Are you looking for new and effective ways to improve your company’s organisational efficiency?
As your organisation grows, it’s important to continually review processes and ensure they are benefitting both customers and employees simultaneously.
Often, implementing digital services is the most effective way of improving organisational efficiencies as it frees up valuable employee time and gives customers access to self-service resources. Despite this fact, only 17% of Europe's businesses are in advanced stages of a digital transformation process.
Discover what more your business can do to take a step towards a digital transformation.
Self-service portals
An effective way to improve organisational efficiencies is by providing a self-service portal for customers which allows them to manage their own requirements.
The average call centre agent can take up to 50 calls a day, the reason behind this often comes from a housing resident wanting immediate help, rather than waiting for an email response.
A self-service portal makes it much easier for customers to locate their own personal information and book appointments, freeing up time for employees to take on the more tricky and urgent requests.
Repairs apps online
Similar to a self-service portal, many calls from housing residents are surrounding issues or repairs that are needed in their homes. Introducing a repairs app online system where customers can log what their issue is and book an appointment for repairing that suits their needs is likely to decrease the number of calls your organisation receives on a daily basis.
Chatbots
As modern technology has proved, the use of digital services such as WhatsApp, Slack and Zoom has allowed users to interact with friends, family and colleagues in a more timely manner than email communication or waiting in line at a call centre ever has.
That’s why many businesses are choosing to use digital tools such as live chat and chatbots, particularly in relation to the younger generation who are said to prefer interacting with bots over humans.
Research from Software Advice has shown that live chat has the highest customer satisfaction level at 73% whilst chatbots have seen a 92% increase since 2019. Chatbots are an excellent way for businesses to ensure customers are receiving the answers they need even after closing hours, whilst live chat allows employees to quickly respond to any queries as they would if they received a text message.
Automation
What if you could reach customers, at scale, with personal and relevant communications?
Automation can make it happen! McKinsey found that in around 60% of occupations, at least 1/3 of workday activities could be automated - what could staff do with all that freed up time?
It's always really important to highlight that this isn't about replacing people or taking jobs - automation simply allows your organisation to use resource where it's needed most.
Through machine learning and robotic process automation, repetitive and routine tasks can be automated to maximise efficiencies to a whole new scale.
When paired with a central data source, the communications won't feel robotic, either. You can tailor the messaging and personalise based on key demographics like location and gender, as well as sending messages at the right time for an individual user based on their previous activity or behaviour. Like sending them a friendly reminder that their boiler is due a service next week! These automated communications can then be used as soft engagement tools to subtly reinforce channel shift.
Read more about our very own customer engagement campaigns, powered by automation...
Implement SMART Goals
The SMART goal acronym stands for “specific”, “measurable”, “attainable”, “relevant” and “time-bound”. There’s little point in creating a list of goals if you’re not sure what it will take to achieve success.
That’s why measuring them to this acronym will ensure you’re thinking about your goals holistically and will only help to improve customer service and satisfaction. You have to make sure your goals are achievable and that you can put a process in place in which employees understand specifically what’s needed in order to achieve it.
Don’t try everything at once, set a clear and defined goal over a measurable period of time and ensure its success before adding to your list.
SMART goals not only have to make sense for the customer, but the business as well. Your goals may be gaining success but if your approach diverts away from your company direction, it can lead to employees losing sight of what’s important.