Need to push customer service higher? Go to the cloud

Today’s customers demand choice not just in products and services, but also in ways they can reach out to their favourite brands. Beyond just phone calls, they now expect your business to engage with them digitally, provide the same level of quality, convenience, and customer service, no matter the time or place.

Social media has become one preferred channel for customers, with over 64% of young customers messaging businesses directly to place orders, ask for updates, or submit complaints. Those interactions continue well outside of ordinary office hours, with customers expecting responses within minutes or hours regardless of the time. They also expect customer service experiences to be seamless and painless: having to repeat themselves again to different employees only adds to their frustration.

Good customer relationships and great customer service can increase brand loyalty and improve volume of sales, so it makes sense for your business to be ever ready to interact with your customers, wherever they are. Yet, every business must weigh the gains and pains associated with adding more communication channels.

Customer service and the cloud

Delivering more gain for less pain is the main reason why cloud solutions continue to rise in popularity. Management capabilities with the latest in customer service tools and cloud-based platforms help businesses of all sizes to manage incoming customer communications in the one place.

Imagine that when a customer picks up the phone or sends a private message through your social channels, their request is automatically checked, logged, and rerouted toward relevant employees that are available on the system.

Once a customer has been serviced, their status can be updated in real-time on the platform for other employees to see, improving coordination and reducing redundant communication. Platforms like Genesys’ PureCloud can automate many of these processes to further speed up resolution of customers’ issues from the very start, helping both the customer and business at the same time, and improving customer service entirely.

Importantly, if the same customer re-engages after time has lapsed, customer data saved to the cloud can be accessed by any of your employees, ensuring they are working with the latest information and reducing the extent to which customers feel they must repeat themselves to multiple agents.

Regardless of the tone or content of each engagement, employees can dive straight in, saving time and offering a level of understanding to customers that many businesses still don’t provide.

Beyond the (first) call of duty

This level of visibility doesn’t just stop at the initial stages of a business workflow. Cloud solutions like PureCloud also lend themselves well to mobile, allowing data and updates to be shared with manufacturers, distributors, and drivers through a single app. Processes like this optimises your supply chain and significantly reduces the amount of manual coordination involved in addressing customers’ requests.

Moving forward, this same data flow can be set up to automatically send order confirmations through SMS, or update your customers through social media apps and email.

Scalability has always been the calling card for cloud technologies, and that remains true for cloud-based customer service platforms. During your business’ peak periods, IT can purchase additional capacity to handle the influx of data, and scale down during quiet months, adapting to the evolving needs of customer service.

Pay-as-you-go services like these give you the flexibility you need when it comes to cost, while maintaining the convenience of the cloud at all other times. Turns out it’s not just customers that benefit from choice.

In fact, with the added visibility that an all-in-one cloud platform provides, your business will be ready to address any number of customer service requests through phone, SMS, email, social media, or any other channel in use by customers. That should leave you free to shift resources into improving customer service satisfaction, forming a virtuous cycle that will keep your service levels and sales lifting well beyond the clouds.

Learn more about how to improve engagement with your customers through all channels and the efficiency and adaptability a cloud solution can offer.