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How to Map Contact Center Customer Journey [With Examples]

April 17, 2024   •   8 min read

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Imagine this: A customer reaches out to your contact center with a question or concern. At that moment, their loyalty to your brand is put to the test—not just by the resolution of their issue but by the entirety of their experience. Seamless communication, empathetic engagement and efficient solutions all play pivotal roles in shaping this experience. 

While the ultimate measure of customer loyalty may seem elusive, the pathway to cultivating it lies squarely within the realm of the contact center customer journey. As a contact center head or customer service leader, you wield significant influence over this journey.  

Throughout this blog, we'll delve into the intricacies of the contact center customer journey, examining its defining characteristics, key touchpoints, effective mapping strategies and actionable tips for enhancing the overall experience. 

What is a contact center customer journey? 

Key touchpoints in contact center customer journeys , how do you map a contact center customer journey , 5 tips to improve contact center customer journeys , optimize contact center customer journey with sprinklr service .

Unlike the traditional customer journey , which encompasses the entire lifecycle from awareness to post-purchase support, the contact center customer journey zooms in specifically on the interactions that occur when customers seek assistance, support, or information from the contact center .  

The contact center customer journey includes every contact center channel through which customers can reach out for support, including phone calls, emails, live chat , social media and more.  

By mapping out the contact center customer journey and identifying pain points, bottlenecks and opportunities for improvement, you can optimize your contact center operations , enhance agent training, implement better technology solutions and ultimately elevate the overall customer experience.

Since customer service experiences considerably influence purchasing decisions, it becomes paramount to meticulously map out the end-to-end customer journeys within the contact center.  

Here are the other compelling reasons to invest in mapping contact center customer journeys:  

Identifying specific pain points : Contact center customer journey mapping reveals precise areas where customers encounter confusion, difficulty or dissatisfaction. Whether it's navigating IVR , engaging with customer self-service channels or enduring extended hold times, mapping your contact center customer journey magnifies areas that need improvement.  

Recognizing channel inconsistencies : Shifting between customer service channels —be it emails, phone calls, or live chats—can occasionally disrupt the customer journey. Through contact center customer journey mapping, you pinpoint areas where expectations diverge across channels, emphasizing the necessity for smoother handoffs to ensure a seamless experience. 

Optimizing resource allocation : Understanding the volume and nature of customer inquiries at each touchpoint allows for more efficient resource allocation within the contact center. This might involve workforce management , agent training optimization or implementing self-service options to handle common queries more effectively.  

Driving continuous improvement : A mapped contact center customer journey is a baseline for managing contact center performance and tracking improvements over time. Regularly monitoring key metrics such as first-call resolution rates and customer satisfaction scores enables trend identification and goal setting and drives continuous improvement initiatives within your contact center. 

Here are some of the key touchpoints commonly encountered within the contact center customer journey: 

Initial contact  

The journey often begins with the customer's initial outreach to the contact center. Whether it's a phone call, email, live chat, or social media message, this first contact sets the tone for the entire interaction. Prompt and professional handling at this stage can instill confidence in the customer and ensure a positive experience. 

IVR and self-service options  

For many customers, the next touchpoint is the interactive voice response (IVR) system or the self-service options available. An intuitive and user-friendly IVR menu or self-service channels can empower customers to resolve simple queries independently, reducing wait times and enhancing overall efficiency. 

Agent interaction  

Customers who require assistance beyond self-service options interact with contact center agents . These interactions are pivotal in shaping the customer experience, as agents play a crucial role in addressing queries, providing solutions and delivering personalized assistance. Empathetic communication, active listening and practical problem-solving skills are paramount during these interactions. 

Resolution and follow-up  

The resolution of the customer's inquiry or issue marks another critical touchpoint in the journey. A swift and satisfactory resolution demonstrates the company's commitment to customer satisfaction . Additionally, prompt follow-up after resolution, such as confirmation emails or satisfaction surveys, reinforces the customer's perception of proactive customer service. 

Escalation process  

In cases where issues cannot be resolved immediately, the escalation process becomes a key touchpoint. Smooth and transparent escalations , timely updates and clear communication are essential to maintaining customer confidence and trust. 

Post-interaction support  

Even after the immediate issue has been addressed, the contact center customer journey continues with post-interaction support. This may include ongoing assistance, additional guidance or proactive outreach to ensure continued satisfaction and address lingering concerns. 

For easy understanding, let’s take the example of professional photographers and their potential journey in a contact center environment. Here is how a camera and photography equipment manufacturing company can begin with the contact center customer journey mapping. 

Step 1: Identify primary customer personas 

The camera manufacturing company can create a customer persona based on the following criteria. 

Persona Name: Pro Photographer  

Demographics : Male or female, aged 30-50, professional photographer or videographer. 

Preferences : Values high-quality equipment and technical specifications. Seeks expert advice and support for complex camera-related inquiries. 

Pain Points : Time-sensitive projects, technical challenges and the need for specialized features or accessories.

💡Sprinklr Pro Tip  

Enterprises may deliver subpar experiences if they perceive their customers as homogeneous. Hence, customer segmentation into groups with everyday needs and priorities enables the mapping of tailored interactions. Failing to recognize the key distinctions between demographic or psychographic profiles results in misaligned customer service and eventual customer disappointment. 

Step 2: Identify customer touchpoints 

The next step is to identify all the touchpoints or interaction channels that customers use to engage with the contact center. For example, customers fitting into the 'Pro Photographer' persona may interact with the contact center through various channels, such as phone support, online chat, email inquiries or in-person visits to company stores or service centers. 

Step 3: Map customer journeys 

Initial contact: The Pro Photographer contacts the contact center via phone or online chat to inquire about the compatibility of a specific lens with their camera model.  

IVR and self-service options: They may navigate through IVR options to reach the appropriate department or use self-service resources available on the company website to find answers to basic inquiries.  

Agent interaction: Upon reaching an agent, the Pro Photographer discusses their photography project requirements and seeks expert advice on selecting the right lens.  

Resolution and follow-up: The agent provides personalized recommendations based on the photographer's needs and ensures a satisfactory resolution. Follow-up may include sending additional resources or offering post-purchase support.  

Escalation process: If the query requires specialized technical support beyond the agent's expertise, the issue may be escalated to a higher-level support team or a technical specialist.  

Post-interaction support: After resolving the issue, the Pro Photographer receives proactive follow-up communication to ensure their satisfaction and address additional concerns. 

Step 4: Gather customer feedback 

The company may gather feedback from Pro Photographers through customer surveys , interviews or feedback forms following their interactions with the contact center. This feedback helps identify areas for improvement and ensures that the customer journey continues to meet the needs of this persona. 

Do you know: With Sprinklr's omnichannel survey software , you can easily track customer feedback across more than 30 digital and social channels, including voice. Moreover, Sprinklr AI+ can help customer service leaders monitor conversations for various signals and predict real-time CSAT scores. 

Step 5: Analyze and identify pain points  

Analysis of customer feedback and interaction data may reveal pain points such as long wait times for specialized support, a lack of technical resources, or inconsistencies in information provided across channels.

Step 6: Implement improvements

Based on the identified pain points, the company may implement initiatives such as dedicated support channels for professional photographers, specialized training for agents on technical topics, or the development of a knowledge base tailored to the needs of this persona.

Step 7: Monitor and iterate

Continuous monitoring of key contact center metrics and refinement of the customer journey ensures that the company remains responsive to the evolving needs of Pro Photographers and maintains high customer satisfaction and loyalty.

Bonus Read: How to Map Omnichannel Customer Journey [Steps + Best Practices]  

Leading brands seeking continuous improvements devote themselves to optimizing critical contact center customer journey touchpoints. Consider the following tips:  

Develop in-depth customer personas   

Customer-centric enterprises should create detailed archetypes documenting preferred channels, common objections, motivations, and support expectations for each key customer segment. They should also recognize essential differences between groups to align journeys accordingly. For instance, a professional photographer may have different expectations than a casual hobbyist.   

Connect data across channels   

Ensure interaction history and customer preferences are seamlessly integrated across all communication channels to provide reliable and consistent interactions tailored to their needs.

Good to know: Today, you can effortlessly handle multiple customer interactions by accessing their comprehensive details, conversation history, and past purchases from a single screen. This unification is possible through the unified agent console , which also reduces average handling time by up to 30%, enabling you to streamline your interactions with customers like never before.

  Hire for soft skills and emotional intelligence   

Recruit contact center agents demonstrating warmth, customer empathy , communication abilities, problem-solving aptitude and a natural motivation to help. Empathetic agents can build rapport with customers and provide personalized support tailored to their needs.  

Make support ubiquitously accessible   

Exceed benchmarks through accessible channels to prioritize customer satisfaction and responsiveness. Utilize callback functionalities and chatbots to improve customer response times and enhance customer satisfaction. For instance, implementing self-service options like FAQ chatbots or knowledge bases can empower customers to find solutions independently. 

💡Do you know: Today, with advanced AI-powered omnichannel routing software , you can effortlessly create a dynamic omnichannel routing logic for inbound queries. As a result, your agents can handle cases seamlessly across channels without the hassle of channel-specific configurations. But that's not all. By harnessing the power of AI, you can fine-tune your workforce efficiency in real time, adjusting agent capacity and utilization rates on the fly. Learn more about omnichannel routing .

Compare real-life scenarios against optimal journeys   

Capture how different personas engage with contact centers using data and qualitative insights to reveal pain points at each stage. Contrast against best-in-class examples to identify gaps representing enhancement opportunities tied directly to alleviating customer friction. For instance, analyze how delays in issue resolution impact customer satisfaction and loyalty.

Amidst the ebb and flow of contact center operations, one pain point remains persistent: the need for a comprehensive solution that tracks every step of the customer journey, streamlines processes, unifies data and empowers agents to deliver personalized support seamlessly.  

Enter Sprinklr Service , a game-changer in contact center optimization. By centralizing communication channels, integrating data across touchpoints and empowering agents with real-time insights, Sprinklr Service enables you to exceed customer expectations and drive unparalleled loyalty.  

But don't just take our word for it. Experience the transformative power of Sprinklr Service firsthand with a free trial.  

Frequently Asked Questions

Metrics such as first call resolution rates, average handling time, customer satisfaction scores and net promoter score (NPS) serve as indicators of contact center journey effectiveness. These metrics gauge operational efficiency, customer experience quality and overall business performance. 

Technology significantly influences the contact center customer journey by enabling seamless communication across channels, automation of routine tasks, and personalization of interactions. From AI-powered chatbots to omnichannel platforms, technology enhances efficiency, responsiveness, and the ability to meet customer expectations throughout the journey

AI can enhance, but not entirely replace, human interaction in the contact center customer journey. While AI-powered chatbots and virtual assistants excel at handling routine inquiries and tasks, they may lack the empathy and nuanced understanding that human agents provide. Human interaction remains essential for complex issues, emotional support, and building rapport with customers. 

Analytics in contact centers provide invaluable insights into the customer journey by analyzing data from various touchpoints. Analytics help identify trends, pain points, and opportunities for improvement, enabling businesses to tailor their strategies and enhance the overall customer experience effectively.

Technology significantly influences the contact center customer journey by enabling seamless communication across channels, automation of routine tasks, and personalization of interactions. Technology enhances efficiency, responsiveness, and the ability to meet customer expectations throughout the journey from AI-powered chatbots to omnichannel platforms.

Related Topics

Article Authors

Jayadeep Subhashis

Binny Agarwal

Freelance Writer , Sprinklr

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Service Pack

How to Map the Customer Journey in Your Contact Center?

Creating a customer journey map for your contact center is like drawing a treasure map that leads to customer satisfaction and loyalty. 

It helps you understand the route your customers take, from the first time they learn about your product or service to the various interactions they have with your company. In this article, we will walk you through the steps to map the customer journey in your contact center.

Introduction to Customer Journey Mapping

Imagine every customer is on a journey with your brand, starting from when they first hear about you to when they make a purchase and beyond. A customer journey map is a visual representation of this adventure. It helps you see your business from your customer’s perspective, identifying all the points where they interact with your company, known as touchpoints.

Why Map the Customer Journey?

Mapping the customer journey helps you understand your customers better. It shows you where they are happy, where they face problems, and what they really want. By knowing this, you can improve their experience, making them more likely to stay with your brand, buy more, and even recommend you to others.

Steps to Create a Customer Journey Map for Your Contact Center

Step 1: define your goals.

Before you start mapping, know what you want to achieve. Do you want to increase customer satisfaction, reduce complaints, or improve sales? Having clear goals will guide your mapping process.

Step 2: Create Customer Personas

Think of a customer persona as a character in a story that represents your typical customers. Include details like age, gender, job, interests, and why they might use your product or service. Creating personas helps you understand who you’re mapping the journey for.

Step 3: Identify Touchpoints

Touchpoints are all the places where customers interact with your brand. In a contact center, these can include phone calls, emails, live chats, and social media messages. List every possible touchpoint, even the small ones, as they all shape the customer’s experience.

Step 4: Map the Customer Journey

Now, start drawing your map. Begin with the first time a customer hears about your company and end with them receiving their product or service—and beyond. Use your customer personas to walk through each touchpoint, noting what they think, feel, and do at each step.

Step 5: Gather Data

Use data to understand how customers move through their journey. This can come from surveys, feedback forms, call recordings, and analytics tools. The more data you have, the clearer the picture of the customer journey you can draw.

Step 6: Identify Moments of Truth

Moments of truth are critical points in the journey where customers form strong impressions about your brand. These can be positive or negative. Identifying these moments helps you understand what to improve to turn unhappy customers into happy ones.

Step 7: Optimize the Journey

With your map and data, identify areas for improvement. Maybe it’s a touchpoint where customers often face issues, or perhaps it’s an opportunity to make a good experience even better. Prioritize these areas and work on enhancing them.

Step 8: Implement Changes and Monitor

After identifying improvements, implement changes in your contact center. This might involve training staff differently, changing how you respond to calls or messages, or improving your website’s FAQ section. Once changes are made, monitor their impact. Use customer feedback and data to see if the experience is getting better.

Step 9: Update the Journey Map Regularly

Customer expectations and behaviors change over time. What works today might not work tomorrow. Regularly update your customer journey map to reflect these changes and ensure your contact center continues to meet and exceed customer expectations.

Final Words

Mapping the customer journey in your contact center is an ongoing process that helps you see your service through your customers’ eyes. It’s a powerful tool for improving customer experience, leading to more satisfied customers, increased loyalty, and better business outcomes. 

Start with clear goals, understand your customers, and use data to draw and regularly update your map. By doing so, you’ll ensure your contact center is always aligned with your customers’ needs and expectations.

Remember, the ultimate goal is to make your customers’ journey as smooth and enjoyable as possible. By carefully mapping out this journey and making necessary adjustments, you’re not just solving problems; you’re building stronger relationships with your customers.

Ready to enhance your customer experience? Book a demo with Service Pack today and discover how our solutions can transform your contact center’s journey mapping. Elevate your service now!

Can customer journey mapping be applied to all types of contact centers?

Yes, customer journey mapping can be applied to all types of contact centers, regardless of the industry or size. Whether you’re in retail, healthcare, finance, or any other sector, understanding the customer journey is crucial for improving service and satisfaction.

How often should we update our customer journey map?

It’s recommended to review and potentially update your customer journey map at least once a year or whenever there are significant changes in your business operations, customer behavior, or technology. Keeping your map current ensures it remains an effective tool for decision-making.

What are the common challenges in customer journey mapping?

Common challenges include collecting comprehensive and accurate data, ensuring cross-departmental collaboration, and keeping the map aligned with changing customer expectations and business goals. Overcoming these challenges requires ongoing effort and a customer-centric culture.

How do we ensure our customer journey map is accurate?

To ensure accuracy, involve multiple stakeholders in the mapping process, including customer service agents, marketing, sales, and IT. Use a variety of data sources, such as customer feedback, analytics, and service interaction logs, to validate your findings.

Can customer journey mapping improve employee satisfaction as well?

Yes, by identifying and addressing pain points in the customer journey, you can also streamline processes and reduce frustration for your employees. This can lead to higher employee satisfaction, as they are better equipped to serve customers and feel more empowered in their roles.

• Português (Brasil)

Contact Center Trends

The data-driven contact center: Mapping and measuring the omnichannel customer journey

By Celia Cerdeira

Tell me if this sounds familiar. Your customers are demanding more ways to engage with your business. Your call times are blowing out, and let’s not even start on your first call resolution ( FCR) numbers. Your digital channels seem to be doing well, but you can’t really quantify it.

You know it’s time to embrace omnichannel customer experience, but you’re not sure which channels to focus on first or how to make them successful? 

In this guide, we’ll show you: 

• What an omnichannel customer journey is, and why it matters for your contact center.
• How to map an omnichannel customer journey, so you can access the data that matters when you most need it.  
• How to determine the key success measures for all of your channels (including digital and offline), so you can evaluate the overall customer experience. 

We’ll also share some strategies to improve the quality of your data, and how to use it to make business decisions, like moving to a scalable omnichannel solution.

What is an omnichannel customer journey, and why it’s important for your contact center. 

An omnichannel customer journey is a seamless, integrated customer experience across multiple channels and touchpoints, including offline channels like the phone, as well as digital channels such as social media, chatbots, and mobile apps. It aims to provide a consistent and cohesive experience for your customers, regardless of the channel or device they use to engage with your business.

Most businesses today take a multichannel approach to customer service—that is, they support a variety of channels, but they aren’t integrated. For example, agents might have access to call logs, but they can’t access information from interactions over social media. 

Customers are frustrated by a multichannel approach. In fact, Salesforce’s 2023 State of the Connected Customer Report found that 83% of customers surveyed say they’re more loyal to companies that provide consistency across departments, yet 66% say they still feel they have to repeat or re-explain information to different representatives, even in the same call. 

Your customers will no longer accept frustrating experiences. They expect you to have a 360º view of all their interactions, history, and information. This holistic approach is at the core of a successful omnichannel customer journey.

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Eight steps to map an omnichannel customer journey. 

Understanding customer behavior is a crucial first step when you decide to take an omnichannel approach to customer service. There is no better way to do this than to map your customers’ journey across all of your digital and offline channels. 

This involves understanding, documenting, and visualizing the various touchpoints and interactions a customer has with your organization—not just with your contact center .

Here’s a step-by-step approach to mapping your customer journey:

1. Identify your channels.

Determine the channels through which customers interact with your business. This could be phone calls, email, live chat, social media, or self-service portals .

2. Define customer personas.

Develop customer personas to represent different segments of your customer base. Consider demographics, preferences, needs, and behaviors to understand their expectations and goals. To attract and retain the right customers, you need to understand who they are and what they expect, so that your omnichannel approach isn’t just a replication of your existing processes in a new format. To align with your larger strategic goals, your omnichannel strategy should target your ideal customers, and meet them where they are. 

3. Note all touchpoints. 

Identify and jot down all the touchpoints across every channel that customers engage with your business using these criteria: 

• Awareness: What is the point at which your potential customer becomes aware of the problem they are facing? Do your customers read your blogs? Are they watching Youtube tutorials you’ve produced? Are you ranking on any comparison sites? Where are you being seen by potential customers who are not yet educated on their problem?
• Consideration: What is the point at which the customer begins to realize there is a solution to their problem, and your organization might be it? How are they finding your social media profiles? Where are they being driven to your website from? Are they seeing your ads on Facebook or Google ads? Do they see your solutions recommended on industry websites? Where are you converting your customers to initiate the sales process, and which channels are most successful?
• Purchase: Where are your customers buying from you? Where do they initiate sales, and then stop? At this stage you want to consider things like abandoned cart data on your website, and conversations that have dropped off from your chatbots or sales team. Where do you convert the most sales? Where do you convert the least? Why? Where are sales conversions dropping? Get granular. Which agents are converting the most customers? Why? When creating a future state version of your omnichannel journeys, this information will help you make data-driven decisions about where to focus your budget, and improve the process. 
• Service: Where do customers go when they need help with your products or services? Where do they ask questions? On your social feeds? In your inboxes? Emails? As blog comments? What channels could you be missing opportunities to provide support? Engage your agents in this conversation. What are the most frequently asked questions they receive on a daily basis, and how could you convert this into an externalized self-service knowledge base for your chatbots, or a customer portal where customers can find answers to their own questions? 
• Loyalty expansion : How do you continue to retain your customers after purchase? Do you have a newsletter? An affiliate or referral program? A loyalty program? Or nothing at all? What could you offer to retain customers once they have made their first purchase? How could you encourage additional purchases at the point of sale? How could they be rewarded for recommending you to a friend and effectively growing your lead base for them?

4. Analyze interactions.

Analyze your customer interactions and journeys across channels to identify common patterns, bottlenecks, and opportunities for improvement. Look for points of friction or inconsistency, and scrutinize customer feedback for clues. Don’t skim over this step. Your omnichannel experience must be data driven to be effective. Give your customers what they want and they’ll remain loyal. 71% of consumers switched brands at least once in the past year. The more customers you can retain, the better your bottom line.

5. Document the omnichannel customer journey.

Create a visual representation of the customer journey map, including each touchpoint, customer actions, emotions, and key decision points. You can leverage the Talkdesk visual flow designer to map your customer journeys. Just point, click, and publish.

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6. Enhance channel integration.

In this step, identify areas where channels can be better integrated to provide a seamless experience. For example, if your customer emails about an issue, then follows up via chat, your agent should be able to see the email and immediately provide support. With integrated channels, your agents should have a 360º view of each customer. This enables your agents to provide a seamless experience regardless of where your customer contacts your business.

7. Continuously monitor and adapt.

Before deciding that your customer roadmap is complete, monitor it. Regularly review and update it based on customer feedback and evolving needs to can be sure you’ve mapped everything. Monitor key metrics such as customer satisfaction, first contact resolution, and channel-specific performance to track improvements. 

8. Foster cross-team collaboration.

Encourage collaboration among contact center teams responsible for different channels. This helps with consistent messaging, knowledge sharing, and alignment on strategic goals. The days of siloed sales, marketing, and CX teams are long gone. Just as your customers expect an integrated experience, your teams should be collaborating on customer experience from first interaction to becoming a raving fan.  

Mapping the omnichannel customer journey in so much detail enables you to gain a holistic view of all customer interactions and identify opportunities to optimize your processes, enhance customer satisfaction, and increase your revenue at the same time.

The data-driven contact center: Measuring customer service.

When mapping your customer journey, use your customer satisfaction metrics to determine where to make improvements.

Customer experience (CX) omnichannel metrics.

There are three key metrics that define customer satisfaction across an organization. Within your contact center you’ll be tracking more specialized metrics like first call resolution (FCR), call volume , and average call times. But for the benefit of this exercise, keep your focus on overall metrics that come directly from customers, such as:

• Net Promoter Score (NPS): NPS measures customer loyalty and advocacy by asking customers how likely they are to recommend your brand to others. It provides an overall assessment of customer satisfaction.
• Customer satisfaction score (CSAT): CSAT measures customer satisfaction by asking customers to rate their satisfaction with a specific interaction or experience with your business. It helps identify pain points and areas for improvement.
• CES: CES measures the ease of the customer’s experience when interacting with your brand. It assesses the effort required to achieve their desired outcome, highlighting opportunities to reduce friction.

How to turn customer conversations into actionable insights

Learn how to find patterns in customer intents and sentiments so you can create seamless omnichannel customer journeys.

The contact center of the future is data-driven.

There is so much more to omnichannel customer experience than just adding social media channels for customers to contact you. Customers expect seamless interactions, regardless of the channel they use. 

To learn more about how Talkdesk is leveraging customer interaction analytics to increase revenue and skyrocket customer satisfaction, download our Inner Circle Guide to Customer Interaction Analytics! 

The inner circle guide to customer interaction analytics

Get expert tips for leveraging interaction analytics to optimize efficiency, reduce costs and increase revenue.

Celia Cerdeira

Célia Cerdeira has more than 20 years experience in the contact center industry. She imagines, designs, and brings to life the right content for awesome customer journeys. When she's not writing, you can find her chilling on the beach enjoying a freshly squeezed juice and reading a novel by some of her favorite authors.

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From Chaos to Clarity: Customer Journey Mapping in the Contact Center

If you’ve spent more than a few hours in a contact center, you've witnessed customer interactions that left both agents and customers frustrated and dissatisfied. It’s a common situation that can be difficult to overcome consistently or predictably. Customer journey mapping is one of the best methods I’ve used to understand and overcome the root cause of these friction points. When done well, this exercise can transform the contact center from a chaotic environment of reactivity to a center of clarity, excellence, and proactive prevention. In this blog post, I'll share my insights and experiences on the power of customer journey mapping and why it should be an essential part of every contact center's strategy.

An Overview of Customer Journey Mapping

What is customer journey mapping? It's a process mapping customers' steps as they interact with your company, from initial awareness to post-purchase follow-up. The goal is to understand the customer's needs, motivations, and pain points.

But why is customer journey mapping important for the contact center? Consider this: In today's fast-paced, customer-centric world, customers expect seamless and personalized experiences. They want to feel heard and understood and expect their problems to be solved quickly and efficiently. That's a tall order, especially for contact centers that often deal with high volumes of calls, chats, and emails. But that's why customer journey mapping is crucial. Mapping out the customer journey enables you to identify pain points and take proactive steps to address them.

Here's a personal story to illustrate this point. I once worked in a contact center where customers constantly called with the same question: "How do I reset my password?" We were bombarded with these calls daily, and our agents were burned out from repeatedly answering the same question. But when we started mapping out the customer journey, we realized that the password reset process was confusing and difficult to navigate. So, we made some changes to the process and made it more user-friendly, and voila! The password reset calls dropped significantly. 

Get Started with Customer Conversations

So, where do you start with customer journey mapping? Talk to customers, review interaction logs, and survey your agents to understand the customer experience comprehensively. Then create a visual representation of the journey, including touch points. The key is to make it easy to understand.

Look for patterns and areas where customers are frustrated, or the process could be faster. Work with your team to find solutions to address these pain points. It could be simple to provide better training for agents or complex.

One of the most significant benefits of customer journey mapping is that it helps you put yourself in the customer's shoes . It's easy to get caught up in the day-to-day operations of a contact center and forget about the customer experience. But when you map out the journey, you gain valuable insight into what the customer is experiencing and can effectively identify opportunities for improvement.

Here's another personal anecdote. I once worked in a contact center where we had a long turnaround time on a particular process. Customers would wait for our follow-up for an eternity. We knew this was a problem, but we didn't know how to fix it. That is until we started mapping out the customer journey. We realized that a bottleneck in our system caused the prolonged turnaround time, and once we identified the root cause, we were able to make some changes to improve our resolution and response time. Customers were happier, and so were our agents. It's amazing what a little empathy and problem-solving can do!

Always Be Iterating

It's important to remember that customer journey mapping is not a one-time project. It's an ongoing process that should be reviewed and updated regularly. It's vital to ensure that you always provide your customers with the best possible experience.

In conclusion, customer journey mapping can be a powerful tool for any contact center looking to improve the customer experience. By mapping out the customer journey, you can identify pain points, put yourself in the customer's shoes, and take proactive steps to address the issues. And most importantly, you can create a center of clarity and excellence where both customers and agents are happy and satisfied.

The Advantages of Customer Journey Mapping for Contact Centers

Customer journey mapping is a critical performance improvement tool for contact centers. From uncovering hidden pain points to streamlining customer interactions, the advantages of documenting and optimizing the customer experience are diverse and impactful. Continue reading to discover the transformative benefits this strategic assessment brings to the table.

What is customer journey mapping for contact centers?

Customer journey mapping in contact centers is a powerful call center assessment tool that enables companies to understand the entire customer experience, from the first point of contact to the final customer interaction. By mapping out every touchpoint and step of the customer journey, contact centers gain valuable insights into how customers interact with their brand, products, and customer service channels, and identify areas for improvement. This understanding is crucial in providing a seamless and positive call center customer experience.

Through customer journey mapping, contact centers can identify key touchpoints in the customer journey where customers may encounter difficulties or frustrations. By pinpointing these pain points, companies can take proactive steps to address points of customer effort or upset, improve processes, and ensure a smoother customer experience for increased customer satisfaction and loyalty.

Dive into the critical components of a comprehensive customer journey assessment for contact centers with Insite Founder and CEO, Chris Rozum.

What are the advantages of customer journey mapping for contact centers?

1. customer journey mapping for contact centers identifies customer pain points..

One of the main benefits of customer journey mapping for contact centers is the ability to identify pain points in the customer journey. These pain points are the areas where customers may face challenges, experience frustrations, or must exert effort to self-resolve issues. By performing this call center assessment, you can empathize with your customers and address these issues to enhance the contact center customer experience.

For example, customer journey mapping for contact centers may reveal that customers often face difficulties during the payment process. By recognizing this pain point, contact centers can implement solutions such as adopting new technology , self-service options, or call center AI tools to simplify the payment process. This not only improves the call center customer experience but also reduces call volume and average handling time (AHT) and increases first call resolution (FCR), customer satisfaction (CSAT), and the likelihood of repeat business.

2. Customer journey mapping for contact centers creates seamless and productive interactions across channels.

Another benefit of customer journey mapping for contact centers is the ability to optimize touchpoints to create seamless interactions. Touchpoints are the various points of contact between the customer and the contact center, such as phone calls, emails, or live chat. By mapping out these touchpoints and how customers interact during each step of the process, you can identify opportunities to streamline processes and create a more seamless call center customer experience.

For instance, customer journey mapping in call centers may reveal that customers often need to repeat information when transitioning between touchpoints. By optimizing these touchpoints, contact centers can ensure customer information is effortlessly transferred between channels, eliminating the need for customers to repeat themselves. Increasing productivity in this way saves time for both the customer and call center agents, and improves the overall customer experience.

3. Customer journey mapping for contact centers enables a personalized customer experience.

Customer journey mapping for contact centers also enables brands to personalize the customer experience and build stronger customer connections. By understanding the call center customer journey and gathering data at each touchpoint, you can tailor customer interactions and communication to meet the individual needs and preferences of contact center customer personas or individual customers. For instance, this call center assessment may reveal that a customer frequently interacts with your contact center through 2+ channels. By recognizing this preference, you can implement efficient tools to personalize communication across channels.

For example, identifying the right omnichannel personalization resource would allow call center agents to capture detailed customer information, such as product preferences or purchase history, via a live call that can be pushed to self-service channels for utilization during the customer’s next chatbot interaction. Continuity of these details across channels makes customers feel valued and eliminates the need to repeat account information for faster resolution and better customer service. This level of personalization enhances the customer experience and helps to build stronger connections that foster brand loyalty.

4. Customer journey mapping for contact centers enables benchmarking against competitors.

Customer journey mapping for contact centers enables you to benchmark your customer-centric processes and determine how your operation measures up to competitors and industry leaders. By performing a click-level contact center assessment of your customer experience, you uncover data that communicates how your customers interact with your products, services, and call center customer service channels.

Using call center benchmarking insights for your industry, you can gauge your current state capabilities and identify the improvements required to enable the same capabilities that drive competitors’ success. Moreover, you can use these insights to expand on and elevate those practices for a higher level of call center customer service.

Customer journey mapping for contact centers allows you to identify trending customer behaviors and preferences and predict future activity by touchpoint. By understanding where your customers’ behavior is heading, you can ready your call center to meet customer demand before service gaps arise and customer satisfaction plummets. For example, suppose behavior is trending toward a preference for live call support. In that case, you can maintain efficient call center  workforce management  practices by forecasting for additional staffing or reallocating labor to the live call channel.

6. Customer journey mapping for contact centers supports scalability.

Customer journey mapping for contact centers provides a granular level blueprint of your current state that can be used to scale your call center operation successfully. This blueprint helps call centers understand where scaling risks exist in their current operational and overall industry environments, enabling improvements that establish a stable foundation before scaling.

For example, without performing a customer journey assessment , you may not be aware of your technology stack’s limited capabilities. Trying to scale with technology that can’t support your growth will disrupt the customer experience and create an additional workload for your call center customer service agents. These system inadequacies impact your customer satisfaction (CSAT), call center WFM efficiency, service levels, average handling time (AHT), and more. Using data from your contact center assessment, you can develop a strategy that prioritizes stabilization first and scalability second to mitigate enormous financial and operational risks that could significantly diminish business success.

Revolutionize Your CX with Customer Journey Mapping for Contact Centers

Ready to realize the transformative value of customer journey mapping and provide an unparalleled contact center customer experience?

Contact us now to learn about our MegaMap call center assessment that enables breakthrough business success and guarantees a 3X ROI.

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Contact Center Customer Experience: 10 Tips for Success

Discover the key elements and strategies to optimize contact center customer experience. Visit to find out more!

The contact center customer experience is a critical differentiator for brands and can mean the difference between retaining a customer’s loyalty and losing business. In this article, we’ll dive into the ideal contact center customer experience, how your organization can measure and improve it, and actionable steps and tools to transform the customer experience.

What is contact center customer experience?  

Contact center customer experience is what it sounds like – it is the overall experience a customer has when interacting with a contact center or BPO. And the ideal customer experience can take different forms. It can be a quick glimpse at an FAQ or knowledge base, or perhaps a short chat. It can also be a call with a brief hold time (if any) and a productive conversation with an empathetic, efficient, and knowledgeable agent. No matter the scenario, the ideal interaction meets that customer’s expectations – meaning it is brief, personalized, easy, and resolves the issue in a single interaction.   

What is the importance of the contact center customer experience?  

The contact center customer experience is a key differentiator for today’s brands – and expectations are high. Customers expect a seamless experience and quick resolution. Anything less can easily send that customer to a competitor – and once lost, that business is difficult to earn back. Conversely, a great experience will not only retain that customer but can also turn them into a brand advocate.   

7 essential steps to improving the contact center customer experience  

Below are seven actionable steps to boosting the customer experience at your contact center and BPO:   

Continuously empower and train agents   

When it comes to the contact center customer experience, agent training is a major factor. Agents should have ongoing training on products, services, compliance requirements, and internal systems. And develop agents’ soft skills, such as communication, problem-solving, and “people” skills, such as empathy. The more knowledgeable and empathetic the agent, and the more empowered they are to resolve inquiries, the more satisfactory that interaction will be for the customer.   

Evaluate quality management processes  

Quality assurance plays a major role in improving the contact center customer experience. But often, these processes are disconnected and tedious, and might not deliver the full value to operations teams that they otherwise could. Optimize your contact center customer experience with a connected, personalized, dynamic QA process with customizable evaluation forms, a robust feedback loop, and transparency.   

Know your customers…  

When a customer reaches out to the contact center, what does the agent know aside from their name and inquiry type? The more the agent knows about the customer (such as an interaction history and any repeat or ongoing issues) the better able they are to assist, and the more positive the experience. 

…and understand their journey  

When customers reach out to the contact center, what is their journey to resolution? How is the routing experience? When the customer reaches an agent, do they have to repeat information, and does the agent spend the needed time to resolve any complex issues? Understanding this helps operational managers determine areas of improvement, such as routing, agent training, and providing a simpler, personalized contact center customer experience.  

Implement automation and artificial intelligence (AI)  

This can include routing inquiries and providing basic information, such as in a chat for low-lift inquiries that require a general response or answer to a question. AI and automated options can free up human agent time for more complex customer issues and other escalations.  

Ask for customer feedback    

Provide a brief survey offered at the end of a call, or through a link after a chat. You might also deliver that survey via text, social media DM, or email. Ask about aspects such as agent knowledge and skill, if the issue was resolved, the overall rating of their experience, and how likely they are to recommend the company based on that interaction.   

Enhance the employee experience  

A great customer experience starts with a great employee experience – and motivated and engaged agents will deliver a better customer experience. Taking a holistic, employee-centric approach and providing learning and progression paths, as well as collaborative opportunities, well-being checks, and an overall positive culture can greatly improve the employee experience and in turn, the contact center customer experience.   

Measuring the contact center customer experience  

Measuring and improving the contact center customer experience helps health metrics but discovering opportunities and new tools that can help keep metrics on an upward trend. Below are a few KPIs we recommend for effectively measuring the contact center customer experience:  

Customer Effort Score (CES) measures the ease with which customers were able to interact with contact center agents and resolve their inquiries. This is usually rated on a scale of 1-10, a lower score indicates a better experience.   

Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT) is a common KPI and indicates the overall level of customer satisfaction with their interaction. Customers typically rate the agent’s knowledge, professionalism, and general helpfulness.   

First Contact Resolution (FCR) F is the percentage of customer inquiries resolved during the first contact. A high FCR score is an indication that customers are able to have their issues resolved during that single contact, which can increase satisfaction, loyalty, and retention.  

Net Promoter Score (NPS) indicates the likelihood that a customer would recommend the company to others. Rated on a scale of 0-10, scores of 9 or 10 indicate a high chance of recommendation, while scores between 0 and 6 signal a detractor.   

Customer Retention Rate is the percentage of customers who stay with a company after their first contact center interaction. A high rate indicates that customers are largely satisfied.

Customer Churn Rate measures the percentage of customers who stop patronizing a company after their first interaction. A high churn rate indicates that improvements are needed.

Once you’ve implemented and benchmarked your KPIs, monitor the related metrics and look for what needs improvement. Below are a few recommendations to help action the essential steps we covered:

Implement microlearning    

Keep agents updated and proficient when it comes to product, service, system, and regulatory compliance updates with microlearning . Microlearning supplements formal training within the flow of work with bite-size learning materials and helps fight the forgetting curve. This helps agents learn and retain that knowledge across the employee lifecycle and no matter the learning initiative, such as onboarding, upskilling, and cross-skilling.   

Leverage generative AI for frontline training  

Training on updates around products, services, internal systems, and compliance requirements is essential to the contact center customer experience. With generative AI models, such as ChatGPT, admins can quickly and efficiently create frontline training materials , at scale, delivering the needed items for an improved content center customer experience.  

Gamify the employee experience  

Gamification is the application of game mechanics (such as leaderboards, levels, badges, points, and rewards and recognition). This strategy keeps employees motivated by tapping into intrinsic and extrinsic motivators in turn helps employees engaged and focused on their goals, which translates into higher performance and an elevated contact center customer experience.  

Create a collaborative, learning-focused environment  

Enable employees to perform at their best and deliver an exceptional contact customer experience by creating a culture of learning with personalized, ongoing learning and development opportunities and clear career pathways. Also enable social sharing, such as employee contributions , where employees share their best on-the-job advice, such as tips on handling an irate customer, and how to finish post-call paperwork a little faster.   

The Future of the Contact Center Experience  

The future of the contact center customer experience is automated and personalized – and is being shaped now with the rise of new technology to help meet the anticipated increase in customer expectations.   

Artificial intelligence (AI) is currently being used in features such as chatbots. Tomorrow’s chatbots will be even more sophisticated and deliver a much more personalized customer experience on a wider range of inquiries. The use of knowledge bases and FAQs as part of automated self-service channels is also on the rise, allowing customers to resolve issues on their own (and quickly) without having to interact with an agent.   

Meet Centrical – #1 Gamification-based Performance Experience Platform  

For over a decade, Centrical has partnered with contact centers and BPOs across the globe to help shape the customer experience by building motivated, engaged, and high-performing frontline teams. Our Performance eXperience platform includes elements such as AI-powered microlearning , augmented coaching , and real-time performance insights to keep employees well-trained and aligned with their goals. AI and advanced gamification bring these elements together and drive long-term motivation and engagement – and in turn, improve the contact center customer experience. Centrical customers have experienced solid results, including:    

• 15% increase in CSAT scores    
• 50% faster onboarding   
• 30% reduction in early attrition

We invite you to learn more about Centrical’s Employee Experience Methodology by downloading our definitive guide .   

Watch the Centrical platform in action with a quick preview .     

Summary and Key Takeaways    

Customer expectations are rising – and so are the stakes for providing a positive contact center customer experience. By measuring customer experience and a few key takeaways:  

• The contact center customer experience is a major brand differentiator and can mean the difference between retaining that customer or losing them to a competitor.   
• Measuring the customer experience is crucial for call centers, and this can be done by establishing KPIs such as CSAT, NPS, AHT, FCR, and other performance indicators.    
• Steps toward improving the contact center customer experience include continuously empowering and training agents, leveraging customer feedback, understanding the customer journey, elevating QA processes, and leveraging AI.  
• Some best practices for improving the contact center customer experience include leveraging generative AI for creating frontline training materials, implementing microlearning, and gamifying the employee experience.   
• The future of the contact center customer experience will be more sophisticated, and personalized, and will involve increased use of AI , as well as automated and self-service options. 

Are you ready to change the game for your contact center’s customer experience? Watch the Centrical platform in action with a quick preview and request your personalized overview today. 

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Prior to Centrical, Dalit worked at LivePerson and NICE creating digital transformation and customer engagement solutions. Her areas of expertise include complete product lifecycle management, translating market and customer requirements to draw a viable product roadmap, identifying champions, and then harnessing their enthusiasm to drive adoption of innovations.

Dalit Holds a Master’s degree in Chemical Engineering and Computer Science from the Technion Technological institute in Haifa.

Previously the Global Head of Marketing for SAP SuccessFactors, April was responsible for end-to-end marketing for SuccessFactors around the world. In this role, April led strategic marketing plans to grow global brand recognition, revenue, customer success and category creation of human experience management (HXM), which is focused on solution innovations that put the employee at the center of work. April also served as a Diversity and Inclusion Lead at SAP and led global thought leadership and strategic partnerships inspiring an inclusive culture, women’s equality, supplier diversity, and sustainable supply chains.

April has been honored by various organizations including CRN’s “Women of the Channel” and as a “Top 100 Ethnic Minority Executive” by EmPower. She holds a B.A. in Communications and Marketing from Simon Fraser University, Canada’s leading comprehensive university.

Ella holds a B.A in Psychology from the Hebrew University and MSc in Organizational Behavior from Recanati Business School at Tel Aviv University.

Previously, she held the role of Head of Product Experience and Communications for LivePerson, a leading Conversational AI platform, where she played crucial part in delivering significant product innovation and customer growth. Prior to her time at LivePerson, she held multiple senior product roles at NICE, a leading enterprise customer experience (CX) software provider, including Director of Product Portfolio and Director of Product Management.

Linat holds an MBA from Tel Aviv University and a BA in Computer Science from Reichman University (IDC Herzliya). She graduated magna cum laude from both institutions.

Prior to that he was CEO of Gilon-Synergy Business Insight, a national leader in Business Intelligence. In 2010, Gilon-Synergy was acquired by Ness Technologies (NASDAQ:NSTC) and Gal went on to serve as Senior VP at Ness, and was member of its executive management.

Prior to that he was VP customer relations and operations at Deloitte Consulting. He also worked at EDS and Bashan. He holds a MBA degree in Marketing and Information Technologies from the Tel Aviv University.

Jayme Smithers brings 25 years of leadership experience in enterprise software.  He has been building and scaling high performance revenue teams in the worlds leading technology companies including Oracle, NetSuite, SAP, BusinessObjects, Crystal Decisions and most recently ThoughtExchange.

As the CRO at ThoughtExchange (a leader in Enterprise Discussion Management) he helped significantly scale their growth, led them into new markets, brought in key investment and helped them become the leader in community engagement across the Education sector.

At NetSuite, Jayme helped innovate, grow and scale key verticals as NetSuite become the standard Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) thanks to the introduction of new channels and a value centric approach to the sales process.

Prior to NetSuite, Jayme worked at SAP where he led various roles including global revenue channels, large enterprise and mid market teams.  It was here at SAP where he built a strong partnership with our CMO April Crichlow where they focused on building world class teams with clear expectations, coaching and career development!

Outside of work, Jayme can typically be found with his family in the mountains sharing his love, passion and knowledge of nature and sport.

Jayme is actively coaching the Nancy Greene Ski league and competitive youth soccer.

Jayme holds a business degree from University of Denver where he competed in two varsity sports (soccer and alpine skiing) and he helped led the Alpine Ski team to back to back NCAA National Titles in 00 and 01.

Daphne has over 15 years of experience in Customer Relations and Retention in both B2B and B2C environments. Her area of expertise is leading customer success, consulting and global professional services teams within public and private sector companies. She is focused on leading teams to grow the partnership with our clients.

Prior to Centrical, Daphne worked software and service companies in the online marketing and gaming industry.

Daphne holds MA in Statistics – Specialization in Operations Research and a MBA degree, both from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

Ariel has over 16 years’ experience in a wide variety of R&D leadership roles. He is highly experienced at building R&D teams from the ground up, driving high levels of accountability and ownership and setting up automation infrastructures. For the past 10 years Ariel has managed both in-house and offshore development teams at companies ranging from startups to enterprise organizations.

Prior to joining Centrical, Ariel served as VP of R&D at Worthy.com where his team dramatically improved product stability, quality and execution. Before that, he was VP R&D at Applicaster where he led infrastructure changes from project to product. Ariel has also held various R&D positions at Retalix (later acquired by NCR).

Ariel holds B.sc in Computer science & Math, and MBA degree in Information Technologies, both from Bar Ilan University

Find out how you can deliver better customer experiences in this one-pager

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See how Centrical Boosts Contact Center Agents’ Performance

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Learn how you can keep your frontline emotionally connected, motivated, and productive, wherever they work.

Learn all about Gamification and how you can benefit from it to proactively engage your frontline, from anywhere.

Designing a Digital Contact Center Customer Journey That Ensures Satisfaction

A digital-first contact center approach, with methodical escalation to agents for human connection and managers for resolving the most difficult requests, is key to ensuring customer satisfaction, explains Chris Small, VP product management, Roadside.

A digital-first contact center approach, with methodical escalation to agents for human connection and managers for resolving the most difficult requests, is key to ensuring customer satisfaction, explains Chris Small, VP p roduct m anagement, Roadside.

The goal of every contact center team is to resolve customer requests as quickly and effectively as possible. Sometimes they do so by moving the customer journey through digital channels, and other times they escalate requests to specialized contact center agents or management for further assistance. But it isn’t always easy knowing which approach is best for a given situation. For customers, too much time spent in digital channels that don’t resolve the issue can feel impersonal or ineffective.           At the same time, routing customers to agents or management for simple tasks that automation could support can be a misuse of precious time that could otherwise be spent on more complex cases.

How can you balance humanity with efficiency and still methodically escalate requests? The goal should be to design a digital-first contact center customer journey that inserts agents where there are gaps or opportunities to drive more human connection and leverage an agent’s high-trained skillset. As our chief digital officer, Bernie Gracy, says, “We are moving FROM business processes managed by people and assisted by technology TO business processes managed by technology and assisted by humans as an exception or escalation.”

Before we get into how and when to escalate customer requests, let’s first review some common data elements in a contact center and how each impacts customer satisfaction.

Learn More: How Personalized Live Web Chat Can Boost CX

Contact Centers Are Drowning in Data

On average, contact center agents handle up to 50 calls per day Opens a new window . In a center with 600 agents working each day, for example, that amounts to 30,000 calls per day and 210,000 per week. With such a high volume of calls, contact centers have access to invaluable data such as when a customer called, the frequency of calls, the reason for their call and more. Each of these data elements tells the story of a customer’s journey for help or support, allowing you to closely monitor the situation and make decisions about how to best handle requests.

However, today’s technological advancements have made monitoring the customer journey and responding reactively baseline requirements; organizations today need to take their approach to the next level. A more advanced strategy involves leveraging machine learning to predict what the customer will need next to achieve a positive outcome — or an optimal level of satisfaction (e.g., a high net promoter score) — and proactively and automatically trigger agent involvement. Because of this high volume of call data collected, machine learning models offer a high degree of confidence in predicting if something will go wrong or a customer will want to speak to an agent.

Data Helps Predict Customer Satisfaction

There is a wide range of data inputs that feed into machine learning models. For instance, with 30,000 roadside assistance dispatches running through our system each day, we look at the time of day, day of the week, month, if it’s a holiday, the customer’s location (side of the road, a parking garage, their driveway, etc.), zip code, and the type of service they need (tire change, flatbed tow, wheel lift tow, etc.). As time progresses, we layer in other data elements, such as the estimated time until a tow truck arrives, the service provider selected, how much time has elapsed since dispatch, and so on.

Other helpful data components can include case notes or comments in the customer relationship management (CRM) system. Advanced machine learning models can not only scrub words and groupings of words from these notes but can also detect the inflection, tone, and sentiment of customer voice recordings.

Of all the data elements, though, the time elapsed can arguably be the most important factor in the outcome of a customer’s journey. In fact, nearly 60% of customers Opens a new window feel that long hold and wait times are the most frustrating parts of a service experience. Rather than waiting for that time to elapse, machine learning can predict the time it’s going to take to fulfill a customer’s request.

In addition, digital communication channels , such as mobile apps, on-demand apps, and online web portals can tighten operations and drive efficiencies by helping customers access self-service support more. These channels essentially help customers “cut the line,” rather than waiting in a phone queue.

Escalating Customer Requests to Agents

While the easiest, most straightforward requests can be handled through digital communication channels, more difficult requests require agent intervention. When a machine learning model detects input variables that are likely predictors of a poor outcome, it can alert agents that those requests need a heightened level of visibility.

It’s also important to note that while some customer requests may require an agent because they are more challenging issues, others are simply situational. For example, in the roadside assistance industry, a customer stranded on the side of the highway at two in the morning when it’s dark and raining might prefer the comfort of knowing they have someone on the phone giving them assurance, even if they have quick, digital channels at their fingertips. This is why it’s important to have multiple communication options available. You should guide customers into a digital channel when possible, but don’t force them to stay there if they require human assistance. It’s all about balancing efficient digital channels with that more personal connection.

Escalating Customer Requests to Management

While agents are often considered the first line of intervention, there may be situations where they’ve exhausted all the tools at their disposal and require management intervention. Management escalation typically occurs during moments of heightened emotion – think calls into an airline about a canceled flight while far away from home or during the holiday gift-buying rush when that long-awaited present arrives damaged. For roadside assistance, this is usually when a customer is in unfamiliar surroundings far from home. These extra challenging events require a delicate balance of art and science, which a management team is well-equipped to handle.

Management escalation can also give more difficult requests higher visibility within your organization. The executive team can review these requests, as well as the aggregate data logged into the CRM throughout the escalation process, to evaluate issues and opportunities and make broader business process improvements.

  Learn More: Why Intelligent Automation, And Not AI Drives Contact Center Efficiency

Designing Contact Center Journeys for Customer Satisfaction

Providing customers with quick and helpful support is a crucial part of every business. Throughout each stage of the contact center customer journey, there are time-bound milestones that a customer should reach to ensure a positive outcome. If you can leverage data to anticipate those inflection points and proactively act on them, you will be one step closer to delighting customers and building loyalty.  

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Vice President, Head of Roadside Managed ServicE, Agero

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How to improve customer experience in a call center

• Understand your customer
• Train your agents well
• Understand all phases of the customer journey
• Cut back on hold times
• Ask for customer feedback
• Use live chat
• Simplify the customer experience

Highlights:

• Excellent customer experience plays a key role in the overall success of contact centers.
• Agent competency and modern digital technology are principles drivers in improving customer experience.
• RingCentral offers innovative tools to simplify the job of agents and enhance customer experience.

Keeping customers satisfied is a top priority for any business because it can make or break a business. This holds especially true for contact centers. How does your center perform in terms of overall customer satisfaction?

Because excellent customer experience can fuel customer satisfaction and overall brand success, every call made to your contact center offers you a chance to meet and exceed customer expectations.

👩‍💼 💫 Teamwork makes the dream work 💫 👨‍💼

 The key to building a customer-centric team: Enterprise edition eBook

Happy reading!

Here are seven ways to boost customer experience in your call center:

1. Understand your customer

Not every customer who calls in to your contact center has the same experience, issues, or questions. Even though you may know some details about the individuals calling in — such as their expectations and demographics — your agents might not know much more about them.

To ensure a more positive customer experience, it’s helpful for agents to know as much about customers as possible. According to Microsoft, 72% of customers say they expect agents to know who they are, including details about past interactions with the call center. Give customers what they want by taking steps to getting to know them better.

2. Train your agents well

Every employee should be properly and thoroughly trained for the job they’re expected to perform, and contact center agents are no exception. Training agents appropriately can help prepare them for the role they play in delivering excellent customer service to callers. The better agents are at what they do, the better the experience will be for customers.

Well-trained agents are more comfortable and confident in their jobs, which often translates into being happier and more productive as well. Good training that includes both initial onboarding and continuing education can encourage agents to stay put in their assignments. That, in turn, leads to a more productive environment that promotes better customer experiences.

3. Understand all phases of the customer journey

In a perfect world, a customer would call in to a contact center, get connected with the right agent, and have their question answered. However, this doesn’t always happen. Some customers encounter a much lengthier process due to either the complexity of their issue or routing problems in the contact center. In either case, contact center managers should be aware of the customer journeys that are taking place.

To ensure a more positive customer experience, agents should be interacting with customers in a way that is appropriate for their role in the customer’s journey.

For instance, new versus existing customers will have different experiences. A customer who has called in several times before will have helped the contact center gather specific information about a specific problem. This will allow the agent to provide a more personalized message, leading to a better customer experience.

4. Cut back on hold times

One of the most frustrating parts of a customer’s experience when calling into a contact center is waiting on hold for a long time. Ideally, customers should reach a live agent as quickly as possible.

According to recent research, nearly 60% of customers who think they’re waiting on hold for too long will eventually hang up. This is not the intended result that customers or contact centers expect or want.

To counter this issue, contact centers should leverage omnichannel capabilities to streamline call processes. This gives customers a variety of options in terms of how they choose to interact with a call center while ensuring that agents use their time wisely.

5. Ask for customer feedback

Before tackling any process issues with your contact center, you need to know that they exist in the first place. Identifying problems with customer-agent communications is the first step in rectifying them.Perhaps the best way is to simply ask customers for their feedback.

Requesting information from customers will help pinpoint issues that need to be addressed and make customers feel as though they are being heard. This can go a long way toward enhancing customer experiences.

6. Use live chat

Today’s modern customers appreciate choice when it comes to how they communicate with a contact center. This is why having an omnichannel communications platform has become a must for every contact center.

In particular, customers like the instant and accessible support they can get through a live chat option. The ability to get an immediate response from their computer or mobile device is very attractive to customers, particularly those in the younger generations.

If customers don’t get the answers they’re looking for through a live chat communication channel, they can be directed to an appropriate live agent to take over.

7. Simplify the customer experience

Consumers have limited patience when it comes to how much time and effort is required to get through to a contact center and have their questions answered or problems solved. Contact centers must take steps to simplify the entire communication journey to prevent them from seeking out better options elsewhere.

Improving the overall customer experience can include using technologies such as automatic call back, instant customer support, and first call resolution. These are just some of the ways contact centers can cut back on customer efforts and boost customer satisfaction.

RingCentral’s cloud-based solutions offer all this, and more. Learn more about other contact center best practices to ensure that your call center is living up to its full potential.Get in touch with RingCentral today to request your free demo and discover the benefits of an omni-digital platform for your contact center.

Originally published May 11, 2022, updated Feb 19, 2024

Are your contact center agents happy?

Highlights: Contact center agent productivity levels are directly related to how happy agents are at work. Management can take steps to ensure their employees are happy on the job, and therefore more productive. RingCentral offers innovative cloud-based solutions that can make the job of agents easier, which can improve their experience and productivity levels. ⭐ ...

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Understanding the Call Center Customer Journey

• Written by: Scorebuddy
• Customer Service
• Call Center Metrics
• Posted on: August 17, 2021
• Updated on: March 6, 2024
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The best call centers put themselves into the minds of their customers. They take the time to learn who their audience is, what they want, how they prefer to communicate, and what prompts them to make a transaction.

These customer-centric companies are 60% more profitable than companies that don’t focus on customers. And by gaining a deep understanding of the customer journey, call centers can learn what it takes to provide exceptional experiences.

Although today’s customers can be tricky to understand fully—especially when it comes to the many various steps they take—the customer journey is something you can effectively outline if you take the time to do it right.

What is the Call Center Customer Journey?

The call center customer journey starts when someone learns how to contact your company and ends when they achieve their goal. Every step, including research, outreach, and interaction with an agent, leads them toward this goal.

A customer's goal can be anything from purchasing a product to signing up for a free trial or finding an answer to a question. Each call center interaction is just one touchpoint along their entire journey with your brand. And every touchpoint matters .

5 Steps to Understand the Call Center Customer Journey

So, how do you map the call center customer journey?

The key is visualizing the entire process. Each point on the map is an important event, interaction, or area of friction that happens during the customer’s experience with your call center .

To begin mapping out the complete customer journey, you need to grasp audience demographics (who they are), psychographics (whom they want to be), and what it takes to get customers from point A to point B. Here’s how to get started in five steps:

Step 1: Discover Who Your Customers Are

Get to know your customers—their demographics and expectations. You need to understand your customers personally. Put a face to your customer by creating a persona that your call center team can use to envision precisely who they’re interacting with. And the more detail, the better.

For example, don’t just say your primary customer is: male, 18-30 years old, and a manager. Instead, create a persona like this:

• Kevin Smith, 28 years old.
• Married and living in the suburbs.
• Working to reach the director at his company and is passionate about his job.
• He spends his weekends playing local team sports.

Step 2: Determine Why Your Customers Contact You

Once you know who your customers are, you need to understand where they are coming from. Knowing why your customer contacts you will inform how you handle each interaction.

For example, if the customer is new to your brand, they need a generic welcome greeting and a few prompts to guide their next steps. Contrarily, a current customer wants to know that you know who they are and are ready to help.

You can use a CRM, text analytics , and call monitoring software to pinpoint why the customer is contacting you so you can respond appropriately. It's also valuable to monitor trends on why customers get you to find ways to smooth out the process.

Step 3: Outline How Your Customers Contact You

People want to engage with you when, where, and how they prefer across the entire customer journey. This is why a branded omnichannel strategy is so essential for your contact center.

Start by listing every potential touchpoint with your contact center, from social channels to paid ads, phone calls, emails, third-party review sites, and live chat. This is an essential step to ensuring you have all the insight you need into how your customers interact with you.

Finalize your list of contact channels, then establish clear communication guidelines for each to ensure your call center agents meet customers where they are, literally. For example, emails should be answered within 24 hours, while live chat should be answered in just a few minutes.

Step 4: Figure Out What a Customer Interaction Looks like

Every customer interaction is a chance to prove that your brand deserves loyalty. It’s an opportunity to differentiate your brand based on exceptional customer experiences. So figuring out what an outstanding interaction—one that results in a positive outcome—looks like is critical.

To do this:

• List out all the actions your customers might perform during an interaction so you can respond appropriately.
• Determine the emotional drive for your customers—their pain point or problem—to provide the correct response at the right time.
• Identify the obstacles and pain points blocking your customers to highlight how you’re working to mitigate those issues.
• Use a call center script with best practices for how your agents can be most effective in their interactions.
• Outline all the resources (contact center tools) your agents can leverage to manage every interaction successfully.

Step 5: Follow-Up to Ensure the Interaction Ended Positively

The final step of the customer journey is to establish how you’ll resolve every interaction while delighting the customer. You need to track and analyze the right metrics and data to determine what works and what doesn’t. Measure everything from how well the agent recognized the customer’s mood to how well the agent met their need by the end.

And don’t be afraid to take the journey as the customer to see if there are any areas of the call center process that can improve. Test your mapping regularly to ensure that agent transfers are minimized, wait times are insignificant, authenticity is demonstrated throughout, and emotion is put into every interaction. You don’t want frustrating gaps or less-than-ideal experiences because something was missed.

Best Practices for Improving the Call Center Customer Journey

Now that you know how to map the call center customer journey, what can you do to ensure that every experience is as profitable as possible?

• Develop emotional connections with your customers. The importance of a dynamic customer experience cannot be overstated. The more storytelling and personalization your contact center uses to connect with customers, the more positive their experience and the more satisfied they’ll be on their journey.
• Decrease customer effort along the journey. The easier it is for your customer to make a purchase, get fast service, find an answer to a question, and garner information, the better. Offer tools such as self-service knowledge bases or chatbots to help guide customers to the answers they seek.
• Ask for customer feedback— and listen to it! Your customers are often happy to tell you how their journey went and what they liked and didn’t like about it. Use customer surveys, including CST and NPS, and self-scorecards to gain relevant feedback you can use to improve.
• Train your agents in customer service. The best contact center agents communicate well, demonstrate emotional intelligence, are adaptable, take the initiative, work well in teams, have integrity, and are great at solving problems.

By following these best practices and mapping the customer journey, this insight can highlight the most effective and efficient process for your customers to take from the first touchpoint to the last. And the better optimized this process becomes, the more likely you are to build loyal brand advocates.

With a clear understanding of your call center's customer journey, you can start developing a customer-centric experience at every touchpoint.

The eBook, Actionable Ways to Improve Call Center Customer Experience & Customer Service , outlines industry best practices to help you deliver a consistent, enjoyable experience at every step in your customer journey.

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Why customer journey mapping is an indispensable tool for a contact center

The customer journey mapping is a useful tool because it enables companies to understand the entire journey that customers take. This methodology enables the identification of customer touch points and analysis of customer experiences, emotions, and interactions along the way.

What is Customer Journey Mapping

Customer journey mapping is a term used to identify retracing and analyzing all the moments that make up the interaction between user and company, from first awareness to post-sale. By tracking the customer journey, it is possible to really get to know their needs, expectations and behaviors in order to personalize products and services.

Understanding customer experiences

Verifying the stages of a customer's interaction with their company is a process that allows contact centers to gain an in-depth view of the entire journey. Through this mapping, key touch points , critical moments and emotions associated with each stage of the journey can be identified. This in-depth understanding of customer experiences enables contact centers to adapt their service strategies and deliver a personalized and engaging experience.

Identify opportunities for improvement

Mapping interactions also reveals areas where a contact center can improve its operations and processes . By identifying weaknesses or moments of frustration for customers along the way, targeted changes can be made to fix problems and optimize the overall experience. This data-driven approach enables informed and targeted decisions to improve efficiency and customer satisfaction.

Personalizing the customer experience

Customer journey mapping enables contact centers to deliver a personalized and highly relevant experience for each customer. With a clear understanding of users' wants, needs, and preferences at each stage of the journey, individualized communications and interactions can be provided. This level of personalization helps build a strong relationship with customers , improving loyalty and generating sales opportunities.

Advantages and disadvantages of customer journey mapping

As with any process, there are pros and cons to customer journey analysis, which should be kept in mind and evaluated when putting in place this kind of insight into the habits and behaviors of one's customers.

• Greater understanding of customers' needs and their key touch points.
• Identification of opportunities for improvement and optimization of contact center operations.
• Personalization of interactions and communications to improve customer satisfaction.

Disadvantages

• Time and resource requirements to conduct a comprehensive customer journey analysis.
• Possible complexity in integrating and analyzing data from different sources.
• Need for constant monitoring to adapt to changes in customer behavior and expectations.

Why use XCALLY for customer journey mapping

The use of An omnichannel suite for managing interactions with its customers , not only simplifies a whole range of processes and ensures a smooth and efficient customer journey management: it is an immediate way to get an in-depth insight into what processes customers use to interconnect with the company and their degree of satisfaction with them. Through XCALLY, the possibilities of costumer journey verification are easier and more immediate. We understand why.

Data Integration

XCALLY offers advanced tools for integrating and analyzing data from different sources. This enables contact centers to gain a complete and unified view of the customer journey, including contact data, past interactions, and preferences. Data integration simplifies analysis and provides insightful information to improve the customer experience.

Process automation

XCALLY offers advanced features of process automation , enabling contact centers to manage customer interactions efficiently and effectively throughout the entire customer journey. This allows for quick, personalized, and consistent responses, greatly improving the overall customer experience.

Real-time monitoring and analysis

XCALLY provides real-time monitoring and analysis tools. , enabling contact centers to track customer interactions and identify any problems or opportunities for improvement early. This makes it possible to quickly adapt strategies and provide high-quality customer service in line with customer expectations.

Revolutionize your customer journey with XCALLY

In summary, customer journey mapping is an indispensable tool for contact centers that wish to deliver an outstanding customer experience. Through understanding customer experiences, identifying opportunities for improvement, and personalizing interactions, contact centers can achieve significant benefits. However, to maximize results, it is essential to use a reliable and advanced platform such as XCALLY .

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Building an Effective Contact Center Journey for Better Customer Satisfaction

The key to ensuring customer satisfaction is a digital-first contact center strategy with systematic escalation to managers for handling the challenging requests and agents for human connection.

Every contact center team aims to respond to consumer requests as fast and effectively as possible. To do that, teams occasionally move the customer journey through digital channels, or requests are escalated to management or specialized contact center agents for more help. But determining the best course of action in a special circumstance is not always easy.

Also Read:  How to Improve Marketing Data Management with AI and Machine Learning

For customers, spending too much time on digital channels that do not address their concerns can feel ineffective or impersonal. However, sending customers to agents or management for simple issues that automation can handle can waste valuable time that could be used on more complicated instances.

The goal should be to develop a contact center customer journey that is digital-first and places agents where there are opportunities or gaps to foster more personal connections and utilize an agent’s highly developed skill set.

Here are some contact center data components and how each affects customer satisfaction:

Contact Centers Inundated with Data

Due to the high volume of calls, contact centers have access to crucial data, including the time a customer called, how frequently they called, why they called, and more. Each of these data points describes a customer’s journey in search of assistance or support, enabling businesses to monitor the situation and decide how to respond to requests most effectively.

Although monitoring the customer journey and responding accordingly have become fundamental requirements because of modern technological breakthroughs, businesses must take their strategy to the next level. A more sophisticated approach uses Machine Learning to anticipate the customer’s future needs to reach a successful outcome or the highest degree of satisfaction and then proactively and automatically initiate agent involvement. Machine Learning models provide a high level of confidence in predicting whether something will go wrong or a customer may want to speak to an agent due to the large volume of call data that has been collected.

Data Helps Forecast Customer Satisfaction

There is a wide variety of data inputs that are fed into Machine Learning models. Helpful data components can include comments or case notes in the CRM system. In addition to removing words and word clusters from these notes, sophisticated Machine Learning models can also detect the sentiment, inflection, and tone of customer voice recordings.

But out of all the data points, the time component might have the biggest impact on how a customer journey turns out. Most customers find that extended holds and wait times are the most aggravating aspects of a service experience. Businesses can leverage Machine Learning to estimate how long it will take to complete a customer’s request rather than waiting for that time to elapse.

Additionally, by facilitating greater consumer access to self-service assistance, digital communication channels can streamline processes and increase efficiency, including mobile applications, online web portals, and on-demand apps. Customers can essentially skip the line by using these channels.

Moving Customer Requests to Agents

Digital communication channels can handle straightforward and easy requests, but more challenging requests need agent assistance. Agents can be informed that certain requests require a higher level of visibility when a Machine Learning model identifies input variables that are probably indicators of a poor outcome.

It’s also crucial to remember that while some customer requests may necessitate the assistance of an agent since they are complex issues, others are only situational. This is why it’s crucial to have a variety of communication channels available. When possible, it is crucial to direct customers to a digital channel, but if they need human assistance, they shouldn’t be forced to stay there. It all comes down to striking a balance between effective digital channels and human connection.

Raising Customer Requests to the Management

Although agents are often thought of as the first line of intervention, there can be instances where they have used every resource at their disposal and need management involvement. Additionally, management escalation can raise the visibility of more challenging requests within the company. The executive team can assess these requests and aggregate data logged into the CRM throughout the escalation process to assess issues and opportunities and for business process improvements.

Building Contact Center Journeys for Better Customer Satisfaction

Every company must focus on giving customers prompt, helpful support. There are time-bound milestones that a consumer must meet at each stage of the contact center customer journey to ensure a good outcome. Businesses will be one step closer to satisfying customers and fostering loyalty if they use data to predict those inflection points and take proactive action on them.

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How to Create a Customer Journey Map (And The Benefits It Delivers)

What is a customer journey map? A customer journey map is a visual representation of the customer journey and creates a start-to-finish snapshot of customers’ interactions with a company. It helps tell the story of your customers’ experiences with your brand across all touchpoints and platforms. Compared to cold statistics, a map of the customer journey is more narrative, nuanced, and revealing about the customers’ feelings as they interact in different ways with a company.

Customer journey maps are often expressed as an infographic, which can reveal the how, why, when, and where of customers’ contact with a company. There are many benefits to mapping the customer journey, and contact centers are uniquely positioned to reap these benefits. Let’s explore the power of a customer journey map and how it can bolster your contact center’s ROI and productivity.

Why You Need to Create a Customer Journey Map for Your Contact Center

What are the benefits of mapping the customer journey for contact centers?

1. Integrating Channels

A customer journey infographic showcases the various channels customers are using to reach out to your contact center and the overall flow of customer activity. As the saying goes, “seeing is believing,” and a visual can help contact center team members visualize the bigger picture — and see where they play a role in the grand scheme of things for your customers.

Examining the path followed by customers can show the order in which they are accessing channels and might help you determine preferences. The customer path can also provide insight into whether a customer is switching from one channel to another due to a potential roadblock or gap in service on a particular platform.

2. Pinpointing Resolution Sweet Spots

Mapping the customer journey can reveal the endpoints where resolutions are most likely to occur, helping your contact center agents understand which channels are most valuable, as well as the methods for successful resolution of customers’ issues.

Accordingly, your contact center can invest more resources into the channel or take steps toward improving neglected channels. This can help inform contact center staffing needs as well, so you can have the appropriate agents ready to serve where they’re needed most in the customer journey. 

3. Recognizing and Resolving Inefficiencies

Organizing and displaying the customer journey can lead to insights about inefficiencies in your system that could be frustrating customers . For example, you can examine a representative set of end-to-end individual customer data to see how many times customers are transferred and how many times they are asked to verify information or re-explain their problem.

Ultimately, this will help your contact center reduce redundancies, resulting in happier customers. Furthermore, examining such inefficiencies in tandem with abandonment rates and times can reveal a lot about frustrations that your customers experience when they interact with your company. Bonus: You’ll identify where your contact center agents need further training !

Related Article: The Real Reason Why Customers Hate Your Contact Center

4. Manage Resources Proactively

Many contact centers wait until a service bottleneck prompts hiring or redistribution of team members. Having a customer journey map that displays the trajectory of customer paths and volume will help contact centers get ahead of the storm. A customer journey empowers your organization in workforce management and lays the groundwork for wise planning.

How to Create Your Customer Journey Map

Now that you’re aware of the importance of a customer journey, here are some tips for how to create a customer journey map:

1. Do the Research

Rather than starting at ground zero, begin by reviewing the customer data you already have. This data can be analytical (e.g. the average number of touchpoints before typical customers reach a resolution) or anecdotal, meaning stories culled from individual customers.

Your CRM software can provide a wealth of analytical data, and social media is a great source for candid anecdotes since many customers post freely about their service experience. Website analytics can also showcase the customer journey and identify key trends. And of course, the traditional method of soliciting customer feedback through surveys is also a great option.

Related Article: Creating An Effective Customer Satisfaction Survey To Get More Responses

2. Conduct Virtual Walk-Throughs

A brick-and-mortar store owner or manager has the benefit of being able to physically walk through their retail space and observe the customer experience for themselves. While this first-hand perspective might be a bit more challenging to achieve in a contact center, an effort to simulate a customer walkthrough could be worthwhile. Analytics can help point the way.

Recruit agents or managers to embark on a customer journey of their own (real or simulated) as a baseline for mapping the customer journey.

3. Determine Stages and Pivot Points

The research you’ve conducted should allow you to divide the customer experience into a series of stages that customers move through. It is important to remember that in the age of omnichannel customer support , the customer journey is often non-linear.

Determining these stages will allow you to begin developing a layout for your customer journey map. Perhaps even more important than these stages are the pivot points of transition from one stage to another. This is where you are likely to find narrative and emotional elements of the customer experience that can inform your contact center practices. And your contact center agents can see where they can move the needle too.

4. Get Creative

Now you are ready to create your map. But what does it mean to map the customer journey? Customer journey maps can take a variety of forms.

Start by looking for patterns in your data and use these patterns to determine the shape and form of your map. For example, if your customers tend to cycle back to your contact center, a circular layout with defined entry and exit points may be appropriate. If your customers tend to move through a semi-linear process, then a timeline-style graphic could work well.

Anecdotal evidence can be inserted at essential pivot points to infuse your graphic with narrative elements. Although this process can certainly be conducted in-house, depending on your budget, you might consider hiring outside of the organization to make the most of the information you’ve collected.

What is the story of your customers? Mapping the customer journey means tapping into these stories to reveal the habits and desires of your customers to provide them with the best customer service possible.

Interested in additional customer journey mapping support? Schedule a demo to see how Playvox can help.

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How to Improve Customer Experience? 17 Strategies to Follow

11 min read

How to improve the customer experience of your SaaS product?

That’s the main question that this article explores!

More importantly, we share 17 engagement strategies to help SaaS companies enhance their CX.

Let’s get right to it.

• Customer experience is how the product makes the user feel during their interactions at all customer journey stages.
• Creating an excellent customer experience reduces the strain on the support teams , increases customer satisfaction , retention, and loyalty, and promotes customer advocacy .

Strategies for better customer experience:

• Personalize the customer journey for user segments with different needs and wants .
• Use interactive walkthroughs to introduce core features relevant to customer’s use cases.
• Leverage analytics to find friction points in the customer journey.
• Regularly collect qualitative customer feedback via in-app surveys.
• Localize the product for speakers of other languages for a more inclusive experience.
• Offer in-app support for users who want to solve issues independently.
• Lean into AI to refine the product copy.
• Improve feature adoption by triggering multiple in-app messages to announce new functionality.
• Ensure the product experience is consistent across all communication channels.
• Go above and beyond by anticipating user needs, giving them exclusive perks, and positively surprising them.
• Harness the power of WOM by setting up referral programs.
• Make the habit of interviewing dissatisfied customers .
• Track trends in product usage to identify opportunities for improvement.
• Expand the product functionality and enable automation by offering integrations with other products.
• Create a user community for peer-to-peer support and give users a sense of belonging.
• A/B test in-app experience before releasing them for all users to choose the best-performing ones.
• Promote a customer-centric culture where employees feel empowered to act on user data to improve their experience .
• Userpilot is a product growth platform designed to help companies enhance product experiences. Book the demo to learn more!

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What is customer experience?

Customer experience (CX) describes how interactions with your product and brand make your customers feel.

In contrast to product experience and user experience, customer experience refers to the perception of the product at all stages of the customer journey, not just while using it.

For example, CX can be affected by how easy it is to find reliable information about the product, how smooth the sign-up process is, or how effective customer support is.

What is the impact of creating poor customer experiences?

Poor customer experience can have seriously negative consequences for your product and the company’s success.

Greater burden on the customer service team

Products with poor customer experience are challenging for customers, which keeps your customer service teams busier than they should be.

For example, if they get stuck while using the product because of usability issues, they may need to contact your customer support teams for help.

It’s a kind of downward spiral because the more queries your teams get, the longer it takes to clear the backlog , and this makes the CX even worse.

Lower customer satisfaction and loyalty

Poor customer experience harms customer satisfaction .

Firstly, it makes it more difficult to realize the product value . Even if your product satisfies user needs, it is hard work, and using it won’t fill them with delight .

It gets even worse if your customers don’t see any efforts to rectify their issues, as this weakens their loyalty .

Weak customer retention over time

Inadequate customer experience often leads to customer churn .

As mentioned, users may struggle to achieve their objectives using the product, and that’s more than enough to make them start looking for alternatives.

In a competitive market, customer experience could be a major differentiator that can sway your users to switch.

This leads to lower customer lifetime value , which is essential for business success.

Higher chances of negative word-of-mouth

Poor customer experience can also hurt the brand reputation and new customer acquisition .

Think about it:

How likely is a dissatisfied customer to recommend your product to their friends or leave a positive review on G2? Not very.

The consequence is that you have to spend more effort and resources to attract new customers, which increases their acquisition costs and undermines profit margins.

17 strategies to improve customer experience in your SaaS

Considering how important is creating positive customer experiences, let’s look at 17 tried-and-tested strategies that might help you with this.

1. Personalize the experience across the customer’s journey

Even though all your customers use the same product, they likely use it differently because they have different goals . For example, a manager will use a project management tool differently from freelancers working on the project.

To help them get to value , it’s essential to personalize their experiences . For example, by customizing their dashboards .

Start the process by defining your customer personas , creating customer journey maps for them, and optimizing each touchpoint in the journey to address their unique needs.

Finally, when new users sign up for the product, use welcome surveys to segment them based on their use cases so that you can target them with tailored experiences.

2. Guide new users with interactive walkthroughs

Interactive walkthroughs are in-app patterns made up of tooltips that provide step-by-step guidance .

How can you use them to improve customer experience?

Create onboarding walkthroughs that introduce essential product features to new users when they log in for the first time .

Of course, make sure to personalize them for customers with different use cases to help them realize the product value in the quickest and most direct way.

3. Remove friction points from the customer journey

Friction is one of the causes of poor customer experience because it slows users down or even prevents them from accomplishing their objectives inside the product altogether.

Fortunately, it’s fairly easy to find with the right analytics tool like Userpilot .

Start with funnel analysis to identify the stage in the user journey where users experience friction. You can find it either by looking at the chart or analyzing the drop-off rates at each stage.

Next, conduct path analysis to map out the user actions at the stage with friction. One indication of friction could be looped behaviors, like going back and forth between two pages.

Finally, analyze how customers interact with the particular page or product screen using heatmaps and session recordings. This will help you identify potential usability issues in the user interface.

4. Regularly collect customer feedback

Dissatisfied customers often vent their frustration in their feedback. By collecting it regularly, you can identify the areas of the customer experience that need improving .

Honest feedback from customers can also help you understand why the experience is poor and even suggest ways to enhance it.

Examples of questions to ask include:

• How would you rate your overall experience with the product ?
• What would you improve?
• How easy is it to navigate the product?

In addition to regular satisfaction surveys , consider enabling a feedback widget to collect passive feedback . This gives users the chance to submit their feedback whenever they feel the need.

5. Localize the customer experience for different segments

Another way to provide excellent customer experience through personalization is by localizing your content for different user demographics.

As a SaaS business, you probably have customers all over the place, and not all of them speak your language as a native tongue.

Translating the in-app messages , support resources, and survey questions makes the product more inclusive . You also signal to your users that they are all equally important, no matter where they live or what language they speak.

Want to know the best part?

Engagement tools, including Userpilot , feature automatic localization, so translating the content takes no effort.

6. Provide great customer service

Providing excellent customer service is a no-brainer when it comes to improving CX.

This isn’t only about the response times of the customer support team or their competence when dealing with customer requests .

More and more users expect products to offer self-service support resources so that they don’t have to contact customer service reps in the first place.

To help your users solve their issues independently, consider creating a resource center with onboarding flows , product documentation, how-to guides, and video tutorials .

7. Improve your product’s copy with artificial intelligence

Product copy can make or break the customer experience. Clear and concise resources or microcopy guide users as they explore the product and help them achieve their goals. Poorly written content, on the other hand, confuses readers and adds friction .

How can you make sure your product’s copy is up to scratch?

Use AI . While the technology is still far from reliable, it provides decent results when it comes to processing text.

Many companies have embedded AI writing assistants in their products. For example, Userpilot allows you to create a new microcopy or rephrase an existing text and fix errors in no time.

8. Announce new features to increase customer lifetime value

To keep up with constantly evolving market and customer needs , your product must evolve, too. New functionality adds value to the product, keeps your users engaged, and can be leveraged for account expansion .

As you’re adding new features, make sure to introduce them to your users.

Start by announcing them with a modal, like the one below. Reinforce the message with contextual tooltips or even walkthroughs triggered when the user might need the feature.

By structuring the feature announcement in this way, you create a buzz around the new feature launch and increase its adoption rate .

9. Create a consistent experience across multiple channels

As mentioned, customer experience management isn’t limited to customer interactions inside the product but all touchpoints in the user journey .

This includes your PPC ads, landing page , social media posts, blog posts, and conversations with the customer-facing teams.

To create an excellent customer experience, keep it consistent across all channels . This includes consistent branding, synchronized messaging , and tone of voice.

For example, if you’re announcing an update or a new feature, make sure to provide the same details in all your communications to avoid confusion.

10. Delight users to exceed customer expectations

Providing users with the core functionality that satisfies their basic needs is a must. However, to provide a truly delightful customer experience and captivate them for good, you need to exceed their expectations.

Here are a few ideas:

• Anticipate users’ needs and offer proactive support so that users don’t even have to reach out for help.
• Give exclusive access to new features and beta versions to the most loyal customers .
• Surprise users with something they don’t expect, like a free upgrade, a discount, or a celebratory message when they reach a milestone.
• Schedule regular check-ins with customers to discuss their goals, preferences , and pain points .

11. Create customer loyalty programs to increase engagement

Loyalty programs are another way to delight customers . And the best part is that they drive your business results.

The principle is simple:

Customers promote the product for you, for example, by inviting friends or colleagues, and in exchange, they receive perks like extra usage allowance or exclusive access to features.

This reduces your customer acquisition costs and keeps existing users engaged.

12. Interview unhappy customers on their poor customer experience

As soon as you receive negative feedback from customers, reach out to them and arrange an interview.

Interviews can be time-consuming and expensive, but they allow you to gain detailed insights into the subpar aspects of the customer experience that you wouldn’t be able to extract from survey responses .

What’s more, it shows users that you listen to their feedback and value their contributions. This might be enough to change their perception of the product.

13. Regularly monitor trends in customer behavior

Feedback isn’t always enough to pick up signs of customer dissatisfaction . While many users are keen to share their negative experiences, as I mentioned before, others simply give up and churn .

That’s why always triangulate your feedback results with product analytics data .

For example, a decline in feature or product usage by a particular user segment may indicate that the product no longer fulfills their needs.

Analytics can also help you identify behaviors leading to churn . Such knowledge allows you to engage users at risk of churning proactively and make them stick around.

14. Offer integration capabilities with other tools

Integrations with other products allow users to streamline their workflows, expand their functionality, and automate manual and repetitive tasks.

Take the Userpilot-HubSpot integration as an example. Userpilot offers better analytics features so HubSpot users can use their behavior data to score leads, while customers can leverage HubSpot’s email capabilities for more comprehensive and consistent user engagement.

15. Create a strong community to engage customers

Building a customer community around your product can improve customer experience in a few ways.

For starters, community forums are an excellent place to share tips, solutions, and best practices. More importantly, it helps customers find solutions quickly, which is essential for a good experience.

Community discussions can help users unlock the full potential of the product by showing them features and use cases that they may not have been aware of.

Moreover, being part of a community gives customers a sense of belonging to a group with shared interests and goals . This emotional connection can increase loyalty to your brand.

Finally, the community can offer encouragement and motivation, especially in situations where your product is tied to challenging tasks or personal growth, like fitness apps or learning platforms .

16. A/B test your customer experience strategy

Nailing your customer experience strategy requires a fair bit of trial and error and constant iterations .

Before you roll out new experiences to your users, consider running experiments with a smaller batch of users to iron out the kinks.

A/B testing is one way to do it.

In the test, you enable 2 versions of the same experience to 2 user groups from the same sample and track their performance to choose the better one.

In Userpilot, you can run A/B tests on in-app messages, UI patterns, and onboarding flows .

17. Empower employees to enhance customer experience

Let’s wrap up with the most important ingredient of customer experience: the people behind it.

To cut a long story short, to succeed, your organization needs a customer-centric culture in which all teams prioritize customer experience.

How to create such a culture?

Invest in data democratization so that the customer success team, product team , marketing team, and sales team all have access to the data they need.

More importantly, empower them to use insights in their initiatives to go above and beyond.

There’s no single best way to deliver an excellent customer experience in SaaS.

Instead, it requires a range of tactics and strategies to engage and support users at all stages of their journey to help them maximize the product value and enjoy the process.

If you’d like to see how Userpilot can help you create positive customer experiences, book the demo !

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Understanding silent signals: what customers really want you to know but don't tell you.

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Dave Rennyson is President and Chief Executive Officer of SuccessKPI .

Silent signals from customers are like whispers in a crowded contact center—often overlooked but laden with meaning. Customers may not always explicitly express their needs or intentions, but nonverbal cues can reveal valuable insights. Let’s decode these subtle messages and explore strategies and tactics to enhance the customer experience (CX).

When Steve Jobs launched the Apple Store in 2001, it served as the front door for a reinvigorated customer experience and engagement with what would become an impressive run of new product rollouts. He knew Apple products looked great and needed people to see them. So, he built a store to create an immersive product experience. It was unlike any other retail store at the time and changed retail in many ways.

As CEO, you could consume your company’s content in a few hours exactly the way your customers would—going through the front door—and visiting your website.

But what if you wanted to actively listen to all the conversations handled by your customer service department or enterprise contact center and feel, see and experience them like a customer would on your website? It would be impossible.

Let’s take a thousand-agent contact center as a reference point. If each agent handles one thousand calls a month, that is one million conversations a month. If these conversations roughly average five minutes each, that is five million minutes of conversations per month. That means it would take you 80,000 hours—or 40 years—to fully experience just one month of customer experience. And even that is ambitious. Most contact centers only monitor 1% of conversations.

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This leaves deafeningly silent signals that go undetected. You simply cannot “see” these silent signals over the phone, and if they are in the form of sentiment, you cannot “feel” them in the language or the vernacular. It is not just what was heard by CX reps that is important, but what was felt. So, how can we decipher all this? Fortunately, there is a powerful new opportunity to leverage AI and machine learning technology to listen to these calls for you—all the calls, all the time.

At this stage in its development, of course, AI is young, like a well-behaved seven-year-old (with a library card...). We are not quite ready to trust it to single-handedly decide whether your customer conversations are going well. But if you curate it and work with it in a systematic way, you can teach the machine to listen for the right things, to understand them in context and to expand the power of your quality management efforts for full contact center coverage at a fraction of the time and cost of human energy.

We call this “curated AI” or “orchestrated AI and ML” to attack this problem of measuring, managing and getting a good feel for the sentiment, content and efficacy of your customer conversations. In other words, we have the right technology. Let’s use it safely and effectively to exceed the limits of human performance.

Speed And Quality Of Service Both Count

So, what should we track? For starters, speed. When it comes to customer service, most customers want to get through it as quickly as possible.

Gallup Organization research found 20 years ago that if the CX is good enough to please customers and tell others about it, speed cannot come at the expense of a thorough experience. This rings true today even more after decades of advances in technology.

Further, a CX study reported by Retail Dive revealed that the top reason customers abandon a brand is because of low-quality customer service. The study also found that nearly half will then ghost the brand without saying why they left.

So, while timely service is important, quality service is what keeps customers coming back. But there are other items that are easily machine trackable that can be observed with automated quality management:

Customers Remember Your Brand Experience If You Show You Know Them

Brain activation research has shown that people love hearing their own name more than anything else. The implications of this have been seen across a variety of situations when dealing with customers.

1. Using a customer’s name multiple times in a conversation—to an extent—is a sign of familiarity and respect.

2. Multi-channel contact, regardless of the channel, is more effective when the customer’s name is used in the conversation.

3. The agent is perceived to be more competent and viewed in a more positive light, leveraging the halo effect if they demonstrate familiarity and know the customer’s name.

You Are Not Hearing From Your Most Dissatisfied Customers

Missing silent signals can be devastating—one in three customers leave brands after a single bad experience. While the majority of businesses collect customer feedback through direct methods like surveys, social media reviews and other customer feedback loops, they still aren’t hearing from most of their unhappy clients who typically leave without an explanation. Decoding this silent majority will help businesses gain insights that could transform their CX.

Strategies For Detecting Silent Customer Feedback

With the ability to gather and analyze vast amounts of customer data with tools like AI-driven analytics, sentiment analysis and machine learning, companies can detect subtle yet critical signals across the customer journey. By identifying patterns and correlations that humans might miss—from lower acquisition to changes in purchasing behavior or decreased engagement—businesses are able to predict customer needs and preferences, heading off issues before they arise. Embracing a data- and AI-powered approach can help companies decipher the silent signals and discover actionable insights into the customer’s mindset.

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Identity is the cornerstone of a better contact center.

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• Onboard new customers with a high veracity identity verification
• Authenticate in less than two seconds
• Save at least $1 per call
• Save up to $400/agent/month
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How is it possible to make huge improvements in security, privacy and customer experience at the same time? Journey’s approach is to make confirmed identity the cornerstone of the security and customer experience using a purpose built identity network that enables the exchange of any sensitive information without revealing it.

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Verified identity is the foundation of every high-value interaction with your customers throughout their lifecycle. Until now, identity solutions are fragmented and address each stage individually. There’s a better way.

The proliferation of spam calls to mobile phones has made it next to impossible for enterprises to connect to their customers. With pre-call notifications and 2 lines of customizable caller ID, enterprises are up to 10X more likely to pick up a call from a trusted company and be instantly and mutually authenticated.

Authenticate

Ninety-two percent of companies use knowledge-based authentication, which is time-consuming, ineffective, and irritating to customers. Journey’s authentication takes less than 2 seconds, saving at least $1 a call in time alone. That’s not even counting the savings on avoided fraud or costly step-up authentication methods.

Interact and Transact

Quickly, easily, and securely conduct business transactions on a single call, like processing payments, signing documents and getting down to business without painful and disjointed processes. All of this conducted with “zero knowledge”, meaning that sensitive information if not visible to an agent.

Mutually verified authentication travels with customers if they need to be transferred, saving time and creating an amazing customer experience.

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What is Omnichannel Customer Journey?

Omnichannel customer journey is the seamless and consistent path customers take while interacting with brands across multiple channels. The proliferation of digital services has increased the number of channels customers can use to to interact with companies. For example, customers can buy products online or with mobile apps, get help from virtual assistants or through a chat session with an agent, and find the latest deals on social media. Additionally, the more traditional venues are still available - store fronts, call centers, and branch offices to name a few.

The proliferation of channels has been great for customers who value choice and convenience. But customers often don't interact using just one channel - they use different channels to achieve their goals in their omnichannel customer journey. For example, a customer might see a sales ad on social media, click through to the company's website where they check store inventory and download the business's mobile app, and then go into a store to make the purchase, using a coupon from the mobile app.

This type of nonlinear omnichannel customer journey has created challenges for organizations that previously had their channels in silos. Now, customers expect companies to know them, regardless of channel; operational silos prevent a seamless customer journey. Delivering an omnichannel customer experience means delivering a seamless experience in which all customer touchpoints throughout the customer journey work together in an integrated, seamless manner.

Facilitating omnichannel customer journeys in the contact center

Contact centers play a key role in facilitating omnichannel customer journeys. Handling interactions such as phone calls, chat, social media posts or messages, email, and text (sms) is the contact center’s purview. In order to enable omnichannel customer journeys, contact centers need to align their staff and technology to support customers regardless of interaction channel. Agents need to be able to support multiple channels and be digitally savvy. Technology needs to route, manage and report on contacts from multiple channels and support the customer journey across channels. This is challenging, but contact centers that support omnichannel customer journeys are well-positioned to fulfill customer expectations.

How NICE can help

NICE CXone is the market leading contact center software in use by thousands of customers of all sizes around the world. CXone is a cloud native, unified suite of applications designed to help a company holistically run its contact (or call) center operations and deliver seamless omnichannel customer journeys. CXone includes:

Omnichannel Routing – routing and interaction management for seamless omnichannel customer journeys. These solutions include an automatic call distributor (ACD), interactive voice response (IVR) , and interaction channel support for inbound and outbound, voice and digital, agent-supported and automated self-service channels.

Workforce Optimization – unlocks the potential of your team. These solutions include workforce management (WFM) , quality management (QM), recording and performance management (PM).

Analytics – turns insights into results by making data relevant, easy to consume and actionable. These solutions include interaction analytics, customer surveys, reporting and performance management.

CXone also includes pre-defined CRM integrations and UCaaS integrations with most leading solutions on the market. These integrations provide a holistic contact center software solution capable of elevating omnichannel customer experiences for companies of all sizes.

If you would like to know more about our platform or just have additional questions about our products or services, please submit the contact form. For general questions or customer support please visit our Contact us  page.

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