Does your CX deliver true societal impact?

Due to the influence that customer experience (CX) wields in winning and retaining the hearts and minds of modern-day consumers, businesses use multiple metrics to track, measure and quantify its impact.

By Ben Ramsdale, Chief Strategy Officer at Connect.

Moving beyond traditional metrics

From customer satisfaction (CSAT), net promoter score (NPS) and retention statistics to average handling times (AHT), first contact resolution (FCR) rates and customer lifetime value (CLF), these metrics typically emphasise the utilitarian aspects of contact centre effectiveness and ease of use.

While all critical to delivering exceptional CX that attracts and retains customers, businesses must also consider other soft, less tangible, but no less important metrics like the societal impact that kind and compassionate interactions or seamless, frictionless engagements have on the general public at large.

Acknowledging and quantifying how interactions make customers feel and using those insights to enhance how agents interact with them (especially when dealing with sensitive issues and anyone who finds themselves in a vulnerable or difficult situation) can have a beneficial impact on society and serve as a powerful competitive differentiator for companies.

Harnessing technology to enhance CWB

In this regard, technology plays a pivotal role in an agent’s ability to prioritise customer well-being (CWB).

Transforming CX with technology that supports agents during customer interactions or facilitates frictionless customer journeys can improve CWB in direct and indirect ways. For instance, reduced friction significantly reduces stress levels for anyone contacting the contact centre.

Furthermore, solutions that empower agents with accurate, relevant and personalised information in real-time accompanied by AI-generated prompts can help them deliver connected, personalised experiences and establish meaningful connections with the customer, which is a critical step to forging the relationships that boost CWB.

These capabilities also allow agents to offer emotional support during difficult times, or engage with greater care, empathy and understanding to foster a sense of shared humanity, which has the power to elevate interactions from a purely transactional to a more meaningful level.

As such, the goal of crafting high-tech, high-touch contact centre engagements should aim to seamlessly blend the efficiency and capabilities of advanced solutions with the warmth and empathy of genuine human interactions.

This is particularly important when dealing with customers in vulnerable, difficult or distressing situations. Partnering with a service provider that can deliver high-tech, high-touch contact centre capabilities materially impacts how organisations engage with consumers.

To understand how intelligent solutions that seamlessly integrate customer data with AI and other advanced solutions can help agents foster real human connections and provide empathetic responses and emotional support that make customers feel valued and understood to have a net positive impact on society, click below and download the FREE Societal Impact of CX eBook produced by Connect.