5 Keys to a Great Customer Experience Interaction

The following is an excerpt from Call Center IQ's Executive Report on the Customer Experience. Call Center IQ members will receive free access later this month.

Those interested in improving their customer experiences are also invited to join our Customer Experience Online Summit. The virtual event takes place March 24 and provides a case study keynote with GE, a roundtable based on our customer experience research, numerous topic focus sessions AND the ability to interact and download free content in our virtual all. Register now.

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Properly selected metrics create an alignment between organizational performance and customer experience outcomes.

Though pivotal, that alignment represents only one piece of the performance puzzle.

Just as customer experience results are of direct importance to the business but not so much to the customer, the connection between metrics and experience outcomes is a business-centric focus. An organization uses metrics to signal and drive the operational performance that optimizes outcomes, but a customer’s concern is how that performance manifests as an actual interaction experience.

Since that interaction experience plays an instrumental role in driving customer-oriented results like increased satisfaction and loyalty—two popular "outcomes" for organizations—it is important to understand how performance is shaping those interactions. Aggregate performance statistics mean nothing if they do not speak to the actual experience being created.

To properly incorporate this perspective into performance management strategy, a business must identify the interaction elements of particular value to customers. Great experiences might foster satisfaction and loyalty, but what makes an experience great?

Accuracy, says today’s business community.

It might not represent a popular brand promise, but it does play a significant role in the engagement experience. Businesses assess accuracy’s impact on interaction quality at a 4.1/5.

"It must be simplistic, efficient and accurate," says Harte Hanks’ Andrew Harrison of the optimal customer experience.

Other notable success factors include "quality resolutions" (4.0/5), a human-to-human connection between agent and customer (3.6/5), an agent’s empowerment/ability to offer resolutions without additional approval or delay (3.6/5) and first contact resolution (3.6/5).

Harte Hanks’ Harrison is a particular proponent of the human-to-human connection.

"If you can not only pick up the call and answer the customer’s questions but do so while speaking in their voice and showing that you actually understand and care – that you’re actually listening – you create a delightful experience," says Harrison.

Less relevant interaction elements include offering the ability to span channels within a single interaction (2.5/5), assuring agents can access past customer interaction information regardless of channel (2.7/5) and minimal transfers (2.7/5).

The importance hierarchy reveals the importance of interactional substance. A business that provides the right information and the right resolution on the first call is doing right by its customers.

"Omni-channel" elements like seamless channel spanning are not irrelevant, but they do not play as integral a role in the experience. A customer might appreciate the ability to switch between channels without having to restate information, but his bigger concerns are that his questions get answered and that his issues get resolved.