One customer. One problem. Two very different outcomes…

“My coffee machine isn’t working”

A simple customer query like this one can have two very different outcomes: for your customer, for your contact centre team and for your business.

On one hand, it can be an opportunity to deliver great customer experience, a positive interaction for your staff, and savings on call-out costs.

On the other, it can be a frustrating, time-intensive and costly exercise that leaves a bad feeling with everyone involved, permanently damaging your relationship with the customer and resulting in poor trust scores and reviews online.

So what makes the difference between these two outcomes – and how can you make sure you’re offering the best experience with every tech support exchange?

Offer live chat

Let’s face it, calling a support line and being placed on hold is frustrating: 60% will hang up, and 30% of those will never call back. By the time those who do persevere get through to an operator, they are already irritated – putting your team on the back foot from the off.

By offering an alternative like live chat on your website, you can allow your customers to have more control over the interaction and their time. Once the conversation has started, live chat makes it easier to connect the customer to the right team without a further frustrating hold-music interlude.

Live chat is fast becoming the most effective entry point for customers’ contacting a business for support. To put it in black and white, a survey from Comm100 found that 82% of customers reported feeling satisfied with their live chat, compared to just 44% of audio-only phone users.

Tip: Live Chat is a great way for customers to start their conversation with your team, but make sure that you have an option to easily switch from chat to video call, to create a seamless process for your customer if further support is needed.

Show, don’t tell

So, your customer’s coffee machine isn’t working. How can you assess the problem effectively if you can’t see what’s happening?

In a traditional ‘call centre’ there are only two options. One, start a lengthy dialogue with the customer and ask them to explain the issue, or two, arrange to send out an engineer (which often ends up being the outcome of option one anyway).

But with the contact centre technology that’s available today, there are alternatives. With live video calling, your customer can show the issue, enabling a tech support liaison to quickly identify obvious problems, such as a broken or damaged part. They can then not only talk them through the solution but show them how to fix it remotely. If a replacement part is needed, it can be dispatched quickly, and another video call can be arranged to help with the install.

Video capability makes it much simpler to troubleshoot problems remotely from your contact centre, and often leads to a prompt solution (and a satisfied customer). Even if a quick fix isn’t possible, customers will still feel that the problem has been explored thoroughly, and that their time hasn’t been wasted.

This isn’t just useful for customer support. Video calling is also great for solving internal issues, enabling remote technical support to be centralised and ensuring that your shops, offices or restaurants have easy access to the technical support they need.

Tip: If you have a technical helpline, enable video calling and make sure that engineers or technically trained staff are available. You’ll be able to help a larger volume of customers, at a much quicker pace, while saving on transport and call out costs.

UCtel’s recommended solution: RichCall

The traditional ‘call centre’ is rapidly becoming a thing of the past. Customers expect more from their interactions with technical support, and with RichCall, you can not only meet but exceed these expectation, delivering a richer customer experience from your contact centre.

New to the UK, RichCall offers a flexible, one-touch live support system that allows you to interact effectively with your customers. With RichCall, you can add video, live chat, screen-sharing, one-click communications and much more to your support centres, giving your customers a more intuitive, personal experience.

To see what RichCall can bring to your contact centre, contact UCtel to find out if RichCall is the right solution for you: sales@uctel.co.uk.