Your brand is a valuable asset. Brand value is what determines whether people believe in your company’s products and services and on turn become your customers. Improve your customers’ experience with your products or services, and you strengthen their belief in your company's capabilities.
Forrester Consulting coined the term “the age of the customer” for the present era. In this era, power lies with the customer rather than with organizations. Technology empowers consumers and raises their expectations. Internet-enabled mobile devices, social apps, and automation give consumers what they want at exactly the moment they want it.
There are many ways to improve customer experience. Records management provides you with one of the most direct ways to do so.
Let's take a look at how records management enhances customer service.
Records management is key to customer service
Modern, digitally savvy customers engage with customer support through a variety of channels and touchpoints. They no longer restrict their queries to traditional customer service channels such as phone and physical contact centres.
For instance, a customer of a global retail apparel brand wants her query answered instantly on Facebook Messenger. A prospective consumer of a luxury brand wants to know the price of the latest design on Instagram. Online shoppers want to complete a purchase and access the history of their past purchases on their mobile devices.
Are you prepared with a multi-channel customer engagement program? Will your customers get their queries answered instantly?
According to a study by PwC, 32% of customers said they would walk away from a brand they love even after just a single bad experience. It’s time for companies to adopt a new approach to customer service.
1. Respond faster to customer queries
The common complaint customers have is that support teams take too long to respond to their queries. A long wait time translates to poor customer experience. Better records management ensures that teams have quick access to information relevant to a customer's inquiry, resulting in faster, more accurate replies.
Self-help chatbots are great at answering simple customer queries instantly. They save valuable time and leave the team free to attend to more complex matters that cannot be addressed through automation.
2. Access relevant customer information
Records management provides real-time information to your customer service team. It ensures that agents respond to customer inquiries instantly. Fast, reliable information, available through multiple touchpoints enhances the quality of customer experience. Access to relevant customer data allows support teams to render a positive customer service experience long after the initial sale has ended.
For example, email marketing is an enormous opportunity to connect with existing customers. Personalized emails that reflect customer preferences and personalized offers based on customers' past purchase history provide high ROI. Systematic management of customers' records is required to implement successful email campaigns.
3. Minimize the cost of customer service
An efficient records management brings in cost-effective ways to store information. It enhances employee productivity and improves operational efficiency. It saves customer service costs and boosts the brand image of the company.
4. Facilitate better decision-making
Research shows that business decisions based on real-time data have a positive impact on bottom lines. Record management systems provide rich, real-time data to decision-makers. This helps them compete effectively in a dynamic business landscape.
5. Preserve and protect sensitive records
Records management systems preserve and store important customer records efficiently. Well-managed records minimize the risk of litigation due to the loss of documents and prevent data breaches of sensitive information. In the event of environmental disasters and accidents, they can be recovered easily with mature disaster recovery practices.
How to improve your records management
Develop an effective records management process to take advantage of the benefits discussed above.
1. Digitize your customer records
The first step toward better records management is to convert physical documents into digital format. If the volume of documents is large, make sure you use the services of a professional document conversion company. This ensures that the process is completed securely, expediently, and affordably. Future documents can then be digitized in-house using high-quality scanning hardware.
2. Invest in a document management system
The next step is to organize digital records with a document management system. This will allow you to:
- Organize all of your records
- Access your records from anywhere using Cloud technology
- Make all records searchable
- Reduce record redundancy
- Minimize the likelihood of accidental records destruction
Today, organizations place a high value on positive customer experience. It builds brand value, impacts purchase decisions, and improves customer loyalty.
The Salesforce State of Service Report (2019) reported that 80% of customers considered their experience with a company to be as important as its products.
This has far-reaching implications for trends in customer service and records management.
Boost customer experience with better records management
How your customers experience your brand is a key differentiator for your organization. Streamline your records management so that you can offer better customer service. Positive customer experience is good for business—satisfied customers are loyal customers! Get a free quote today and take your first step toward better record management!