How to Streamline Operations, Empower Employees to Improve Customer Experience

In the world of business, customer is king.

Customer experience is one of the most important aspects of a successful business. If you don’t provide good service, your customers will go elsewhere, and it can be difficult to get them back.

How can businesses improve customer experience? The answer is to streamline operations and empower employees with technology tools that make their jobs easier.

In this blog post, we will discuss how you can do just that.

WARNING: Before your read further, “Improving Customer Experience is a never-ending process.”

It can be difficult to know where to start. You can’t do it all at once, but you will make significant progress with a plan and the right technology tools.

How to Streamline Operations with Technology Tools:

1. Implement a CRM to keep track of customer information

CRM helps your whole organisation and is essential for any business that wants to track customer interactions and improve the customer experience.

What features does CRM’s provide?

CRM’s have many features, including email marketing integrations, social media post scheduler, lead management, information tracking, and reporting.

CRM’s are essential for any business because they help improve customer experience by making a customer-centric approach through a central location to manage all interactions with your customers or potential customers.

Any CRM feature can be utilised to improve customer experience by improving the quality of your interactions with customers. For example, instead of sending emails and forgetting about them, you could schedule your email campaigns in advance, so they’re sent at specified times on specific days.

Another useful feature is using lead management software which allows companies to track leads that are coming in.

The data collected from the lead management software is beneficial for companies because it helps them identify hot prospects they may have overlooked.

CRM’s functionality can be used to improve customer experience is by providing information about your customers at a glance so you know how well each individual is doing and what product or services are being purchased.

Features like these in CRM software will help ensure your customers are happy with the way you interact with them.

How can businesses implement a CRM?

A CRM solution is one of the single most important investments that can be made to improve customer experience. Every Customer data should have a central location where it can be stored and accessed by all members of an organisation, from marketing to sales to customer service. Marketers need access to their customers’ information in order to identify potential leads for cold calling and sales. Sales reps need to be armed with the information they need in order to make a sale, including customer data such as needs analysis, appropriate pricing or competitive offers. Service agents can use customer data to address customer issues effectively by knowing what products are needed for those customers’ specifications without having to go through additional steps of identifying that information.

A CRM solution can be implemented in a variety of ways to improve customer journeys, from an on-premise system to Software as a Service (SaaS) or using the right combination of cloud, website and mobile technologies for your specific business needs. For many organisations, this requires evaluating what best suits their current customer base rather than deciding arbitrarily which platform might suit them.

How can the customer experience be improved with CRM:

Improving the customer service experience is a multi-layered process, and CRM can play an integral part in this. Once successfully implemented, a CRM system it’ll help to improve customer experience by understanding what customers really want from our businesses and providing them with the product/service they need or, even better yet, exceeding their expectations.

CRM can provide insight into where customers are in the customer journey, how often they buy from us or speak with our employees, and what content is best suited for them. It’s important that CRMs have a tracking system built-in, so we know which marketing campaigns have worked well and which ones need some improvement.

Once we understand these aspects of the customer experience, then it’s time to take action! We can create customised marketing campaigns tailored directly for each individual segment; this will help make sure that all communication is consistent throughout every channel, including social media platforms.

Here are Best 7 CRM Tools By Technicali.

2. Use a ChatBot for Personalized Customer Support and Services:

Chatbots are a great resource to utilise when it comes to providing personalised customer service and support; chatbot technology is on the rise, with many businesses utilising chatbots for their support. With a chatbot, the organisation can provide support 24/seven without having to hire more customer service employees and investing in expensive support systems that may not be needed.

Chatbots not only provide additional opportunities for humans to focus on more complex tasks while chatbot handles basic customer queries but they also can be used as an automated way of getting feedback from customers about how we’re doing and what needs improvement.

This, in turn, helps us improve our business operations by better understanding our customers’ preferences, which will ultimately lead to increased satisfaction levels amongst both parties.

This can be achieved by creating personalised chatbots for key customer touchpoints such as registration, login and help desk. With this type of personalisation, the customer is able to understand which bots are connected with their account or issue. This will also allow them to focus on other tasks while they wait for an answer from the bot. Hence, by utilising chatbots for customer service and support, businesses can improve the flow of their operations while providing a personalised experience to all customers.

How do chatbots improve customer experience?:

Experience Customers think that the most important part of customer service is having a personal connection with them.

The goal should always be “Happy Customers” or at least happy enough that want to come back again; chatbots are an easy way to do this. In fact, it has been suggested chatbots can be responsible for up to 25% of customer service interactions.

Chatbots also give the employees a sense of empowerment; it becomes less about being passive and more about opportunities to take on new responsibilities with chatbot handling basic queries, freeing them up to do what they’re good at – solving complex problems, training chatbots with more queries. Employees are then able to provide a better customer service experience by giving personalised assistance as their needs grow and evolve over time in ways chatbot never could.

With chatbots’ ability to handle the bulk of customer feedback requests, we’ll be able to work smarter and create happy customers that will come back again because they feel valued enough for doing so. The end goal is streamlining the company’s operational functions and empowering employees with tools that allow them to get more done without being bogged down.

3. Set up Google Drive so that you can share files quickly and easily with your team:

Setting up google drive is easy and can be done in a few minutes.

Google offers online tools like:

• Excel Sheets/Automation: sheets.google.com
• Presentations: slides.google.com
• Document Editor: docs.google.com
• Survey Forms: forms.google.com and,
• Cloud storage for Everything else(images/pdfs/etc): drive.google.com

Google Drive has an extensive list of apps that you can use to make your work more efficient and even create automation with plugins.

Additionally, there are other things you could do with Google Drive, such as creating a shared folder for the company so everyone knows what’s going on and keeping all necessary documents in one place.

To go back to our previous example of being able to share files easily between team members or clients across different operating systems is key when it comes to maintaining efficiency in the workplace while still getting great customer service. It also establishes trust among coworkers and customers because they know that their information won’t be leaked out as people trust Google, and you get credibility by association.

4. Keep Track of What Needs to be done:

Keeping track manually or on a sheet can be tricky, but project management tools or kanban boards like Trello can track everything, so you don’t lose track of the things that need to be done. This can be in the form of a simple to-do list or tasks that can be delegated and monitored by the project manager.

This helps team members to be accountable for their tasks and also helps the company to organise resources and predict future needs when you know how much time each task takes and get rid of unproductive tasks.

It has been found that by just using a to-do list or bullet journal the productivity of the employees increased by up to 20%. This not only helps you to be more productive but also helps the company to have a quicker and better customer experience.

5. Use Email templates for Easy communication:

Templates are great for things like sending out a survey or newsletter as well as emailing clients about the status of their order so that they know where it is in the process, answers to general questions that can come up time and time again from multiple channels.

Templates will also save time when emailing customers with updates because you won’t have to type all those messages every single time. Just copy and paste what’s already there and add your own text around it. From all research of customer experiences you have collected, templates should be angeled with customer needs in mind. Good Crafted templates impact on customer loyalty level, in turn saving you time and resources.

Saving time is crucial to running a successful business, so if you have the opportunity to do something that will save you time and resources in the long run, then it’s worth looking into.

Most of your customers are going to want information about their order – where it is in production or how soon they can expect it. Whatever it is, make sure your email list and templates are in compliance with legal issues.

Some Tips for using email templates are:

• Keep email templates short and sweet
• Make sure you edit the email template before using it so that any sensitive information is taken care of.
• Checking your spelling, grammar and important information like Company Name in the template; As you will be using it multiple times.
• Be Polite and Professional
• Include Greeting, Thankyou or Good Bye; According to the template.
• Include a signature with your name at the end of every email.
• You can also include company social profiles in your signature to improve reach.

Note: Never use email templates to send a message that should be typed out, like asking someone how they are feeling or something personal.

How to Empower Employees to Improve Customer Service:

Empowering employees to empower customers is a result of focus and attention in customer experience strategy(cx strategy). Every company has that one person who connects with the customer on an emotional level, but it can be difficult for them to get things done because they do not have the power within the company.

This is where empowering your staff comes in handy!

Here are a few ways you should take when trying to empower employees to improve your customer’s journey for your products and services:

1. Have a Good Work Environment:

A good work environment is critical to success, but how do you know if the customer service department has a positive or negative environment?

The best way to gauge this information is through “customer satisfaction surveys”.

You can start by asking your staff what they think their current work environment looks like and then ask them about customer feedback on that same question.

If there are differences in opinion, it’s time for some course correction!

Knowing where you stand can help shift focus from customer retention to customer engagement, which will lead to improved customer lifetime value. It all starts with an empowering environment within your company walls because feelings of empowerment trickle outwards when employees have the opportunity to share ideas and opinions freely… without fear of being told no or fired as this leads to customer frustration and poor customer service, further leading to a bad experience.

Everything isn’t in our control, Yet some things are there to deliver.

Some Tips for a Better Environment are:

• Set up space in your office for customers to feel welcome
• Hang pictures on the wall of your favourite memories or happy moments
• Keep snacks and water available for employees at all times
• Create an area where people can relax, like a couch or day bed with pillows and blankets
• Keep plants around to create a sense of real-time peace and well-being 

More Ideas? Click Here to Tweet us @TechnicaliHQ with #CXStrategy, and We will add to this post.

2. Make time for employees to have fun at work:

This is an important way to have a great customer experience. Employees that are happy and have a good time at work will be more engaged with their job, which leads to better customer service for your business. Some ways to make sure employees enjoy themselves more include scheduled activities such as game days or brainstorming sessions.

There should also be opportunities for creativity in the office, like painting walls or decorating desks with fun items from home (think pictures of loved ones). Just remember to not force anyone into it; some are comfortable within their zone only. You might think they need to open up, so just keep the doors open for them to join but don’t make it a rule.

There are other ways to promote customer experience that doesn’t involve much creativity, such as rewarding employees with prizes for good customer service.

If an employee goes above and beyond to help a customer out by going the extra mile or providing excellent customer service, they should be rewarded with something small like lunch from their favourite restaurant.

In addition to making sure you’re hiring happy people in general, it’s important to make sure each individual is happy too!

Here are some tips:

• Be upfront about what’s required of someone in their position before they accept it, so there aren’t any surprises when they start work.
• Encourage them to come up with creative initiatives for improving customer experience.

Some +ve Impacts of Fun on Company, Environment & Customer:

• Fun at work increases productivity 
• Employees feel better about their jobs and are more satisfied with them 
• It reduces stress, which can help lower healthcare costs for the company
• If employees enjoy themselves at work, they will have a positive attitude towards customers 
• Customers will be happier when interacting with fun-loving employees who are passionate about what they do.

3. Create clear expectations and Standards of Performance:

It’s important to set some standards for employees, so that customer expectations are met.

Here are a few things you could do:

1. Create an experience map to help you visualise your customer journey
2. Define the standards of performance for “each stage” in the customer journey
3. Communicate these expectations and standards with all employees, partners, vendors, and customers, so they are aware of what’s expected from them
4. Track performance against expectations and standards to identify areas that need improvement or adjustments to better meet needs 
5. Continue this process on a regular basis as your business evolves over time 
6. Include new people in these processes as they join your team or company

Some +ve Impact of setting Standards of Performance on Customer and Company are:

• If an employee is aware their work isn’t up to snuff, they will be more motivated to get better.
• Clear expectations help improve customer service by providing customer satisfaction guarantees and to reduce churn.
• Employees who know what is expected of them have less stress because they can measure how well they’re doing in comparison with company standards. This creates a healthier environment that attracts customers.
• It will be easier to identify if one is not meeting customer expectations.
• It creates the Culture of Accountability.

4. Provide feedback on how you feel about their performance:

Employees feel empowered when they receive constructive feedback. It is also essential now in order to help employees improve their performance.

Company goals are more likely to be met when feedback is given regularly and constructively.

The manager will know if they’re doing a good job by the employee’s reaction because an unhappy or surprised response may indicate that something was unclear.

Tips to remember while giving feedback:

• Some people like straight feedback, but giving constructive is always best when it comes to a customer service team.,
• Make sure you are not rude or aggressive when giving feedback
• Be specific about what you want to see a change in the future 
• Thank them for their help and end on a positive note 
• Make sure they know that you care about the company/service but also about yourself as a customer
• If all else fails, escalate your complaint to management if it is an ongoing issue with no resolution

There can also be positive benefits for managers who give constructive feedback:

• Increased trust from their team members
• Improved company culture
• Higher performance levels within the business overall.
• Employe will feel better about themselves and more confident if they know what they’re doing well and how to improve on it.
• Giving feedback can help you build a stronger relationship with the person you’re giving feedback to because they’ll know that you care about them as an individual. 

The end result of giving constructive feedback is that people are happier at work and perform better in their roles, which benefits everyone involved, including yourself.

5. What are some other ways to Empower Employees:

There are some other ways that help employees in improving the customer experience:

1. Create a “How to Empower Employees” brand booklet that includes your company’s values.
2. Hold regular meetings with employees to discuss the company’s goals, customer pain points and how they can help reach what customers expect for their satisfaction.
3. Encourage the team to take on challenges outside of their job description, for example, word of mouth, showing brand loyalty.
4. Keep an open-door policy – make sure you’re always available when someone needs advice, guidance or solutions from you and don’t be afraid to ask questions in return; this makes every interaction = great.
5. Provide opportunities for staff development and leadership roles within the organisation so that everyone has a chance at success and feels valued by their employer
6. Celebrate employee achievements with small gifts like flowers or gift cards (or just say “thank you”) to get started.

Conclusion:

Great organisational culture is not about what happens inside the company but also its effect on business outcomes and customer experience.

With all of these things in mind, you’ll be able to make sure that your employees are happy and respected while simultaneously making a positive business impact for both internal stakeholders as well as customers.

Now it’s more important to collaborate with other departments, like marketing, to find out what they’re doing right and wrong. You can also improve on customer experience strategy as well as knowing to focus on continual improvement of processes and systems with an eye towards streamlining operations while still meeting the needs of your customers’ expectations.

Like I Said at the start of this post, “Improving Customer Experience is a never-ending process.”