The Human Years
Following on from our previous blog, Customer Engagement (Part 1) The Software Years, in this article we explore the benefits of H2H (human-to-human) contact.
Many people feel frustrated by automated services and no doubt we have all experienced those automated phone lines with a million extension options where you invariably choose the wrong one. Situations like this cause anger and annoyance and as a customer, you could end up taking your custom elsewhere.
There certainly is a time and a place for using automated sales / service / engagement platforms, as they enable fewer customer representatives to handle large volumes of enquiries. But these platforms cannot replace the interaction that customers need when it comes to solving bigger or more complex issues. For example a platform cannot express empathy or sympathy to a customer’s situation. Therefore businesses using software platforms need to have a clear understanding of when a human will step into the engagement, customer service or sales process.
One company that does this well is Moo.com, and yet they still do it in a way that appeals to our technology driven society. They offer the option of ‘Live Chat’, whenever you visit or log into their website, and although they are likely to be holding two or three conversations at any one time, their responses are very much human in nature and sympathetic to the customers’ needs.
If you are one of those companies who shy away from H2H contact, then reconsider now:
- Dropping an automated call system will cut down customer holding times by 1 minute per call
- 88% of people seeking to resolve customer service issues, prefer to speak to someone in person, compared to just 9% who prefer email
- Using H2H in the sales cycle will lead to more deals, as humans are able to pick up on the more subtle buying behaviours
- Human contact is a fundamental part of our social life, and we rely heavily on our senses to make best decisions.
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