In today’s fast-paced world, organizations are expected to respond quickly to customers. How do you achieve that, considering that the COVID-19 pandemic has driven that expectation toward more digital channels?
The answer lies in using technology tools that drive better customer service and how well you apply them. To master customer service and stay competitive, you must:
- Identify gaps in your technology stack that are holding you back from providing a seamless experience for your customers.
- Efficiently manage and optimize your resources.
- Update and maintain your technology.
Applied strategically, technology can make it simpler for you to be more responsive and relevant to your customers.
The Impact of Technology on Customer Service
When you have the right technology in place and a plan to use it strategically, you can affect everything along the customer experience chain, from your customer service reps’ productivity to your customers’ satisfaction.
Reduce Busywork
Technology can reduce busywork, which allows customer-facing reps – from service to field sales – to focus more time on activities that add value. Automating redundant manual processes can reduce stress and increase productivity at work (or home office, in this time of social distancing).
For example, Enavate offers two distribution apps for Microsoft Dynamics 365 that reduce workarounds and improve your teams’ productivity: the Sales Order Management App and the Warehouse Extensions App. The two apps focus on removing the gaps in standard functionality in Dynamics 365 applications, thereby making order and warehouse management processes more efficient.
Gain Greater Insights
By observing and collecting behavior patterns, you can identify opportunities and choose the best solutions to improve the customer experience. Collect customer data from emails, social media posts and other sources to understand your customers, meet their needs, make better marketing decisions and build strategies to improve sales. For example, Microsoft Relationship Sales combines Dynamics 365 Sales with LinkedIn Sales Navigator to provide data on 500 million professionals, enabling sales reps to focus on an organization’s key decision-makers.
NetSuite CRM brings sales, marketing, and customer service and support information together in one place to give you a complete view of your prospects and customers.
Power BI dashboards also work to identify and share insights based on customer data, and collaborate for greater decision-making data, and collaborate for greater decision-making.
Identify High-Quality, Targeted Leads
When you identify existing customer profiles and use those insights to target prospects, you’re pinpointing customers you can serve and offering a solution that matches their needs and solves their problems.
Microsoft Dynamics 365 Customer Insights adds artificial intelligence (AI) to your toolkit to evaluate and act on customer behavior, bringing transactional, observational and behavioral data together for a holistic view on customers.
Improve Customer Relationships
Ideally, your technology should help you improve customer relationships, build your customer database, bring back former customers and identify new leads. It will provide your team with relevant data and information they can use to truly understand their customers’ individual journeys, challenges and expectations.
Your technology can even help you adjust services to reflect the real needs of your customers. These improved processes can result in better customer service, more inquiries and increased sales.
Add Relevant, Value-Added Services
By better understanding your customers’ pain points, you can provide tools and training to deliver better value-added solutions to those customers. Many distribution companies, for example, are providing point-of-use access to safety supplies on the plant floor to improve compliance and increase accountability as the need for safety personal protective equipment (PPE) has become critical to protect their teams.
Tap Into the Power of Technology for Better Customer Service
New technology and smarter systems empower you to treat each client individually and build relationships. Below are some ways to get the most out of your technology stack.
Invest in a Strong CRM
The best customer relationship management (CRM) systems allow individuals to understand specific customer needs. Your company can identify and seek out the right prospects, enabling greater sales productivity.
Microsoft Dynamics 365 Sales helps sales teams respond to rapidly changing buyer preferences, sudden changes in business (sound familiar?) and fast-moving competitors. The solution tracks buying signals and directs sales reps with actionable insights.
NetSuite CRM provides visibility into every part of the customer relationship, including support cases and transactions, for a 360-degree view that can drive better sales performance throughout the customer lifecycle and improves productivity.
Embrace Flexibility with Pricing Apps
Enavate’s pricing and costing app for Dynamics 365 is a price management tool you can use to set pricing rules that make the most sense for your business. The app for distributors allows for variable pricing methods based on purchase cost, inventory cost or loaded costs to give greater control of gross margin.
Provide Customer Self-Service Tools
Customers expect to reach us, and be reached, through multiple channels. And COVID-19 has meant even greater demand for digital options. Before the pandemic, we were improving customer service through website forms, chatbots, email, surveys and feedback requests. Today, there’s been a boost in demand for digital channels, particularly self-service options such as e-commerce and mobile inventory replenishment apps. Companies that offer responsive self-service tools can achieve higher customer satisfaction and retention.
Don’t Forget the Human Touch
The best customer service blends technology with an authentic human touch. Above all, your customer experience journey should be relationship-driven. Provide features such as live chat, screen sharing and instant messaging. Success in business is a direct result of your ability to communicate your expertise to your customers. Even adding a birthdate field in your CRM to make sure you reach out to your clients with a simple happy birthday email takes seconds and makes a huge difference for your client.
Looking for a technology stack to help you achieve your customer service goals? Get in touch with the Enavate team to help you determine your options to nurture your existing customers and target new ones.
