Tell me about Zendesk and how you help retailers
Zendesk is all about providing the next CX experience to our customers via the channel of their choice. This can be for a brand’s external B2C retail customers as well as for internal customers (employees), ensuring the best possible employee experience and IT service management.
What are the three things that shoppers value most when it comes to customer experience?
Personalisation (you should already know something about me and why I’m interacting with you), efficiency (I don’t want to have to repeat myself to five different teams) and consistency (same quality of service each engagement).
What is your favourite retailer and why does it give an excellent CX?
I have many, but recently I was impressed with Bosch Siemens Group and the way I was able to easily register my new appliances
What’s customers’ biggest pet hate when it comes to customer service?
Repeating their query to multiple teams on the same call.
What tech is most effective in terms of engaging with shoppers?
Messaging, it’s the channel I want to use, when and whenever I want to use it. Unlike a live-chat which is real-time and session based (so great for solving issues immediately), messaging can be real-time but can start and stop, giving the customer the opportunity to work at their own time and pace.
On the other hand, this can also lead to greater opportunities for businesses, with selling, cross-selling and up-selling, and ultimately building long term customer loyalty.
How can retailers best incentivise customer service agents?
Happy agents means happy customers. An excellent customer experience starts from an equally excellent employee experience. Giving agents with the right tools and training, particularly access to an integrated platform that provides a unified view of the customer history, means they can spend less time swiveling between tools and more time helping your customers.
On top of that, when agents are given access to relevant context, they can provide a more personalised customer service experience with fewer pain points–a prime example is having to repeat your contact information over and over. Investing in AI driven solutions that can assist customers with the most common asks, like delivery and returns, frees up agents’ time, allowing them to focus on more complex tasks too and avoid repetitive ones.
Who will be retail’s Christmas winners this year, and why?
Those who provide quality of service efficiently. We know that trading conditions are tough and cost pressures are extremely high, so those that can maintain and exceed quality of customer service above their competitors whilst navigating the cost pressures will win their customers’ loyalty and business.
Click here to sign up to Retail Gazette‘s free daily email newsletter
