Think back to when you had to contact your bank or telco over an issue. Were you put on hold for a long time? Did you repeat yourself to multiple representatives? Did you have to contact them several times for the same issue?

These are common gripes consumers have with customer service. While some would rant about their experience to friends, family and even post on social media, others simply vote with their feet.

A global study by consulting firm PwC found that a third of those surveyed said they would stop doing business with a brand they loved after just one bad experience.¹ In the same survey, three in four consumers in Singapore said that customer experience was a deciding factor when making a purchase.

Despite the impact customer experience has on a company's bottom line, many businesses continue to struggle to deliver the level of service customers expect.

Linking up departments and systems

While companies want to give consumers a convenient, consistent and friendly customer experience, the siloed nature of their organisation ends up hampering the process.

Businesses typically focus on building a good front office to engage with customers. However, if the customer's request is slightly more complex and requires different departments to weigh in, the communication tends to break down in the middle or back offices.

For example, when a customer calls a bank to report a lost credit card, the bank has to go through a series of laborious steps across multiple departments - block the card, check for fraudulent transactions, re-issue the card - all the while the customer is put on hold.

This manual process can be turned into a digital workflow by leading cloud software company ServiceNow, which provides automation software to improve productivity at work. With one click by the customer, the workflow is automatically delivered to respective work teams in the middle and back offices, simplifying and speeding up the resolution of the issue.

"The biggest challenge that companies face is getting different departments within the company onto a single platform and digitalising those workflows," says Mr Gerald Carroll, AVP Customer Workflows APJ, ServiceNow. "ServiceNow is the missing link that can integrate systems, silos, departments and processes, all in simple, easy-to-use cross-enterprise workflows."

A new way of working

Based in Santa Clara, California, in the United States, ServiceNow serves more than 6,000 clients including well-known brands such as 7-Eleven, Disney+ and Zoom. It was named one of Fortune's World's Most Admired Companies and ranked first in Fortune's Future 50 list in 2020.

Amid the Covid-19 pandemic, businesses have been scrambling to adopt new ways of working. With more customer-service agents working from home, companies using ServiceNow's Customer Service Management can ensure they are delivering a seamless customer experience.

Using predictive intelligence, the solution analyses, categorises and prioritises all contacts from customers - via phone, e-mail, chat or other channels - and automatically assigns cases to the most suitable agent based on availability and capacity. As a result, customers are more likely to have their issue resolved at their first point of contact with the company.

Moving from expensive phone calls to self-service

Increasingly, customers prefer to troubleshoot the issue on their own before calling a support number. According to Harvard Business Review, four in five customers attempt to take care of matters themselves before reaching out to a live customer service agent.²

With ServiceNow Customer Service Management, consumers have access to a knowledge library of helpful articles or can interact with other customers and product experts in forums to get questions answered. For common issues, they can even get answers quickly with an AI-powered bot.

These self-service tools help organisations save costs by reducing phone-based support - each call could cost up to US$40 (S$55) - while ensuring customer satisfaction since issues will be fixed without calling the helpdesk.

At the same time, this reduces stressful repeat calls from irate customers, leading to more fulfilled employees in a career that has historically faced high turnover rates.

Happy employees = happy customers

To stay ahead of fierce competition, customer experience is crucial to business survival and success. When customers can resolve their issues quicker and with less effort, their satisfaction with the company increases and they are more likely to remain loyal.

For businesses that are not keen to invest in an on-premise solution during these volatile times, the platform-as-a-service model of ServiceNow Customer Service Management allows them to flexibly adjust their usage of the service based on business needs.

"Great customer service doesn't stop with the front-of-house customer service team but requires an end-to-end approach. ServiceNow makes it effortless for customers to engage with companies and get the service they need," says Mr Carroll.

"By digitalising the workflows spread across the entire organisation, businesses will provide a great experience for both their customers and employees with the added benefit of reducing the cost of service. That is an unrealised opportunity waiting to be tapped."

Click here to start your journey with ServiceNow.

References:
1. pwc.com/future-of-cx
2. br.org/2017/01/kick-ass-customer-service