Customer acquisition cost (CAC) was on the rise for many companies prior to COVID-19. According to ProfitWell, CAC for businesses increased by approximately 60 percent between 2014 and 2019. But since the onset of COVID-19, brands have actually been acquiring new customers more cost-effectively. McKinsey & Company reports that the shift to digital sales led to 30 percent higher acquisition efficiency for businesses.
Delight in customer experience has high standards. Fast-paced consumers want brands to value their time and expect their needs to be met on time, no matter how they get in touch with the brand. Our recent research spanning different countries points to how 52% of consumers expect a quick resolution from companies. First call resolution is a vital contact center metric that monitors such timely support and tracks the number of customer issues resolved within the first support call.
Customer service management can make or break the growth of your organization. If you're failing to deliver incredible customer experiences that prioritize clear communication, your organization is vulnerable to low customer retention rates. According to Gartner, more than two-thirds of businesses are now competing primarily on the basis of customer experience. This is up from only 36% in 2010. Customer experience is critical to your organization's future success. If you're delivering exceptional customer experiences that result in high levels of customer satisfaction, this will naturally drive up your customer retention rate. You can only deliver incredible experiences with the right customer service management tools in place.
Remote sales have become increasingly common, but it took a pandemic to truly establish virtual selling as the new normal. A McKinsey survey conducted in the wake of Covid-19 found that over 75 percent of buyers and sellers alike now prefer virtual sales meetings over face-to-face interactions. And just 20 percent of B2B buyers said they wanted to go back to in-person presentations of the past. This would seem to be the evolution of the classic “road warrior” salesperson.
Digital customer experiences are critical for surviving in a connected world. According to a survey of C-suite executives, more than 70% of CIOs increased investments heading into 2021 to improve customer experience. At an increasing rate, restaurants have adopted app delivery services, fitness memberships pivoted to virtual exercise experiences, retail now rely heavily on e-commerce, and office work accelerated business services like Zoom, Slack, and DocuSign.
Did you know that over 63% of customer service leaders globally have seen an increase in customer expectations? While 64% of consumers say that they expect companies to respond to them in real-time, approximately 72% of customers expect representatives to know their issue and order history. That’s why you need to enable seamless omnichannel customer service or multi-channel support, making it easy for your customers to reach you whenever and wherever they need you.
The COVID-19 crisis has pushed us all out of our comfort zones – both merchants and consumers. What might have evolved over a decade happened within eight weeks in 2020, when retailers quickly launched e-commerce websites and figured their way through digital payment, order fulfillment, and warehouse management processes. Consumers got equally adventurous too.
