Organisations should build on pandemic CSR social media messaging to retain customer trust in times of crisis.

A study which examined the corporate social responsibility (CSR) messaging of Fortune 100 companies on Twitter during the pandemic has found that organisations could better communicate with their customers during times of crises by strategically embedding their CSR response into international marketing plans.

Researchers from Cyprus University of Technology, Ctl Eurocollege, Cyprus, Nottingham Business School (NBS) and the University of Sheffield analysed 2,858 CSR-related tweets across 93 international companies between 1 February 2020 and September 2021. The sample included 20 from the technology sector, 18 from medical and health, 15 from financial services, 13 from transportation and services, 11 from retailing and the remainder from a variety of other sectors.

During the pandemic, the companies tweeted messages related to their relief actions, programmes and campaigns in response to Covid-19 pandemic. However, researchers saw that not all companies integrated and coordinated their communications channels and strategies to deliver a clear, consistent, and compelling message about their organisations.

Babak Taheri, Professor of Marketing at NBS’ Marketing and Consumer Studies Research Centre, said: “For many organisations, CSR messages are largely related to internal issues or campaigns, designed to improve reputation and build trust among their stakeholders. However, the pandemic provided organisations with a platform to regularly communicate a variety of additional CSR messages.

“Existing research mostly concentrates on the outcomes of CSR, while the communication of CSR strategies during the pandemic remains largely under-researched. We explored the how, what, and why of messaging and found that companies were motivated to communicate their CSR activity during the pandemic for a number of reasons, including to highlight their organisational values; to improve their reputation during a time of crisis; and to act responsibly towards their customers and society.

“There is now an opportunity for the positive CSR practices which emerged during the pandemic to be improved and embedded into long-term strategic marketing plans, rather than as an on-off response to any similar crisis in the future.”

In light of the findings, the research suggests organisations adopt a proactive, engaging approach to CSR communication to be ready for future crises.

This includes using available data and technology to improve CSR communication strategies by offering, for example, more relevant, targeted, influential and creative messages to audiences.

It is recommended that CSR strategies should be communicated as SMART objectives – specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and timed – and organisations should be more specific on how they have been more agile and adaptive against crises. This approach can build consumer trust in international companies, particularly as global corporations may be met with criticism over their legitimacy in operating beyond national boundaries.

The selected CSR response plan to a crisis should be in line with the general marketing plan as well as the vision of the business. In other words, audiences may not positively engage with a CSR response plan that is not aligned with the company value, mission, and vision

Depending on the type of crisis, its impacts on communities may vary from local to international scale, so agility in developing marketing commutation strategies against global crises is needed.

The effectiveness of the CSR campaign should be evaluated using rigorous measures to be able to improve future communication plans. Audience feedback should be collected both during and after the crisis through establishing a dialogue and integrating their views in CSR communication and response plans.

Professor Taheri added: “Consumers are much more aware of CSR in recent times and companies must ensure their strategies make a real difference to society. The sampled companies are recognised as CSR champions in their industries, as such they are expected to revisit their internal policies to not only ensure CSR is a fundamental part of their DNA but also of their company vision, mission, marketing plan and marketing communication plan.

“Thus, we recommend to policymakers developing contingency strategy plans for emergency communication management, particularly for international crises, as they need to remain socially responsible and accountable to their stakeholders both in normal and challenging times.”

For further information on the Marketing and Consumer Studies Research Centre at Nottingham Business School visit the website, Twitter or LinkedIn.

The COVID-19 pandemic has shaken businesses across all industries. One of the key aspects of every business that suffered due to the pandemic is customer service. Since it is a crucial part of the business, being proactive and addressing the issues head-on is a must.

Fortunately, companies can use many different technologies and protocols to adjust their approach to the current situation. They can get up-to-date with the latest trends as well as get an insight into what consumers expect from brands right now.

With that in mind, take a look at the essential ways to empower your customer services in the COVID era.

1.  Make Connection and Care the Main Focus

Your customers need guidance, support, and additional information to solve their pain points — now more than ever. They want a resource that they can rely on in this era of uncertainty: someone who can make them feel safe.

How can you provide them with the right support, guidance, and care? By caring for your employees first.

Engaging your employees is a crucial starting point that will lead you to better customer service. Leading with employees in mind in times of crisis will help you empower your team to deliver exceptional customer support.

When your employees are happy and feel safe in the workplace – they are more productive and efficient. Most importantly, they’ll be more caring towards customers, which is the number one factor for delivering positive experiences.

Giving them the right care through employee engagement strategies will reflect on your customers as well. It will help them build trust, meaningful connections, and strong relationships that will last long after we wave the pandemic goodbye.

2.  Include Contactless Channels

If parts of your brand’s customer journey (or the entire journey) exist in a physical channel, you should consider implementing contactless solutions.

Those can include drive-through shopping experiences, front-door deliveries, curbside pickups, contactless payment, or anything else that turns physical operations into touch-free experiences. That’s how you will instill trust, as your customers will know that they’ll stay safe and healthy while doing business with you.

According to The Visa Back to Business Study, “the future is contactless.”

The global study found that 60% of consumers expect to use contactless payments whenever they can, with 67% expecting brick-and-mortar stores to accept them.

Furthermore, 44% of consumers worldwide say they wouldn’t shop at a store that doesn’t offer contactless payment methods.

Contactless channels can help your employees as well. Minimizing physical touchpoints in the workplace will keep them healthy and safe but will also increase their engagement, job satisfaction, and customer service efforts.

One of the numerous tools that companies use these days to reduce physical touch is the paystub generator. They use it to create paystubs online, send them to employees in seconds, and have a clear overview of everyone’s salary information, overtime pay, taxes paid, and more.

3.  Digitalize as Much as Possible

Just as consumers expect more contactless operations when interacting with brands, they also want to engage, interact with, and purchase from brands anywhere and anytime. Digital experiences have never been more important than they are now.

Many people still don’t feel safe going from store to store for grocery shopping, paying their bills in person, or even enjoying contactless environments like drive-through stations. You need to provide them an option to purchase from you from the comfort and safety of their home.

That’s why many brick-and-mortar stores have switched to online platforms. Ecommerce platforms and other digital channels (e.g. a business website, social media, self-service portals, live chat, email, etc.) provide seamless omnichannel shopping experiences, armed with personalized product/service recommendations.

Use them as much as possible to engage customers digitally because that’s where most of them are.

4.  Prepare for Increased Customer Inquiries

The COVID era has caused customer emails, phone calls, and other types of contact to go through the roof. As previously discussed, they need more support than ever, so you need to be there to provide it and make sure it works consistently. That means you should shorten long hold times and ticket resolutions.

It’s safe to say your customer inquiries have already increased, but did you prepare for that surge on time, or are you still struggling to deal with them efficiently and effectively?

It’s not enough to implement live chat and set up a call center for customer support if you won’t put effective strategies in place to handle high customer inquiry volumes.

You should set up a self-service help center, an IVR system, and an omnichannel ticketing system. Additionally, you should offer callback services, texting support, online scheduling, AI chatbots for simple yet personalized interactions, and anything else that will ensure seamless customer support.

5.  Increase Customer Support Capabilities

Increased volume of customer inquiries and the growing need for empathy means that your employees will need to spend more time with each customer. That means that you should take your customer support capabilities to the next level.

Apart from utilizing the latest technologies and adding new communication channels, you should train your customer-facing employees. With proper training, you’ll ensure they’ll handle every call, email, text, and live chat conversation with utmost professionalism and care.

Don’t forget about post-call/post-chat surveys, as they’ll give you feedback for your customer service performance. Customer feedback will help you empower your teammates and meet the needs of every customer in the ever-changing environment.

The COVID-19 era has proven that companies can provide outstanding customer support even without direct, in-person communication.

That’s why you should adopt these trends, which are bound to stick around even after the pandemic t. Since consumers expect online communication with brands with fewer physical touchpoints – adopting all of these trends and practices is a no-brainer.

About the Author

Samantha Clark is a Warrington College of Business graduate and she works for the professional accounting firm – ThePayStubs. She handles all client relations with top-tier partners and found her passion in writing articles on various finance and business-related topics.

The hospitality industry experienced the detrimental impact of the UK’s lockdown restrictions. While most businesses could continue working from home, the hospitality industry was left dwindling throughout lockdown. Pubs, bars and restaurants closed their doors, and many companies lost irreparable amounts of revenue throughout the last year and a half.

Lockdown restrictions are beginning to lift, and the prospect of a new future for face-to-face customer service is emerging. However, even with reduced restrictions, there are still measures in place to make sure the hospitality sector is operating safely. There are limits on capacity, store closings, social distancing, masks, face shields and much more.

The government initially stated that all lockdown restrictions may be lifted by the 21st of June 2021. This date was then pushed back, and Sajid Javid later announced the 19th of July would be the target date. The government is aiming to reopen big events and performances, and nightclubs in the coming months. Some of these clubs have been closed since March 2020 – so it is vital to reopen them as soon as it is safe to do so.

There are perhaps a number of measures that may continue to remain a part of customer service in the UK for many months (or even years) to come. PPE like face shields may remain common in customer service, as they have been since the beginning of the pandemic. As the hospitality sector fully reopens, it will be interesting to see if face coverings will be demanded by customers and businesses alike, or if just businesses will continue to ask staff to wear face coverings as a courtesy to customers. Consistent and thorough cleaning procedures are very likely to continue to make sure venues are sanitised and fitted with track and trace systems.

Furthermore, many businesses have changed their cancellation policies to align with the unpredictability of the pandemic. Most hospitality companies offer free amendments, changes, and a degree of flexibility. The new flexible cancellation policies are likely to remain over the summer months.

Pre-arrival registration will also remain in place to optimise and utilise the NHS’ track and trace system. Guests will continue to check into venues upon their arrival via the Track and Trace app to ensure they are entering a safe environment. We could also begin using electronic locks, which use Bluetooth and RFID tech, to reduce the time guests spend in public areas.

While social distancing measures have been relaxed in the UK this summer, restaurant and bar table spacing may continue. It may be in the interest of restaurant managers to make sure each group of guests has ample spacing from other customers, both for practicality and comfort. Table spacing can also help servers remain somewhat distanced when delivering sauces, condiments, meals, and service checks. A one-stop delivery may be preferred to reduce contact between different social circles. However, it will be a tough choice for managers to impact their commercials further when not legally required to do so.

The hospitality industry experienced a major hit from the covid-19 pandemic. Customer service will have undoubtedly changed for ever, but how far will the new normal be from the old normal?

Over 60 per cent of CEOs surveyed by Gartner revealed they believe digital transformation will spur an economic boom in 2021. To capitalise on this, leaders will need to navigate transformation projects with speed and precision.

The good news is that during the pandemic, most companies learnt to drive change initiatives at pace – in fact, over half (59%) fast-tracked transformation projects. Leaders can build on insights from these experiences. In this article, we’ll delve into four elements that proved crucial for successful transformation and how these learnings can be applied going forward.

1. Embracing agility

During the pandemic, some leaders inadvertently adopted an agile mindset to accelerate internal innovation as a response to change. Now, decision-makers need to focus on retaining this to capitalise on the economic boom forecasted by Gartner.

In a way, agility goes against the grain of traditional, long-term business planning but it doesn’t have to contradict it. For example, when defining a business plan for transformation, teams can create an upper-band and lower-band for success. Without the constraint of narrow success criteria teams can explore more scenarios and have room to pivot as unforeseen circumstances arise.

Embracing new technologies is another way business can support agility. For example, increased adoption of Intelligent Automation (IA) within the mortgage industry during the pandemic helped companies tackle higher query volumes by identifying and diverting simple questions to online self-service. This ensured agent time was focused on supporting more vulnerable customers. The approach helped mortgage providers boost customer satisfaction and maintain market position, leading to improved business recovery.

2. Smart partnering

Agility needs to be part of the selection criterion when choosing transformation partners too as ideally, these will be fully ingrained in the project. Firstsource research revealed the importance of partner integration: 62 per cent of successful change initiatives had a clear understanding of how their partner makes money and 68 per cent included suppliers on their steering groups. The research also highlighted the importance of having an informal avenue for frank conversations at a senior level so difficult topics can be tackled before issues develop.

3. Troubleshooting with data

A successful change project will involve a level of pre-emptive troubleshooting as part of its due diligence. Data insights are key to this process, helping companies prepare for the unknown so they can react faster and smarter.
For example, lenders in the UK expected to see an increase in fraud attempts when the Coronavirus Business Interruption loan scheme and other business support loans were first introduced. By analysing data around early fraud attempts, one lender was able to put in place a focused prevention response, leading to a 62 per cent reduction in fraud losses in only four months. By using data to troubleshoot, this firm was quick to understand and identify fraud patterns, drastically minimising business losses.

4. Taking a bottom-up approach

Finally, for change initiatives to be successful, it is not just leaders, but all employees, who need to be engaged in a cultural change. Firstsource launched its Automation League, which takes a bottom-up approach, for exactly this reason. The programme taught employees without a programming background, from a range of organisational functions, how to identify automation opportunities and build their own automation solutions. Engaging employees through such initiatives facilitates the development of a digital mindset by removing fear and misconceptions around automation and other technology.

Furthermore, by minimising the gap between management and employees, stresses can be reduced, and transformation projects can become more effective.

A four-pronged approach for successful transformation

Change requires leaders to take active and measured approaches to achieve set goals. While this involves planning and precision, leaders need to make room for agility in their strategy. Choosing partners capable of supporting this approach will help. What’s more, leaders need to leave room to manoeuvre in response to new data and marketplace activity. Lastly, the vision behind the transformation needs to be embraced by all stakeholders, from the boardroom to the ‘shop floor’. By doing the above, businesses can ensure their continued success and growth while contributing towards the broader economic revival the UK so desperately needs.

About the Author

Sundara Sukavanam is the Chief Digital Officer at Firstsource. Sundara leads Firstsource’s Digital Services including Intelligent Automation, Analytics, and scaling Business Process as a Service (BPaaS) offerings. He also manages global partnerships with industry-leading platforms in RPA, ML/AI and SaaS and integrate that IP into our solutions.

Since the COVID-19 pandemic began, brands and businesses have been compelled to re-evaluate their marketing strategies and business landscapes.

While the world is propelled into a state of isolation, people are also prodded to adapt to a new normal. It’s already challenging enough for businesses to keep afloat when consumers are predictable—and it’s even considerably more cumbersome to do so when the pandemic is changing the way people shop, dine, and live.

As the global lockdown brought uncertainty to a great extent, businesses are faced with the struggle of choosing between generating profits in the middle of uttermost economic hardship or taking into consideration the threats to the life and livelihood of their consumers. With the pandemic remaining widespread, business owners are now asking the question—how to maintain strong customer engagement during COVID-19?

1. Reinventing Customer Engagement

Customer engagement is the process of strengthening your emotional connection with your customers. A simple interaction with customers using any of their preferred channels is already building a relationship with them. At the time of this pandemic where physical interactions are eliminated or social distancing is introduced, how will you be able to engage with customers and continue to connect with them on a deeper level?

It’s time that you reevaluate your bond with your customers. Reinventing customer engagement is the key so your business can weather the onslaught of economic uncertainty. Here are some steps that you can take to maintain strong customer engagement during COVID-19.

2. Keep Your Lines Open

With most consumers staying at home almost all the time, they’re likely to spend hours on their phones. It’s necessary that you keep your lines open—and this doesn’t apply to business phones alone. You need to always monitor your emails, voice mails, social media accounts, and even fax messages.

Your customers need to know and feel that you’re still here for them. They need to feel that sense of familiarity each time they try to reach out to you. Whether it’s a simple greeting or an inquiry about your products, you have to be reachable as often as possible.

You can try setting up a hotline and schedule a block of time any day of the week where your customers can talk to you via phone or direct message. There are also several apps and software that you can trust, such as Drop Cowboy, a unique platform that allows you to send out marketing alerts, announcements, coupon codes, and other similar marketing content via text message. If your customers regularly receive alerts from your brand, they’ll surely remember it and you get to keep the customer engagement alive.

3. Improve Your Loyalty Program

If you have loyal customers, do everything you can to keep them at all costs. Maybe it’s time you reinvent your loyalty program so you can reward your customers more. Come up with exciting and rewarding offers that your customers can’t easily resist.

Here are some of the reward offers idea you can try:

• Free shipping on all orders, no minimum purchase required.
• Early access to sales and promotions
• Exclusive access to new products
• Point-based rewards programs

You can also offer discounts whenever they hit a specific amount of purchase. Entice your customers to sign up for membership so they can receive exclusive emails whenever you have an upcoming promotion or sale event.

4. Keep Your Website Updated

As mentioned, people are spending most of their time at home, browsing through the internet. You have to make sure that your company’s website is updated and always loaded with fresh content. Your business contact details should also be updated, including your mailing address, email address, and social media accounts.

Write and post engaging content on your website, too. Timely and relevant articles will help assure customers that you’re not leaving them behind amid the pandemic. Furthermore, educational content will be useful to them and in return, they’ll know that you care. When your customers see that you’re always updating your website, it gives them an impression that your business remains and that you’re somehow reaching out to them in a way.

5. Improve Your Payment Options

With E-commerce ramping up its game, you’ve got to stay in the loop, as well. As you offer free shipping and returns, there should also be more flexible payment options for your customers. Offer an extensive range of payment methods because each customer will have their preferred payment option and when you don’t have what they want, they might think twice about purchasing your product or service.

Especially when you’re running an online store, you’ll come across customers with a varying range of preferences. You have to be able to offer your customers flexibility when it comes to payment methods, including bank transfer, online payment, debit card, and credit card. If what they prefer isn’t available on the options, you can’t expect them to go out and process the payment physically. Your customers need to be in control, particularly when paying and having the items shipped to them.

Making Digital Engagement More Human

It seems that the only possible way to interact with customers is through digital engagement—at least until things go back to the old normal. Digital engagement is superb; it makes everything almost perfect, convenient, easily accessible, and fast. However, at some point, it might make customer engagement less personal and more automated.

In the time of COVID-19, customers are no longer easily satisfied with simplicity and efficiency. They recognize brands and companies that can make customer engagement more human and personalized. The key is to humanize your brand while staying relevant on all digital platforms. How do you that?

Say, for example, you’re using Text Blast Software to send out marketing alerts and promotions. Although they know that what you’re sending out are automated messages, you can add a personal touch to it by inserting their first names right at the start of the message. It’s a simple addition but can help customers in developing trust since they know that the message wasn’t sent out randomly.

The Power Of Social Media

You can’t possibly talk about customer engagement and miss out on the power that social media holds over it. On a business level, social media platforms are enormously popular as they make it easier to market and promote your brand. A strong social media presence is already scaling your customer engagement effortlessly.

These tips should help you adapt your social media marketing strategy to the new normal consumers, helping you maintain strong customer engagement:

• Get To Know Your Audience: Knowing your audience is already one step towards maintaining strong customer engagement. When you know your target audience enough, you can then create customized marketing campaigns that’ll greatly help in boosting customer engagement.

• Find Out Where Your Audience Are Most Active On: Before focusing on specific marketing campaigns, you have to know first where your target audience is usually talking about you. You might be on Twitter most of the time and yet your audience is more active on Instagram or Facebook. Knowing where they are most active will give you an edge so you can engage with your customers at the right platform, at the right time, and of course, using the right content.

• Be Fast And Consistent: Once you know where to be more active, you have to engage and respond to customers swiftly and consistently. Customers appreciate it when they’re answered immediately, it makes them feel valued and that you care about their concerns. Aside from being fast, you should also be consistent in engaging with customers so they’ll know that you’re easy to reach and always there to respond.

• Go Live: There’s nothing more engaging than going live on social media. You can choose either Facebook or Instagram to go live and take the opportunity to engage with your customers in real-time. They’ll appreciate you taking the time to connect with them. You can showcase some of your products or talk about an ongoing social issue. Customers like to support brands that take a stand on an issue that’s relevant to them.

• Don’t Forget To Add Hashtags: Hashtags make it effortless to find information and posts that contain a specific theme or content. They’re widely used in social media and you can easily create it by adding the hashtag (#) sign or symbol before the word or words that you like to promote. No spaces between the words, though, or else the hashtag won’t work. Social media users like using hashtags when trying to find a specific post or a particular product. As long as your posts are public, anyone who clicks on the hashtag will come across your post and your product, of course.

It can be challenging to engage customers on social media with so many issues and uncertainties going around. However, with the right tactics, you can surely overcome the challenges.

Engaging New Customers

Maintaining strong customer engagement isn’t only about keeping your existing customers. Seeing almost everyone is active online since the pandemic started, might as well take the opportunity to introduce your brand and make your presence known. With effective marketing strategies, you can exponentially grow your audience. Here are some techniques to do just that:

• Start A Referral Program: Your existing customers are your biggest asset and at this point, how they love and support your brand greatly matters. You can attract new customers and at the same time maintain strong engagement with existing customers by starting a referral program. Design a new promo where customers who refer you to their friends and family can get discounts, at the same time their referral can also earn rewards and loyalty points.

• Offer Sample Products Or Trial Purchase: Limited-time trial purchases never fail to attract new customers. Although it may seem like an expensive approach, there’s definitely something to look forward to in the end. You can give sample products in smaller sizes or quantities so potential customers can test them. Everybody loves free items and they won’t easily forget a company that’s generous enough to hand them out.

• Get In Touch With Old Customers: Customers tend to drift away for unknown reasons despite your continued efforts to keep them. It won’t hurt to re-contact them again and offer discount codes or coupons to captivate their attention again. You might be surprised that they’ll actually be pleased to know that you remembered them and that you wish to win them back.

• Highlight Your Product Reviews: Most shoppers rely on online reviews first before purchasing any product or service. If your business generates enough reviews from customers, make the most of them. You can post content on your social media account linking to website reviews. Another approach that you can do is to post screenshots of messages from satisfied customers.

• Build An Online Community: Facebook groups are gaining so much popularity right now and you can use that to your advantage. Just remember to keep the community educational and not too promotional so that potential customers will stick around. As they spend time in your community, they’ll be enticed to try your products one way or another.

Another strategy that you can utilize to attract new customers is by investing in email marketing. Email campaigns still remain as one of the most effective marketing strategies today and if you can use them accordingly, you can be successful in inviting more prospective customers, thus growing your business in the long run.

The Takeaway

It’s not easy maintaining strong customer engagement during COVID-19 because it can mean having to reinvent and reassess your marketing strategies. What worked before the pandemic might no longer be effective at this time and you have to keep with the changes if you want to remain visible in the industry.

Customer engagement is of high importance especially now that a lot of industries have been put on an indefinite pause. Customers need to be assured that your brand is still standing and that you plan on continuing where you left off.

When all of this is over, a stronger customer relationship along with newly built communities could be the secret weapon that you could use to get back on track. Right now, your priority is to keep your customers engaged so they won’t go somewhere else while the pandemic is running its course.

The global pandemic has accelerated digital transformation and ushered in a Cloud-Smart Era.  Tom Goodmanson, CEO at Calabrio, reveals recent research results and shares ideas on how to harness the next level of strategic potential for new and existing cloud-based contact centres.  

The COVID-19 health crisis has accelerated digital transformation like never before.  Contact centres too have reached an important turning point as organisations rely on them to nurture customer relationships and support an evolving work-from-home environment.  Agility is the name of the game and has prompted a widespread move to the cloud.

When Calabrio surveyed 273 contact centre managers from the USA, UK and the DACH region (Austria, Germany and Switzerland) the report results highlighted the importance of becoming cloud-proficient. More than three-in-four contact centres have made full or partial moves to the Cloud, with an astounding 68% of those migrations happening over the past year at the height of the pandemic.  Meanwhile, one in four contact centres are now fully cloud-based, a substantial jump from less than a year ago when just one in ten operations had moved to the cloud.

Seeing is believing

The modern multi-channel contact centre has entered what we at Calabrio call a Cloud-Smart Era, one where the cloud is set to drive strategic business value rather than merely support tactical cost-optimisation.  Our recent research shows that ‘seeing is believing’ when it comes to really appreciating the true value of the cloud.

The survey results highlighted that the next phase of cloud transformation enables companies to be more strategic and the most commonly cited benefits include:

• Value of cloud-powered decision-making: contact centres say the cloud is helping them be more strategic and make smarter business decisions and become more nimble to functional needs.

• Value of cloud-powered analytics: half of survey respondents believe that moving to the cloud has improved their ability to use intelligent analytics to manage the business including insights to support agents and customers. Cloud solutions make it easier to unlock the value within Voice of the Customer (VOC) and employee data.  Ultimately helping contact centres to gain visibility and impact across the business as a whole.

• Value of cloud-powered collaboration: contact centres see how cloud solutions have empowered their remote, decentralised workforces, giving employees flexibility while enhancing communication and collaboration.

• Value of employee engagement: cloud-based contact centres are more likely to achieve value from employee engagement and empowerment initiatives, as the cloud enables more flexible work arrangements, offers more transparent performance feedback and helps deliver better information about agents to improve the employee experience and thus the customer experience (CX).

• Value of cloud security: contact centres are less fearful when it comes to data security concerns than they were five years ago, and are more likely to see how security as a must-have consideration rather than a point of resistance.

• Value of cloud agility: contact centre managers who have fully adopted cloud platforms feel their infrastructure is more open to trying new tools as they navigate their digital transformation and add new communication channels such as social channels and chatbots to meet future demand.

Take it step by step

The key to achieving cloud-proficiency and becoming a member of the new Cloud-Smart Era is for organisations to fully immerse themselves in the cloud experience, but do not rush in.  Experience means that Calabrio advocates a pragmatic and phased approach to migration, working with a vendor who has expertise in enabling and supporting the two main cloud options:

• Full cloud – where all systems (WEM, CCaaS and CRM) are deployed within a public, private or hybrid cloud
• Partial cloud – where some systems are within a public, private or hybrid cloud while others are still on-premise

Whichever option organisations choose, they should rely on experienced vendors to address the main concern highlighted in the research i.e. that of the perceived potential for losing data during the critical migration phase.  Cloud adopters should also consider the benefits of a true Software as a Service (SaaS) approach where solutions are written for the cloud as opposed to traditional server-based applications hosted in the cloud. Committed cloud vendors dedicate sufficient time, energy and resources to educating their customers on how to combine technology and best practices to ensure a smooth and seamless migration to the cloud.  Hard-earned expertise combined with pre-built connectors drive successful integrations and help to realise the full potential of cloud-driven contact centres.

Time to explore

So what’s next for the cloud?  Many contact centres have yet to release the full potential of their cloud infrastructures, from AI- and ML-driven analytics to Workforce Engagement Management (WEM) and other future-proof strategies. Just as on-premise contact centres often struggle to see the value of the cloud because they have not experienced it, those already in the cloud will not recognise their complete cloud potential until they begin exploring it and now is the time to start.

For more information, ideas and inspiration, sign up to a demonstration of Calabrio ONE or download the results of Calabrio’s latest survey “State of the Contact Centre 2021: Cloud is here. What’s next?”

About the Author

Tom Goodmanson is President and CEO at Calabrio

About Calabrio

Calabrio is the customer experience intelligence company that empowers organisations to enrich human interactions. The scalability of our cloud platform allows for quick deployment of remote work models—and it gives our customers precise control over both operating costs and customer satisfaction levels. Our AI-driven analytics tools make it easy for contact centres to uncover customer sentiment and share compelling insights with other parts of the organisation. Customers choose Calabrio because we understand their needs and provide a best-in-class experience, from implementation to ongoing support. Find more at calabrio.com and follow @Calabrio on Twitter.

The global pandemic has changed the way we live, work and do business. Ross Daniels at Calabrio believes now is the time for organisations to plan their pandemic escape route. Here, he kickstarts the road to recovery with three tips on how to turn your agents into brand ambassadors.

When the Enterprise Research Centre surveyed 1,000 companies across the UK in 2020, the results were enlightening and somewhat heartening. While many firms saw their turnover fall by 42% and employment levels drop by 30%, others managed to grow despite COVID-19. Surprisingly a fifth (21%) of respondents saw positive impacts of the pandemic with 17% citing the ‘greater embrace of digital technology has significantly changed their business model’.  Meanwhile, organisational priorities have changed with ‘new processes’ (72%) and ‘digital technologies’ (65%) topping the list followed closely by ‘entering new markets’ and introducing ‘new products and services’ for 55% and 53% of companies respectively.

Meanwhile, in a recent study of UK organisations, McKinsey talks about the importance of ‘agile resilience’. Taking lessons from COVID-19, these resilient organisations share 5 common characteristics including ‘developing a culture that empowers people’ and ‘provides people with technology they need.

So, what steps can all organisations take to succeed in the New or Next Normal?  What can contact centres do to capitalise on massive shifts in consumer beliefs and behaviours? How do technologies such as the cloud, long considered an emerging part of the modern customer service experience, become increasingly vital for ‘agile resilience’? These are fundamental questions that we set out to explore in our latest Recovery Accelerator Kit EBook, outlining a set of modern tools and templates for winning customer loyalty and growing market share post-COVID.

Turn Contact Centre Representatives Into Brand Ambassadors

A successful path to recovery starts from within. Follow this three-point plan to prepare frontline agents and other customer-facing staff:

1. Make your brand story part of the thought process – by helping agents to internalise your organisation’s brand story so it becomes second-nature when interacting with customers, whatever the channel. Start with good training for new recruits as well as experienced members of the team. Make the brand story an intrinsic part of the New Joiner process then reinforce the message by weaving it into regular group communications and virtual team-meets.  Applying a strong brand story in conversations, at every opportunity, will deepen staff and customer engagement. It encourages agents to share best-practice learning while demonstrating to customers that your organisation cares and delivers true value.

2. Articulate the perfect brand story – as a team, discuss, discover and then articulate what your brand story really means. Working with those on the frontline, managers can quickly formulate a brand story that agents can be proud of while providing a unique competitive differentiator that makes your organisation stand out from the crowd. Ask yourself: “What drives us?”, “How do we make the world better?”, “How do we improve our customers’ lives?”, “What is our vision for the future?” and “What are our core values?” When answering these questions, always consider the customer’s perspective.

3. Gamification – there are many ways to turn agents into brand ambassadors using your very own brand story. One of the most engaging and effective methods is gamification and this works well when agents are spread across multiple locations or increasingly, working from home. Like anything, there are right ways and wrong ways to implement and maintain a successful gamification strategy. The best gamification initiatives connect to corporate goals and are both competitive and collaborative. Make prizes meaningful – there is little use handing out gift cards for restaurants agents are unable to visit so why not consider a membership for Amazon Prime or a subscription to Netflix? Finally, gamification must be motivational, offering badges for the winners to share their brand story successes – and learning – with others while boosting morale.

With the Government’s plans for easing the lockdown on the horizon, what better time to plan your own pandemic escape route? From re-understanding your best customers, to creating consistent multi-channel experiences and mastering the art of the Cloud, Calabrio’s latest eBook offers a variety of tools and techniques to prepare for the critical post-COVID phase.

About the Author

Ross Daniels is Chief Marketing Officer at Calabrio.

Calabrio is the customer experience intelligence company that empowers organisations to enrich human interactions. The scalability of our cloud platform allows for quick deployment of remote work models—and it gives our customers precise control over both operating costs and customer satisfaction levels. Our AI-driven analytics tools make it easy for contact centres to uncover customer sentiment and share compelling insights with other parts of the organisation. Customers choose Calabrio because we understand their needs and provide a best-in-class experience, from implementation to ongoing support. Find more at calabrio.com and follow @Calabrio on Twitter.

Facemasks, door signs, floor decals, partitions, and hand sanitizers won’t keep your customers. Such safety protocols in response to the pandemic are expected from your customers.

While failing to implement them will cost you customers, maintaining those standards will not guarantee that you keep them. Your competitors are doing the exact same thing which means what you are doing is average, heightened like everyone else, but still average. And, wait for it, nobody raves about average.

Customers don’t rave about a business that simply meets their expectations. Nor are they loyally bound to them. With these safeguards, you have simply changed a negative experience to one that is neutral. But what are you doing to move the experience from neutral to memorably positive?

CARE for your Associates first. Hearing about hospitalizations, the struggling economy, and massive layoffs every day, your associates are still anxious and concerned about their jobs. Reassure them by your actions that their leadership team CARES. Communicate. Appreciate. Recognize. Empower. Serve.

Serve your associates by asking at the end of each interaction, “What can I do for you?” And act on their suggestions to make your associates feel as happy working with you as you want your customers to feel about doing business with you.

Re-orient your Associates to the delivery of the customer experience in what is now the “not-so-new-normal”. In the first weeks of the pandemic, you were focused on introducing all the new protocols. Over the last few months, your associates consistently follow the safety guidelines, from temp checks to facemasks.

Take time now to remind them of the principles of delivering exceptional customer service. Emphasize that since your customers cannot see their smiles, they need to use other body language, except handshakes and hugs, their words, and tone of voice to convey a warm welcome. Remind them to practice active listening and responding with empathy. Do they remember the forbidden phrases that distract in customer conversations?

Make sure they know the difference between taking care of the customer which is a transaction and really caring for the customer, a relationship-building interaction.

Seek feedback and then act. You may know 10-20% of your customer complaints via your customer surveys. Your customers know 100% of what displeases them and your associates do, too, since your customers tell them every day. So ask your team directly, “What are you hearing?” Then act on their feedback to eliminate those pain points. Be sure to involve your associates in defining solutions to remove these dissatisfiers. Without their involvement, you will not earn their commitment to care for your customers.

Become a storyteller. Three things can happen after customers do business with you. They can say nothing because you gave them nothing to talk about. They can rant about you to others because they experienced such poor service that they want to make sure no one else makes the same mistake. Or they can rave about you. And if you want to have your customers tell stories about you, you have to give them a story to tell. Involve your associates to define key points in the customer experience where they are empowered to create memorable small “wows” so the story can end, “And they lived happily ever after.”

Remember nobody cares about how good you used to be before this pandemic. They only care about how good you are now. And now changes every day. You need to do the same.

About the Author

Bill Quiseng has extensive experience in luxury resort and hotel management. His achievements include receiving the Marriott International Spirit to Serve Award, Renaissance Hotels General Manager of the Year, Marriott International Leadership Excellence and Sales Excellence Awards.

Just like the chicken or egg conundrum the same could apply to COVID-19 and poor customer service. As many organisations hide behind the pandemic for failing service standards, Abbie Heslop, Commercial AI Analyst, EBI.AI shows how to buck the trend using Artificial Intelligence (AI).

COVID-19 has thrown the spotlight on the age-old mystery of the chicken and the egg.  What came first, Coronavirus or poor customer service? Whatever the answer, the truth is many organisations are using the global pandemic to mask a whole host of underlying issues that have been chipping away at service quality for a long time.

British retailer, Laura Ashley is a classic example. When the company went into administration after years of stagnation, Coronavirus was blamed after it failed to secure rescue funds earlier this year and other organisations have been too quick to hide behind the virus.

At the beginning of the pandemic customers understood the difficulties organisations were facing. However, several months on and customers are still left holding on the line for answers to basic enquiries and are expected to endure ‘longer than average’ delivery times for goods and services during these ‘unprecedented times’.

There is only so much slack customers are willing to give and their patience is wearing thin. Longer-term, the outlook is grim for brands that fail to smarten up their act.  Deloitte estimates that the market cap of scandal-hit companies can fall behind competitors by as much as 74% in the following two years. Staff, voters and customers remember those who have attempted to pull the wool over their eyes.

3 ways to improve customer service using Artificial Intelligence

It’s time to stop hiding behind COVID-19 and to implement new winning strategies to boost customer confidence and satisfaction using the benefits of Artificial Intelligence:

1. AI for high resolution levels – customers simply want answers and they expect fast results, with or without a pandemic. ‘Is my local store open?’, ‘Do you provide a delivery service?’ and ‘My usual item is out of stock, when will it be available?’ – these are some of the most common questions customers are asking right now. Fortunately, AI-driven solutions such as virtual assistants can be trained to answer generic questions accurately and swiftly, taking immense pressure off organisations with sky-high contact volumes and shrinking teams.

AI assistants are always available. They don’t get tired, sick or need holidays and they never have a bad day in the office. No matter what time of day or night, AI assistants can answer customer queries right away, in natural language and there’s no limit to the number of customers one assistant can talk to at once.

2. Integrity and empathy lead the way – according to KPMG, 94% of Fortune 1000 companies are already seeing COVID-19 disruptions. The global professional services firm then goes on to say that the “way organizations engage and interact with their customers will be critical” and that “integrity” and “empathy” are playing an even more important role than ever.

Integrity begins with high levels of transparency where organisations make it absolutely clear to consumers how, why and when their data is being used rather than just amassing customer data to sell more products and services.  For example, an insurance company might use data to offer loyal customers better policy quotes, or a supermarket could use its grocery AI assistant to suggest a vegan recipe to a customer who mentioned they were vegan when completing their online basket a few months previously.

Next, show empathy.  AI has already broken down the traditional barriers between man and machine, combining the best of both to increase efficiencies while using real customer interactions to drive human responses.  Busy contact centres for example, now have the opportunity to turn their agents into superheroes using the latest AI-driven virtual assistants.

Thanks to Natural Language Processing (NLP), AI assistants quickly understand a customer’s initial query then pass this valuable intelligence along to the live agent who already knows what the person is calling about.  Agents can even ask AI assistants questions while in conversation with a customer to deliver fast, accurate, emotionally intelligent responses.  In one go, it boosts agent confidence and sees customer satisfaction levels soar.

3. Improve and extend the service culture – organisations looking to improve and future-proof their customer service should focus on the natural ability of AI to capture customer data, interpret customer interactions and then use this information to anticipate their requirements now and in the future. Take Get Living, the pioneering UK property management company that serves residents of London and Manchester’s most fashionable neighbourhoods.  In a highly competitive marketplace, where exceptional customer service is essential, Get Living has added a unique feedback functionality to Evie, its immersive in-home tenant bot.  This helps the company to better understand residents’ needs so it can deliver a highly personalised customer experience and improve its rental offering.

New digital front doors transform customer service

The stark reality is that global pandemics are unlikely to stop at COVID-19 and digitalisation isn’t going away.  Successful organisations will rise to the challenge, building preparedness into their customer service frameworks through technology.  Innovations such as Artificial Intelligence (AI) have the power to transform business continuity, creating digital front doors that respond flexibly to greater demand and complexity of customer queries, whatever the crisis.

We may never know what came first the chicken or the egg, however, there is no excuse for poor customer service given the choices presented by AI.

For more ideas and inspiration on how to drive better customer engagement, visit www.ebi.ai.

About the Author

Abbie Heslop is a Commercial AI Analyst at EBI.AI.

Established in 2014, EBI.AI is among the most advanced UK labs to create fully managed, Enterprise-grade AI assistants. These assistants help clients to provide their customers with faster and better resolutions to their queries, and liberate front-line customer service agents from the dull, repetitive and mundane.

EBI.AI selects the best AI and cloud services available from IBM, Amazon, Microsoft and others, combined with bespoke AI models to deliver its AI communication platform, called Lobster.

Combined with it over 19 years of experience working with big data, analytics and systems integration it has successfully implemented AI assistants that now handle hundreds of thousands of conversations a year across Transport & Travel, Property, Insurance, Public and Automotive industries.

For more information, please visit www.ebi.ai.

The coronavirus pandemic has had an indelible impact on consumer behaviour, from accelerating touchless and digitally-driven experiences to reviving traditional channels, and much more.

Maz Javadzadeh, client relationship director at Paragon Customer Communications, outlines why businesses now have a unique opportunity to position themselves at the forefront of longer-term transitions in consumer behaviour that result from this crisis.

For today’s organisations, the outbreak of Covid-19 has created an even greater need to stay open, maintain clear and consistent communication and build deeper long-lasting relationships with customers. Faced with the need to create more compelling, relevant and timely engagement across multiple touchpoints, many Chief Customer Officers (CCOs) and Chief Information Officers (CIOs) have been forced to revisit and reform customer experience (CX) strategies with varying success.

While some companies have invariably been able to deliver true innovation under challenging circumstances, be that by developing new technologies, or finding creative ways of using existing platforms to transform customer-centric experiences and deliver value, many have faltered in their efforts to drive their companies forward in the ‘new normal’.

Barriers to progressive change

Arguably the greatest challenge for countless business leaders has been the sheer pace of change required. Though enterprises have, in the past, had the luxury of time to deploy major changes across their businesses to meet evolving customer expectations, the fluid nature of the pandemic has fast-tracked transformation.

Changes that would ordinarily have played out over the course of months, or even years, have happened virtually instantaneously, compelling businesses to adapt, pivot and change strategies rapidly.

Undoubtedly in a bid to deliver highly adaptive CX strategies of this nature, particularly in such time-constrained circumstances, several hard lessons have been learned. Indeed, the necessity to deploy increasingly advanced technologies, as well as new communications channels at the pace necessary to meet the requirements of evolving customer journeys, has exposed previously unknown flaws in many organisations’ internal structures and legacy systems.

One thing that has become apparent, particularly at the onset of the crisis, is the underlying impediments of convoluted IT frameworks and legacy systems that are simply not built to achieve such rapid and widespread change across all of the communication channels. Furthermore, such systems often fail to provide the adequate delivery infrastructure to support the heavily data-rich CX strategies and customer communications management (CCM) delivery models obligatory for modern customer journeys.

Considering customer journeys

Regrettably, the lack of suitable systems has prompted many failures in how businesses have adapted to buyers’ ever-escalating expectations. As CCOs and CIOs sought a ‘quick fix’ for improving CX, many focused their attention on delivering improvements across digital channels such as web, social and mobile – largely due to their perceived importance in the ‘new normal’ and ease of adaptation.

And while such a singular focus on digital proficiency clearer has its merits – particular as online channels become a key enabler for driving positive CX in a post-Covid era, with 91% of UK marketers reporting an increase in the use of online services by consumers in the midst of the outbreak – it also has some considerable disadvantages. Perhaps most notable of these is the neglect of traditional communication channels such as print, which may still have a fundamental role to play in customer journeys.

By failing to consider their unique customer journeys, and adapting the channels that consumers engage with most often, business leaders run the very real risk of creating customer journey disconnect by missing critical buyer engagement points. This is especially prevalent given that 70% of consumers say a company’s understanding of their individual needs influences their loyalty.

Having a critical knowledge of customers, and learning from their unique behaviours, therefore, remains fundamental to the success of CX. Achieving such a deep-rooted understanding, nonetheless, often requires a fundamental change in the way enterprises operate and manage customer-centric transformation.

A cohesive ecosystem

Critical to any effective CX strategy is ensuring it is underpinned by a cohesive eco-system of leading-edge technologies. Deploying a single, centralised view of how an organisation communicates with customers will provide the delivery infrastructure to support truly frictionless customer communications. What’s more, it can also unify previously fragmented communications technologies across the breadth of an organisation.

Particularly critical in these times of crisis, where customer journeys have transformed virtually instantaneously, the resultant centralised view of how organisations communicate with their customers makes deploying changes across all channels much easier.

In an age where digital-driven disciplines and data have become the very focal point of modern CX strategies, having a unified view of existing customer data can present countless advantages. Not only can it lead to a critical understanding of customers’ unique behaviours, preferences and their stage in the customer journey, but also communication strategies that are engrained with customer-relevant messages and incisive targeting.

Naturally, while being equipped with the most appropriate technologies and tools will position business leaders strongly for the post-pandemic landscape, they must also be empowered with the knowledge to be the driving force behind their organisation’s CX transformation.

It is in this regard that the capabilities of an experienced customer communications partner – much like an external marketing agency – can offer significant value.

About the Author

Maz Javadzadeh is Client Relationship Director at Paragon Customer Communications, the innovative, award-winning company that combines generations of expertise with the latest innovations in technology and smart data to improve all aspects of communications for businesses. A highly skilled senior operations leader and client director with a proven agency and client-side track record, he has extensive experience of leading large multi-functional teams across data, analytic, client delivery, account direction and support, ensuring a change culture that implements high-quality strategies to deliver business growth.

For more information, visit: https://oneplatform.paragon-cc.com/en/one-platform.