Contact Center Solutions Featured Article

Providing Proactive Customer Care Needs to be in Your Plans

April 24, 2014

We have all experienced it. There is a website, or increasingly an application, that is mission critical to us either personally or professionally, that is inaccessible. Amazingly, it is always precisely when we need it. We go the provider’s website and there is no news as to why there is a problem. Their Twitter and Facebook pages say nothing. However, they do contain postings from other disgruntled users. Interestingly and disturbingly the company that constantly bombards us with (I will be kind here) “happy talk” marketing is suddenly silent. The best that can be expected is a short posting that, “We are sorry for the inconvenience….”


This is not proactive customer care. In fact, it is abysmal reactive customer care to be honest.

In a world driven by the need to used compelling customer experiences as differentiated value, this lack of care is appalling. It does not have to be this way. Plus, without going out on a limb, it is easy to predict that those companies that get with the program and provide proactive customer care are going to have more satisfied customers.

In short, there is no reason why a little thought into how to keep us happy can go a long way toward assuring we don’t go elsewhere for satisfaction, don’t take to social media to destroy brand reputation, and maybe even become brand advocates.

I bring this up because proactive customer care is going to be a featured part of TMC’s CX HOTTRENDS Symposium, being held June 2-4 in Indianapolis that is sponsored by Interactive Intelligence, Zendesk and OrgSpan, and is co-located with Interactive Intelligence’s INTERACTIONS 2104 global conference.  

At the event, an extraordinary group of industry subject matter experts will be covering nine of the hottest trends shaping the customer experience, including:

  • Social Customer Service
  • Multi-Channel Communications
  • Mobile Customer Service
  • Cloud-based Communications
  • Data Analytics and New-Model KPIs
  • WebRTC
  • Video-based Customer Service
  • Proactive Customer Care
  • Innovative Self-Service

As you can see from the list, proactive customer care is a featured session with internationally recognized contact center solutions analyst Sheila McGee-Smith, founder and principal analyst, McGee-Smith Analytics, providing insights and analysis. 

I had a chance to gets McGee-Smith’s thoughts on the session. I am convinced this is one you are sure to want to attend. 

“This session will discuss how many of the same technologies that are used today to REACT to customer queries can be used by businesses to proactively provide customers with the answers they need, ideally BEFORE they even think to pick up the phone or go to a website,” she explained.

The technology used is largely outbound multi-channel, e.g., SMS, email, web chat or the old fashioned phone call.  However, McGee-Smith added that, “Proactive engagement is more about the process than it is about the technology. It’s about understanding the patterns of actions that customers go through when they interact with a company, and especially identifying events that trigger those actions, in order to predict what information to proactively send to the customer.”

In fact, companies need to understand the difference between out-bound marketing and proactive care since one can be viewed as a nuisance while the other can and should be perceived as helpful.

Elaborating on the challenge at the top of this posting, McGee-Smith noted that, “An easy example would be an internet service provider having an outage that affects a certain portion of their customer base. Instead of waiting for those customers to call in to find out what the problem is, email and/or SMS messages could be sent to those customers explaining the issue and estimating time to repair. This solution highlights that big enabler of proactive customer care: smartphones. Even with no internet service, a large proportion of customers will be able to receive the message and avoid a call to the provider. Benefits for this kind of program accrue to both the company (fewer inbound calls to handle) and the customer (no need to call, wait in queue, be authenticated, speak to an agent).”

There are several other tricks of the trade that will be highlighted during the session, that are effective steps to help you help your customers by leveraging multi-channel capabilities for enhanced customer engagement. 

This is not just a hot trend it is very hot and extremely timely.  The CX HOTTRENDS Symposium, is a terrific way for you to both look and act smart when it comes to improving the way in which your organization creates trust and value with not just your customers but with your entire ecosystem. 




Edited by Maurice Nagle



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