07 Mar How can your business benefit from proactive customer service?

Almost every business or brand wants to have customers who are loyal to them and who consume their services or goods on a permanent basis.

Building customer loyalty is not an easy task and it requires the implementation of a certain strategy within the company.

This requires the establishment of a proactive customer service. It should have a customer support that is likely to delight customers and can put them to help so that they remain loyal.

Achieving this requires more than the discount coupons or discount offers that most companies offer these days. Customers need the company to put in place a proactive strategy in order to better manage its customers.

We'll show you how your business can benefit from proactive customer service.

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What should we understand by the concept of proactive customer service?

Le proactive customer service is the one that allows a company to realize the problems faced by customers before the latter decides to contact the team dealing with the customer side of the company.

There is not a proper tool or function to implement this task.

It is a question for the company that wants proactive customer service to put in place a specific plan that will be integrated with both the customer service strategy and the technology that the company uses to manage it.

Proactive customer service can be implemented using chatbots proactive in delivering specific messages or even banners containing specific information.

Proactive customer service can also make use of a Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ), article series, or even a database to provide customers with information that addresses their concerns or needs. before they can even ask them.

It is therefore a customer service that anticipates the resolution of customer problems, through assistance that is able to solve these problems encountered by the company's customers.

How is proactive customer service different from reactive customer service?

The difference between proactive customer service and reactive customer service is that proactive customer service anticipates difficult situations or problems that may arise for customers and already offers approaches or possible solutions that can to curb or resolve them.

In reactive customer service, it is when the customer contacts the customer management team to report a problem that a solution is attempted.

From then on, customers are mostly nervous and impatient and want a quick solution to their problem.

As there is no anticipation on the part of the company in relation to such a problem, it is not always easy to solve it quickly and the customer must wait for the company to study his request to provide a solution. .

This is very often a source of frustration and nervousness among customers and they do not tolerate such a situation at all.

For example, in an online business, when a customer places an order and it must arrive late, proactive customer service recommends that the business take the initiative to send an email to the customer apologizing for this inconvenience while indicating the new delivery date.

Sometimes, the company may decide to reimburse the delivery commission, thus giving him the benefit of free delivery.

It is therefore a proactive approach to solving a customer problem without the latter ever having to complain about it.

How does proactive customer service benefit your business?

Implementing proactive customer service provides tremendous benefits to a business.

This is a service that is of vital interest to any organization for several reasons.

Instead of it being the customer who manages to contact the company, through an e-mail, a ticket, a phone call or simply from the contact page of the company's website , customer service must be able to determine the right moment to provide adequate assistance and advice to all customers so that they do not get lost again.

Here are some of the benefits you can get from implementing proactive customer service in your business.

A decrease in support requests

Proactive customer service is likely to identify customer issues and provide solutions before they escalate.

This role of anticipating customer needs is a very important factor in the customer journey.

Today, the vast majority of companies that are developing are convinced that in the customer journey, it is absolutely necessary to integrate the component that takes into account the anticipation of customer needs as well as the necessary assistance needed to give them satisfaction.

This is a crucial component whose purpose is to promote the growth of the company. Furthermore, anticipating and solving customer problems contributes to a significant reduction in the number of requests that customers can send to a given company.

Thus, the costs related to the resolution of these different requests are also reduced.

Improved customer satisfaction

According to some studies, proactive customer service in a company could increase customer satisfaction through improved scores Net Promoter Score (NPS) et Customer Satisfaction Scores (CSAT).

In addition, customers keep a good image of companies that make use of proactive customer service. The rate of customer loyalty is a function of the degree of satisfaction of the latter.

The most satisfied customers are those who are more loyal to the company or the brand. These customers will no doubt help the brand or business to grow further and increase sales.

Customer loyalty

The business world being characterized by strong competition, each company must put in place the right strategies to better assist customers.

More than half of consumers would be tempted to leave one brand or company for another if the customer service offered to them does not correspond to their aspirations.

Competition is a key consideration for brands that want to retain their customers for as long as possible.

Today, in a short period of time, a customer can decide to leave a brand. Therefore, every company must take this into account by implementing proactive customer service that can meet customer needs.

In addition, proactive customer service plays a prospecting role in that it allows you to reach potential customers while taking care of those who are already with the company.

Through proactive customer service, you have the opportunity to convince many prospects to join your company or adopt your brand, thanks to conversations made with frequent users.

Customers who are ambassadors of your brand

With proactive customer service that builds loyalty and strengthens your customer base, through better support, faster handling of inquiries and better service offerings, you have a lot to gain.

Satisfied customers will no doubt be loyal to you and will be able to make "word of mouth" recommendations to other potential customers of the company.

Customers usually talk about positive experiences with a brand or business with family members or friends of theirs.

These people with whom these satisfied customers talk about your brand will only in turn recommend your services to members of their various networks who need them.

Thus, implementing a company's proactive customer service approach not only helps to retain or retain existing customers, but also turns them into ambassadors or advocates for the brand or company in question with customers. other potential customers.

Creation of forms that anticipate requests and suggest solutions

You can also set up forms that suggest answers or offer help content to customers even before they finish filling out the contact form on a company's website.

We can also set up forms that offer answers to customers, which are generally found in the FAQ section of the site, by analyzing the text that they have entered as a request to be sent in the field reserved for this purpose. on a contact page.

These are simply forms playing a content recognition role.

Having all of this in place dramatically reduces the number of support requests that customers send to the customer service team, which of course reduces the workload and eliminates requests that could have found a solution without the intervention of the customer service agents.

Implementation of communication campaigns

To have proactive customer service, it is essential to communicate regularly with customers.

It is therefore fundamental that every company communicates with its customers on questions or concerns of great importance.

If, for example, a breakdown should occur on a given date concerning a service to which the customer has subscribed, it would be good for the company to give him this information in time in order to enable him either to take the necessary measures or even to propose alternative solutions to the customer until the breakdown is managed.

Many solutions like Mailchimp ou GetResponse allow you to send emails to a group of people in just a few minutes.

You can thus warn customers of any problems they may encounter and reassure them about the arrangements made to make their lives easier during this period.

It is also possible to use an e-mail awareness campaign to collect comments or opinions from customers on a product or service they have just purchased or used.

Implementation of proactive notification campaigns by phone calls

Proactive customer service also involves setting up an OutBound Campaign Manager (OCM) whose main asset is to enable effective and fluid communication between customers and contact centers.

By integrating with a company's existing contact center and systems, the OCM helps streamline the execution of company campaigns, allowing the company to get a return on its investments.

Also, it should be emphasized that this improves the customer experience by offering them a personalization of their requests with support connected to several exchange channels, including a direct agent.

OCM can be used in many cases. He can for example:

Initiate self-service interactions with a customer by SMS or phone call even send them a reminder about a phone appointment

Remind a customer of an invoice that he has not yet paid or even notify him that the consumption threshold has been reached on a subscription (energy, water or telecom).

With all these functionalities offered to the customer, thanks to the telephone channel, the OCM thus allows the customer to take action in relation to his appointment that he has been reminded of by honoring it or by postponing it.

The customer can also proceed to the online payment of an unpaid invoice or request a clearance plan or even change the pricing plan of a subscription.

Tips : The OCM has the ability to manage several call campaigns simultaneously, managing for each campaign the appropriate time slots, the appropriate channel to use, the number of attempts and many other aspects.

In the event that a customer does not pick up the OCM call, they can identify an answering machine and leave a voice message for the customer to review later when available.

Essential takeaways from proactive customer service

Customers these days want to work with companies that have good customer service. A proactive approach is therefore essential in order to make a difference in the market and offer a better customer experience.

It should be remembered that the implementation of a proactive customer service is an excellent strategy to reduce the requests sent by the company's customers to the customer service team.

It also makes it possible to retain customers and encourage them to consume more of the company's services or products.

However, its implementation requires a prior analysis of the problems that frequently arise for customers.

The most frequent problems are therefore the first point in the establishment of a proactive customer service. Also, it is necessary to devote time to the formation of a solid customer support which shares the same visions as the company.

Customer satisfaction must come before anything else since a company whose customers are satisfied is more likely to succeed than its competitors.

It is necessary to establish a clear and honest communication with the customer by communicating to him the possible problems as well as the solutions which are offered to them to eliminate them.

Vocabase, the benchmark for setting up your proactive customer service?

You already know the many benefits proactive customer service can bring to your brand.

You probably know that you have a lot to gain if you opt for solutions and strategies that allow you to have a good service that reacts better to different customer requests.

You may not know how to go about it or who could help you set up proactive customer service.

You no longer have to worry because you can now benefit from the personalized support of Vocabase who will be able to define with you the right tools to use in your company to better meet the needs of your customers.

You will be informed about the different intelligent virtual agents that will have to be integrated into your customer management strategy in order to revitalize it.

You can now take a free online appointment with the Vocabase team who will have the real pleasure of listening to you in order to better define with you the strategy and the tools that your company needs to stand out from the crowd and this, taking into account its specific needs.

De many customers were able to have satisfaction after working with Vocabase. Be part of it today without waiting too long.