Use of Technology in Improving Customer Services

The traditional customer services has undergone immense transformation and part of this can be attributed to technological advancement in the sector. The new service model that emerged from the changing needs of the consumers primarily focus on post-sales support and customer satisfaction. Technology has played a crucial role in shaping the customer services, thereby giving customers the convenience of choosing their preferred time and offering them an opportunity to choose from myriad platforms that cater to their specific needs. This in turn has had helped companies to streamline and re-structure their service models in a manner that reduces the costs, while taking care of the consumer interests. Technology has enabled marketers to gauge the changing life-styles of consumers, thereby creating strategies that cater to the individual needs of the consumers.

Automation of customer lifecycle processes has reduced the variability of touch points, increased speed of resolutions, improved quality of delivery and resultant increase in customer loyalty towards products and services. Success of any business organization would depend on how much they understand their customers, their wants, needs and aspiration. Because it can give businesses the flexibility to alter their ongoing strategies with quick mid-course corrections and align their business needs based on the feedback.

Some examples of automation at touch points:

Face to Face interactions: Provide immense help in managing queues and offering self-help at various walk-in points

Token Management System & Kiosks have been deployed for some time by various service industries such as banking, airline and telecom. However, Kiosks have managed to evolve into a one-stop shop that provide customers with the convenience of self-navigation, login of tickets and even offer video chat terminals that connects customers with agents as well as fulfillment terminals. Retailers too are being provided automated tools – CRM/ Retailer partners for Ticket logging or Query management at their walk-in counters.

Self Help platforms : Self Help platforms owe their evolution to different platforms

IVRS – Interactive Voice Response system is used to help consumers get information on various products & services, log in tickets for support/complaints, fulfillment of some services like payments and order fulfillment (Recharging/Topups, etc ).

SMS or USSD Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (similar to SMS with the key difference being that it is session specific unlike SMS which is store and forward) - With mobile phones becoming ubiquitous, use of pull based short code SMS /USSD has been extensively used by various service companies to provide information, logging of tickets, setting up alerts, reminders or call backs.

Web - Self Service on internet using PC/ Mobile is becoming increasingly popular and needs no elaboration. Mobile APP’s has proved to be very handy in reaching out to the customers

Contact Center : To provide for an efficient human interface for telephonic customer support – Contact Center has been enabled with multiple technological developments

ACD (Automatic Call Distributor) – This connects the incoming calls to an appropriate agent matching the skill set with the customer's selection, profile or preference

Computer Telephony Integration, or CTI allows interactions on telephones and computers to be integrated or coordinated so that all customers information can be made available to an agent as soon as the call lands on his desk & also when the agent transfers the call from one desk to another- ensuring that customer does not have to repeat earlier information provided

Call /Screen recording systems for each call – Helps in maintaining quality of service delivery & listening to customer feedbacks/voice on key products/services

Social Media platforms: Consumers are increasingly using Social media platforms to engage in peer to peer communication or for broader articulation of their concerns & viewpoints. Technologies of Web scrolling helps in engaging with these consumers & providing clear solutions in peer to peer resolution

Customer Interaction Management at Touchpoints: CRM as a technology has developed to a very advanced level today to capture Customer Interaction from all touch points in a single repository. All touch point interactions & customer lifecycle processes ‘both inbound & outbound, are connected to a single platform to bring an omni-channel service experience to a customer. Data Analytic tools are also applied here to bring in insights that help in targeting customers that display falling usage or repeat complaints so that allows business to take proactive steps to address their issues

For handling routine back office customer requests, robotics is being used for making processing faster & error proof. Scanners and Bar Code readers are now used to improve bill payment accuracy as well as improve onboarding cycle-time

Customer Feedback & Listening systems: Collecting customer feedback at different lifecycle stages through Automated Response back mechanisms on SMS, web, IVRS, live call barge-in systems and through Data analytics tools giving crucial management insights on the health of product and services that are delivered in a market and help in bridging customer expectation gaps

Alok Kumar
Head – Customer Services, Aircel