Learn from three Redcentric experts how organisations can improve their customer support services and ensure technology supports communications.
How was your last interaction with a customer services department? At work, how easy is it for you to get information from a colleague on a project you’re working on? How about, as a business, can you quickly monitor and track your customers, orders and finances?
For many of us, navigating these sorts of scenarios can often be frustrating. We can’t easily get the information we need, are passed from pillar to post, or may need more help than some chatbots can provide
Therein lies the paradox. We live in a deeply connected era. We can access services and people quicker and easier than ever before thanks to organisations investing heavily in cloud communications, collaboration tools and digital channels. Yet, getting true resolutions to our queries and problems can be complex and time consuming. All this creates business disruption, weakens customer experience, and results in lost organisational visibility, control and assurance.
To find out how organisations can overcome their communications challenges, we sat down with Simon Clark, Head of Communications Pre-Sales; Paul Storey, Head of Voice Services; and Aleks Lubavs, Chief Revenue Officer. Learn how the problem is experienced across technology, customer and operations, and the practical steps you can take to improve accessibility, experience and control.
The underlying issues are technology and transformation
Simon Clark
Head of Communication
When a customer struggles to reach the right person, our kneejerk reaction is to blame the technology. Often, though, the problem stems from disconnected processes, unclear ownership and poor channel integration.
If a customer contacts you via WhatsApp, chatbot or phone, most of the time, the platform can route their call to the right person in your organisation. But if you haven’t clearly defined who should receive and respond to the call, and can’t provide the customer’s information to the agent, the handover becomes a failure point. Calls take longer as staff have to spend time understanding the problem and this affects both the employee and the customer: the employee misses their KPIs and the customer has a bad experience.
To simplify the process, we need to select channel technologies based on outcomes, rather than how hyped or fashionable the solution is. Ask yourself: what do we need to happen during this contact experience? That way, you can get the right tool for the job, rather than having to tweak and customise – a process that can lead to more complexity.
The relevant question is the desired outcome, such as lower costs, improved efficiency or a better customer experience, rather than which product to buy.
– Simon Clark
If the choice of technology isn’t the issue, we might also need to consolidate the estate or reduce the number of channels. Ultimately, your organisation might not have the capacity to support a sprawling range of routes. Right-sizing can simplify the situation.
You might be wondering, can AI help streamline? Yes and no. AI can still struggle with complicated queries, and many customers ultimately want to speak to a human being. As such, it should have a defined job: triaging simple queries, assisting agents with prompts and knowledge, or escalating complex requests. Ultimately, AI can’t repair an undefined or broken process simply by virtue of being introduced into the system.
Customer and user experience must be joined up
Paul Storey
Product Manager Communications
From a customer service perspective, I’d say the greatest problem teams and customers have originates from the sheer number of tools operated at any given time. Organisations might provide Teams, WebEx, email, chat, or channel capabilities to their staff or customers, but without any accompanying strategy, their use becomes fragmented and inconsistent.
The main way people feel this is through repeated explanations. As interactions move between people and platforms, context is lost, necessitating a repeat of the previous conversation. Naturally, this is acutely frustrating for the customers and team members involved, but it also results in a huge amount of wasted time, dragging down operational efficiency.
A genuinely joined-up experience requires suitable tools and supportive processes.
– Paul Storey
Customers don’t care how many channels you offer. They care how easy it is to get help. A “right first time” experience therefore means the recipient needs to have enough information to make the correct decision or resolve the issue. To make sure that happens, there needs to be clear processes in place to make sure both them and their information reach the right team and receive the correct treatment.
This might require consolidating the number of platforms available, or using AI. Virtual agents can surface insight, reduce administration or prepare an interaction – but as well as speed and continuity, customers expect choice. That often includes the option to reach a human, so we shouldn’t view AI as a purely headcount-reducing, cost-saving measure.
Front-end problems reflect operational issues
Aleks Lubavs
Chief Revenue Officer
As we’ve seen, communications problems experienced by customers and staff often stem from much deeper rooted operating issues. From a commercial perspective, we can clearly see the effects these issues have on the bottom line.
The more contact routes that are introduced without an accompanying process, the more friction introduced. Any aspect of business that requires communication can be affected, from processing orders to developing products, all the way through to servicing customer queries.
Organisations often add new communication channels without a clear plan for what happens next: who picks up the enquiry, who takes ownership and how it gets resolved.
– Aleks Lubavs
When processes are inefficient, staff time gets eaten up, harming productivity and KPIs. Worse still, if business-critical services are affected, delays in processing or reaching support can impact customer relationships, hurting sales, revenue and retention.
From my perspective, the two main solutions are omnichannel resolution systems, and the responsible use of AI.
The first involves using a single platform to manage communications, tying together platforms like social media, chatbots, phone and email to ensure staff don’t have to jump from platform to platform: a huge time sink.
And when it comes to AI, it’s all about triaging queries to automate routine work – things like password changes, portal access issues, or product returns. This avoids customers getting trapped in chatbot loops and frees up more staff time to be spent on complex, sensitive customer service issues that need human input.
5 steps to smoother communication
As our experts agree, organisations need to shift away from “add another tool”-style thinking. Doing so involves five key steps:
- Start with the outcome: What do you want the experience to be?
- Choose your channels: Only support the channels you know you can service well.
- Preserve context: Reduce repetition and the frustration that results.
- Define ownership: Ensure experiences have a clear, straightforward direction.
- Simplify technology: Consolidate the number and complexity of your systems.
AI should be helpful – not universal
AI can make customer support faster, more accessible and more efficient – but it isn’t a universal solution. The greatest value comes from applying AI to specific tasks and offering clear routes to talk to staff when needed.
One practical use is analysing calls and emails. AI can help identify recurring issues, highlight important conversations and give managers clearer insights to support their teams. It can also take care of routine tasks, such as directing enquiries to the right place or gathering information before a customer speaks to an adviser.
AI can make support more accessible, too. Live translation, for example, helps customers communicate in their preferred language, removing a barrier that might otherwise make getting help difficult.
AI adoption in customer support isn’t about automating everything. It’s about choosing the right tasks, making life easier for customers and support teams, and keeping people involved where their experience and judgement matter most.
Simplicity often yields the best experiences
Companies are investing in increasingly sophisticated communications technology, but this complexity shouldn’t extend to customer and staff experience. Organisational and IT teams need to consider how technology is implemented so the person trying to get help receives it as seamlessly as possible.
Our experts can help you design and implement technologies so they support users and customers. Working with you to map your outcomes, process and service needs, we can create a scalable, future-proofed approach that improves service experiences.
Talk to our experts to solve your connectivity challenges or learn more about how we’ve helped similar businesses improve their communications.
