Happy customers give your business a competitive advantage. They have a lifetime value of up to 10 times higher than a single customer, while purchasing a new customer costs five times more.
Happy customers will not only buy from your company several times, but they will also become brand ambassadors. On the other hand, unhappy customers consume revenue and destabilize the company, bringing impatience beyond the simple loss of customers.
But let's talk figures.
According to statistics, 78% of customers agree to return to the services of a company if, in a previous experience, they were happy with the customer service and the empathic approach offered.
From this, we can deduce that the ultimate KPI of a call center is customer satisfaction. How can you do that? Through quality assurance indicators such as Net Promoter Score (NPS), Customer Effort Score (CES), and Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT).
As mentioned in the previous article – dedicated to statistics in a call center – the top 3 factors impacting customer happiness are Ease of Resolution, Agent knowledge, and Ease of contact (accessibility).
Source: NTT
In 2020, VOIP-Info.org concluded that if a customer’s problem is resolved in the first call, only 1% of customers are likely to choose the competition, while 15% prefer to do so if the problem is not solved enough.
According to Forbes, $ 75 billion is lost annually due to poor customer service. Just sit back and think about the impact.
But if we look at the professionals in the call center… 95.7% of them believe that customer satisfaction is the most important metric to follow. (Call Centre Helper, 2021)
Happy Agent = Happy Contact Center
Agents are the front line of a call center, no matter how obvious it sounds, but keep that in mind.
Their dissatisfaction impacts everything – from the cost per call to NPS and customer effort scores. Also, their unhappiness will be seen in attrition metrics. The costs of a company can reach up to $ 5000 per attrition.
“Studies confirm that employee happiness correlates with employee efficiency, creativity, and productivity. This, in turn, has the same effect on customers– proving that happy employees make customers happy.” (Source: Entrepreneur)
An improvement in this regard means overcoming the moments of golden stars, gamification, and simple greeting cards.
8 Ways to Achieve Customer Happiness
When it comes to customer happiness, you must look and approach the situation with fresh eyes every time. And this is because customer behavior changes depending on the circumstances, product, and/or service.
Here are eight ways you can increase your number of happy customers:
- Respond to their concerns faster – All the statistics show that a satisfied customer is the one whose problem has been solved in a short time.
- Help them in real-time – Instant assistance is a great way to boost customer happiness. A smooth way to do this is to combine live chat with co-browsing and video chat.
- Give them support 24/7 – A handy way to be there for your customer 24/7 is through automation, chatbots, and instant messaging.
- Reward them – Loyal customer loyalty programs are another handy way to boost their happiness. We humans like to be rewarded for our actions, especially when we know our loyalty is appreciated.
- Create a community – Happy customers love to be part of a community of people who share their interests. Communities are 13% more likely to impact the customer experience positively.
- Make the interaction with them personalized – A personalized customer engagement strategy will fulfill your contact center’s goal of happiness. Customers expect interactions to be customized to their needs and preferences. Therefore, companies need to understand customer behavior and adapt to it.
- Deliver a consistent experience across channels – Statistics show that 9 out of 10 consumers want an omnichannel experience. It is easy for them to switch to another brand that can offer them this experience. Adapt to their needs, even if some of them prefer conversations on website chat, Facebook, Messenger, or WhatsApp, just try to be there.
- Value their feedback – Feedback is appreciated at all stages of the customer’s journey. So, encourage it, and it will help you a lot to stay connected to the wishes and expectations of the clients.
- Deliver a consistent experience across channels – Statistics show that 9 out of 10 consumers want an omnichannel experience. It is easy for them to switch to another brand that can offer them this experience. Adapt to their needs, even if some of them prefer conversations on website chat, Facebook, Messenger, or WhatsApp, just try to be there.
- Value their feedback – Feedback is appreciated at all stages of the customer’s journey. So, encourage it, and it will help you a lot to stay connected to the wishes and expectations of the clients.
10 KPIs to track and improve customer happiness
Start building a strategy for happiness and improving the customer experience, keeping in mind the following KPIs:
- First call resolution (FCR) – the percentage of calls in which the agent completes the clients’ issue without transferring them or calling them back.
- Percentage of calls blocked – the percentage of callers that received a busy tone when they called.
- Average time in queue – the total waiting time before any agent responds.
- Average after-call work time – the time the agent spends after the client has disconnected.
- Service level – the percentage of calls answered in a given number of seconds.
- Call abandonment rate – the percentage of customers who quit the call before reaching an agent.
- Employment turnover rate – the percentage of agents, leaving to work for another company.
- The average speed of answer – the average time it takes for the call to be answered by the call center’s automatic call answering (ACD).
- Average handle time – the time spent on call.
- Adherence to schedule – agent efficiency in call management.
In Conclusion
Take care of the happiness of the clients but also the agents in equal measure. Your metrics will increase visibly when you pay attention to both sides, being co-dependent. 12% of workers are more productive when they are happy at work, and dissatisfied workers are 10% less effective at work. Give your agents the perfect environment to be happy, and their performance will be seen in the call center numbers.
