even if those imply scrolling through webpages on end related to their issues or questions. When the internet inquiries and indexes fail to help them out, they accept to squeeze their patience and receive a human-crafted answer by communicating with CS agents. At that point, when they are already boiling, the last thing you want is to have an agent answer them rudely, boringly, vaguely, and so on. This is the point where employees should know that they can come across all sorts of irritated employees, so taking any interaction personally is a no-no.
The strategies offered can take several forms, like product pages, FAQs, and callback widgets, all aimed at assisting consumers to get in touch with agents without literally using their voice. Brands may provide callers excellent and rapid support through approaches that push them to decrease call volumes, waiting times, hold times, and the overall vocal implication of a designated CS agent.
In a nutshell
As you’re already aware, given the fast-paced lifestyle and continuously more rapid solution-receiving tendencies in companies, all that a customer may understand are lengthy on-hold waiting, buggy CS chats, slow over-the-text answers from agents, and anything that can uselessly have them wasting their time in vain.
Consider the three tips above for they have the power to completely boost your CS’ service quality and watch how your customer retention numbers grow little by little.
