By Bryan Gray, Alorica
As
the retail industry transitions to a digitally-driven customer experience,
companies are faced with the difficult task of creating an exceptional customer
journey online. Digitization has drastically changed the way shoppers are
engaging with retailers, with increased demand for self-service solutions. This
new demand has resulted in more businesses implementing automation technologies
such as chatbots and virtual assistants, to help make consumer interactions
smarter, faster, easier and more accessible. Specifically, in the retail
industry, technology has increased the complexity creating a transformative
customer experience. It’s not enough anymore to deliver quality service fast — retailers
must be smarter and more strategic.
Celebrating
its 20th year in business, Alorica, a global leader in customer experience solutions, calls
this shift in consumer inquiries the CX
Continuum — the customer service interactions that remain after
self-serve automation. These interactions are more complicated, longer in duration
and in need of better-equipped customer experience associates. CX is at the
heart of our clients’ business and ours — this objective still takes priority
regardless of the varied options of distribution channels, from the simplest
automated transactions to the most high-touch, problem-solving calls.
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This
digital transformation has impacted the number of daily transactions and has
compounded the intricacy level of consumer needs that cannot be self-served. If
most retailer interactions with shoppers were automated, the remaining
inquiries would tend to be higher in difficulty; these are interactions that
cannot be resolved through simple automation. An example of a basic interaction
would be a general billing question or the usual “where’s my stuff?” inquiry. A
complex interaction could include troubleshooting a device or returning an item.
As
digitization has paved the way for more complicated consumer interactions,
there’s more need to hire a new breed of customer experience associates — those
with strong critical thinking abilities and a robust general skillset to field
these complex inquiries. We call these associates “super agents.” In today’s
digital age, retail shoppers often have existing knowledge of products via
online research; therefore, their questions are typically more specific and
require a more detailed response. The average customer’s product knowledge has
altered the way brick-and-mortar and online sales are handled to adapt to the shopper’s
needs. This includes changing the dialogue, from asking why a consumer should
buy the product or service to explaining how the product or service can solve a
problem.
For
retailers to successfully implement digitization into their transformative
customer experience, fundamental shifts in hiring practices, onboarding and the
technologies used to support “super agents” who handle complex inquiries need
to take place. Companies also need to implement an employee-first culture that positions
employees as brand ambassadors, as these transactions are often the determining
factor in whether shoppers believe in the brand or not. How customer experience associates respond during these
interactions is how brand loyalty is defined.
Bryan Gray is a Senior Vice President, Client
Solutions at Alorica.
In this role, Gray identifies new business opportunities with existing clients,
many in the retail space, in the pursuit of optimizing profitable revenue and
increase market share.
