It happens… We make an online purchase and, rather than receiving an automatic confirmation, we get a notice that our order has been placed on hold. Suddenly, confidence turns to confusion. Unfortunately, this is where some companies trip up. They make it difficult for otherwise good customers to re-place their order, and the experience goes from bad to worse as customers face complicated IVRs, long hold times, and a merry-go-round of well-meaning agents who keep asking the same questions.

Bad Processes, Not Bad People, are the Problem

It’s well documented that poor customer experiences like this lead to lower customer satisfaction, lower sales, and, ultimately, customer defection. Just think of your own experiences. Maybe you were using an expired credit card, entered the wrong billing address, or had an unpaid balance from a previous order. Mistakes happen.

The problem in most cases isn’t bad people but bad processes. Regrettably, fixing the problem is usually placed squarely on the customer’s shoulders. They need to reach out to your customer service team, which means navigating your IVR system, speaking with an agent to triage the problem, being transferred to another agent who needs them to repeat everything they just told the previous agent, and waiting on hold while the new agent speaks with their manager or colleagues to resolve the issue.

A Gwen-Win Situation with Mitel Technology

Now, let’s imagine a different scenario using Mitel’s Contact Center/CX solutions. Your customer – who we’ll call Gwen – receives a text that her order is on hold. Included in the text is a link she can click to initiate a call/text chat with a customer agent. She chooses text chat, and the Mitel solution quickly routes the message to the next available sales agent, Jim.

Jim gets a screen pop of Gwen’s account and sees that Finance has put a hold on the order. Jim also sees from his agent interface that his colleague in Finance, Mark, is available to handle the issue and transfers the message to him. Mark also gets a screen pop of Gwen’s account and sees that her order was placed on hold because of an outstanding account balance.

Mark texts Gwen back and offers to initiate a voice call to resolve the issue. Gwen accepts and the two are soon talking to resolve the issue. Gwen pays the outstanding balance, and the order hold is now lifted. Gwen gets a confirmation that her order is being shipped – all without requiring that Gwen do anything more than open a text message and click on a link.

Unifying Communications with Your Call Center

So, you’re probably wondering how Mitel can tie all these touchpoints together? Mitel combines unified communications (UC) with contact center functionality into a single, seamless solution. Across your organization, customer data is readily available at the click of a button, intelligent call routing makes the right connections, and real-time visibility into presence status ensures that the “ball” moves swiftly and never gets dropped.

Ready to improve your customer experience? Contact us today: 800.787.4848 or jnolte@ctsmd.us.