Perspectives from Business Leaders on How to Transform to OnScreen DCS Experiences
Over the past 18 months, we’ve all become digital natives. It’s no longer just the Millennials and Gen Z who demand online experiences. We’ve all grown accustomed, and even reliant on digital services, readily available on our own screens.
This is accelerating the digital transformation of the customer experience, elevating Digital Customer Service (DCS) from a nice-to-have process to a business-critical priority. We’ve all come to understand how a seamless customer (and member) experience is now a top business differentiator. The question is how best to transform your business for today’s digital-first world?
At our recent Digital Customer Service Summit, we were joined by a number of experts who shared advice, best practices and lessons learned in the evolution from phone-based service to DCS experiences. Their input was highly insightful and constructive.
Ross Dalzell, managing director and head of business relationships at Barclays, discussed how financial institutions are often at the center of some of the most important moments in our lives, making the customer or member experience even more crucial. He observed how DCS has to be flexible with processes that match what customers are seeking to accomplish. Some might be in the browsing stage, while others are ready to make a decision, fill out an application or perhaps need to complete a transaction. DCS is not just about connecting with customers and members, but also providing the processes and experiences they need and expect.
Corrie Carrigan, partner and contact center practice leader at Bain & Company, shared some eye-opening statistics that underscore how critical DCS and related processes are today. The desire to speak with a live human during a moment of truth is 7 times higher, showing the importance of a clear escalation path for customers in a digital journey. To validate that, she noted that the Net Promoter Score (NPS) takes a whopping 58% hit when a customer is forced to dial a phone number from within a digital channel. Talk about a friction point!
She also pointed out how companies often focus on the automation side of DCS, often overlooking the communications and collaboration piece of the equation. It’s an important reminder to create rich, multi-faceted experiences within the digital journey, like the kind possible with DCS. We can’t lose the human touch as we find new ways to offer digital services.
Laurie Bruggenwirth, AVP of digital operations for Ascentra Credit Union supported that point, discussing how her organization transitioned from a phone-based process to OnScreen audio, eliminating friction. Ascentra provides an easy way for members to simply click and speak with a live human representative. No phone numbers are even offered as members hover over the Contact Us section, keeping that digital connection—and a good NPS result–intact.
Rick DeLisi, co-author of Digital Customer Service: Transforming Customer Experience for an OnScreen World and Glia’s lead research analyst, discussed why the digital connection is so important and explained the need to meet customers where they are–OnScreen. In fact, the new book, written with Glia CEO Dan Michaeli, delves into how DCS combines both the technology and customer psychology to deliver an experience digitally that surprisingly feels very human.
DCS experiences feel even more human now than ever, as we adjust to a world where online services are not only convenient, but also safer. Whether we were born a digital native or have become a recent convert, Digital Customer Service is our future. How businesses enable services OnScreen can dramatically affect the bottom line.
