How often is the excitement you experienced when buying something you really wanted, diluted with the after sales experience? Effortless interaction jumped onto my radar again after a disappointing experience when buying the new iPhone7.
The importance of Customer Experience
The sales experience extends beyond point of sale
I recall complimenting the salesperson on the excellent service, thinking; “I get it” when he told me about customers following him wherever he goes. Well, that’s great when selling the product! However, this is where companies get it so wrong.
It is said that customer service at after sales, is 4 times more likely to result in disloyalty than loyalty. This can mostly be attributed to the after sales processes not being designed with the customer in mind.
Does your after sales result in customer disloyalty?
The example illustrates the dysfunctional customer journey after the sale. New phones typically have a 7 day Out-of-Box Failure policy, and upon experiencing problems, I duly went back to have the phone replaced. Then the unpleasant and unsatisfactory journey began.
Customer centric after sales experience redefined
Now, imagine experiencing a problem with a new product and merely engaging through a customer app on your mobile device! No frustrating calls to customer contact centres, no fighting with staff who cannot make decisions outside of the procedures. No repeating of ID, account of invoice details? No inconvenience, no hassles? Imagine a single record of your problem, irrespective of the channel you used to contact the company? Imagine the company investigates your problem before reaching out to you with potential solutions?
Customer service for the mobile generation
Many companies do not appreciate consumers’ need for seamless and effortless interaction with brands through omi-channel engagement, especially the for mobile generation. Most focus on trying to delight new customers in the sales process, but the after sales experience is often the ugly stepsister when engaging with a brand.
The “Cingo” app was recently launched to address effortless omni-channel engagement and is truly takes the concept of effortless to heart. The founder, Kobus Marneweck, a South African-born entrepreneur became increasingly frustrated with the dysfunctional access to companies via contact centres, in after sales process. This prompted a critical review of the typical frustrations experienced when dealing with contact centres, as well as how companies can differentiate their service delivery. Some of the frustrations include, single point of entry (only contact centre), call queueing, dealing with different agents with each contact, repeating identifiable information, no record of previous queries or solutions, disempowered agents, inflexible procedures, varying levels of experience and competence of agents, to name a few.
Taking an outside-in approach, the Cingo app empowers a brand to receive queries through any channel and respond to consumers with appropriate solutions at their convenience and choice of channel, seamlessly.
Cingo provides a platform and the technology for companies to embed real-time messaging, rich chat, voice and video customer support in their own apps or web sites. Conversations can seamlessly transition from chat to voice to video and even from mobile to desktop, saving companies money on customer support and delight their customers. Companies integrate the Cingo mobile SDK with their mobile or add a few lines of code to their website to enable real-time customer contact. Customers don’t have to leave their app or call an 800 number. They simply create a customer support request and the company contacts them on the most appropriate channel. For more information visit cingo.com
The Consumer Psychology Lab is a customer experience consultancy with extensive know-how of measuring emotion. Our highly skilled psychologists interview customers about their experience and provide our clients with deep insights into consumers’ experience and behaviour. We are also passionate about equipping companies with the most suitable CX tools and skills.
