Today, competition in the prepaid market is higher than ever – even Justin Bieber has a card – and regulatory scrutiny continues to put the squeeze on companies in the industry. In order to remain competitive, a focus on customer experience is imperative to driving higher rates of customer loyalty, which is a significant factor in your bottom line. According to Forrester Research, the overall monetary impact of customer experience (CX) on a business is measured in the hundreds of millions of dollars.
Higher CX scores will translate to long-term loyalty, which supports strategic business objectives like bolstering brand image and building revenue through cross-sell and up-sell opportunities. Additionally, if prepaid companies don’t set standards for a positive consumer experience, regulators will step in and set the bar for minimum level requirements of positive experience for them. Sustained, positive customer experience improves loyalty and retention, increases referrals, and ultimately saves your company money. Yet, many organizations fail to take advantage of opportunities to improve customer experience in their self-service channels.
One major customer experience tool many organizations fail to properly use is Proactive Outbound Communication (POC). While often viewed as more of a ‘side-kick’ solution, and less of ‘hero’ solution, POC has quietly been proving itself as a worthy member of the customer experience ecosystem. Technological advancements such as increased bandwidths that can handle rich media and a mass availability of mobile communications devices over the past decade have continued to shift attitudes about POC. In addition, industry advancements such as better reporting options, easier call center integration and a focus on mobile have shifted POC from a nice-to-have, to a need-to-have.
In a recent Forrester report titled, “Update 2012: Proactive Outbound Notification Saves Money,” Art Schoeller reflects on POC predictions made by Forrester in 2009, and how those are now ringing true. According to the report, new capabilities and the overall ability to improve the user experience have made POC a service contact center managers can no longer ignore. To show the effectiveness of POC from both the consumer and company perspective, below is an overview of the high-level benefits.
Why do consumers like Proactive Outbound Communications?
Customers don’t want to feel like a company is intruding into their lives, but they do like to be proactively informed. The trick is anticipating your customers’ needs so they are happy, and you save money by preempting inbound calls. When properly deployed, POC improves customer satisfaction and adds value to the customer experience ecosystem by delivering the following information via the customer’s preferred contact channel: account changes, account or product alerts, and time-sensitive offers.
Why do you need Proactive Outbound Communications?
Now you know why your customers want POC, but is it just another cost to get approved? In reality, implementing a POC program can actually save you money. By anticipating events and customer needs, POC reduces calls, which lowers expenses for incoming lines and agent time. Another major factor that can be positively affected by a POC program is marketing and promotions. When consumers opt-in to certain outbound notifications tied to new products, offerings and promotions, it can provide major support to those marketing initiatives in terms of awareness and revenue.
Where do you start?
So, where do you start? First, review areas where you have high call volumes to determine whether any of those numbers could be lowered by implementing a POC program. Next, find a provider that takes the time to understand the needs of your company and the needs of your customers.
Prepaid customer service is complex, costly and frequent, but a POC strategy can act as a major tool as you combat these challenges to create an effective, efficient customer experience ecosystem.
Paul Logan is CEO of Contact Solutions, a provider of customer self-service solutions for the prepaid industry. For more than a decade he has improved the customer experience and reduced customer service expenses for hundreds of large enterprises and government agencies. He can be reached at paul.logan@contactsolutions.com.
