Do you recall a poor customer experience from a brand before buying their products or services?
Certainly, everybody does. Customers make perceptions about a brand with every interaction. This is why creating a stellar customer experience is crucial.
Customer experience is closely linked to the image of the brand. Therefore, you need to identify and understand the key touchpoints along your customers’ journey, collect feedback to meet their expectations and analyse trends to keep them coming for more.
We know this is easier said than done.
So, we roped in Ian Moyse, Chief Revenue Officer at OneUp Sales, to simplify this process for you.
With over three decades of experience in the tech space, and two awards for the Sales Director of the Year (ISM, BESMA awards), we discussed with Moyse the role of cloud telephony in providing a great customer experience.
1. Tell us about your journey of becoming a cloud computing expert.
My journey has been long and interesting. I started as an analyst before moving to a sales and leadership role in the tech sector.
It was only 15 years ago that I was introduced to the world of cloud security and telephony, and now work in cloud gamification. All this while, I’ve had multiple opportunities to engage with businesses of various sizes and scales across diverse domains. Each interaction has offered valuable insights into the challenges businesses face when moving to the cloud.
2. How can cloud telephony help in driving sales? What are the top cloud solutions that can be beneficial in this regard?
My mantra to driving sales has always been—the better you serve your customers, the faster you grow.
This better service is made possible with the several tools and features of cloud telephony. One of these tools is an Interactive Voice Response (IVR) system that enables you to offer round-the-clock support from all around the globe.
You can now integrate your CRM with an IVR and avail benefits like real-time analytics, call recording, call monitoring, etc. In fact, agents can get in-depth insights about the geography of the caller and their past purchases to offer personalised customer experiences.
Additionally, these solutions are flexible, affordable and customisable, allowing you to convert more leads without burning a hole in your pocket.
3. What is the most crucial aspect of planning a CXM (Customer Experience Management) strategy?
In my experience, a successful customer experience strategy is centred on what matters to customers and what they think about your services.
An organisation often holds a perception about the CX it delivers, but it’s not necessary a customer maintains the same outlook. You must put yourself in your customer’s shoes to understand how your audience feels about your services.
Look at what your competitors offer across different sectors and how it impacts your target audience. Survey your customers and listen to their voices. Take constructive feedback and learn what angers them the most. Offer omnichannel experiences to your customers and learn about their preferences. Know if your customer wants live chat or self-service options. All in all, you must have an understanding of the different life stages of your customer—from the cradle to the grave—and know what forces impact them on this journey.
4. Can you suggest some ways brands can better utilise customer insights to foster stronger customer relationships?
Customer insights are vital tools if your business has an understanding of your audience, their challenges, and how you can engage them. It’s also essential to determine the source of your data, how it is collected and managed.
Once verified, you can use these insights to offer personalised experiences, 24×7 support and foster long-term relationships with your customers.
5. What are your thoughts about implementing self-service options in the customer support department of an organisation?
Self-service options are a great medium to offer instant solutions to customers. However, I feel one must provide an omnichannel experience to retain customers. It enables them to begin their journey on one channel, and continue on another, without losing their preferences.
While many choose self-service options, others are still more comfortable with speaking to a human agent. Therefore, you must offer both options for an enhanced customer experience.
In simpler terms, the more the number of channels you offer, the greater the potential of acquiring and retaining new customers.
6. Do you think the productivity of employees would be affected post-pandemic? If yes, how can cloud telephony help businesses enhance their team efficiency?
I believe people would carry with them the scares of COVID-19 experiences well into the future. The mental stress of increased workload and the pain of losing a loved one will not go away easily.
However, organisations—big or small—can leverage cloud telephony to enhance team efficiency. With cloud tools, agents are able to take calls from anywhere and at any time. This eases their workload tremendously. Moreover, with the gamification of these tools, agents are given a look into how they are performing in the team and help them reach and exceed their goals. This brings some enjoyment and fun back to their work.
You can also use features like call recording, seamless routing, 24×7 support, etc., to boost productivity and save your employees’ time doing repetitive tasks.
7. Sales and marketing teams usually struggle with a lot of post-sales challenges. How do you think the cloud can help in addressing such issues?
Essentially, such challenges occur due to the lack of customer lifecycle management.
Customers are left unanswered or transferred to an inappropriate agent who cannot resolve their queries. This frustrates them, which leads to an abandoned call.
Therefore, after-sales solutions are built on the foundations of correct customer data management, not just in terms of storage, but also in terms of access. Customer history must be made available to all agents at the time of the call to ensure optimum service quality. Companies can also use different mediums such as chatbots, IVR or self-service to identify and understand their customer’s post-purchase queries.
8. What advice would you give to startups to earn customer loyalty?
Customer loyalty comes when you offer solutions according to your customer’s needs and deliver experiences that meet their expectations.
From the moment a customer lands on your website to years after the sale is complete, all the interactions you do with them play a crucial role in the overall customer experience.
Therefore, treat your customer as a person who has challenges and agendas to fulfil. Put yourself into their shoes and modify your solutions to make your customer’s life simpler and more enjoyable.
9. What’s the most insightful book that you read recently? Do you have some recommendations for our readers?
Traction – Get a Grip on your business, by Gino Wickman, is a book that provides a great roadmap to planning and programming growth into your business DNA.
I also recommend Social Selling by Tim Hughes and The Ultimate Linkedin Sales Guide by Daniel Disney.
10. Lastly, how can cloud telephony help businesses maintain pre-pandemic service quality levels in the current times?
Cloud telephony, if done right, can further improve the pre-pandemic service quality.
Legacy phone systems typically bind the business and users to physical devices and locations. In contrast, cloud telephony facilitates employees to work from anywhere in the world, at any given time.
You can seamlessly route calls without exposing your clients’ personal information from any part of the world. You can provide instant solutions, customised experiences, improved communication quality—all with the help of cloud telephony!
To sum up
With this interview, Ian Moyse has not only stressed the importance of offering excellent customer experiences but has also given keen insights on how to achieve it using cloud telephony solutions. You can certainly use these valuable tips to strengthen your business communications and take your customer service to the next level.
Servetel can help you redefine your CX strategies by embracing the power of cloud communications. Call 1800-120-4132 to get in touch with our experts today.
