The Age Of The Customer: What Does Empowerment Look Like?

“Companies that empower their employees have a higher probability of employee retention and customer loyalty.”

The customer is in charge of the way brands make strategic business decisions. This balance of power is forcing companies to put their CX strategies under a microscope.

When it comes to handling upset customers, agents tend to report feeling low after the interaction. Usually, the representative wants to help, but is unable to because of policies or processes that cause roadblocks to resolving customer issues. This leads to frustration for front-line teams, causing them to care less about the task at hand.?

What if they were able to resolve these types of issues with a little discretion and common sense? What if they were able to go the extra mile for customers without being blocked by limitations out of their control?

Companies that?empower?their employees have a higher probability of employee retention and customer loyalty. Empowering your team means equipping them with tools to easily find solutions to make the customer happy. This creates a domino effect of engaged and effective customer care team members, leading to higher retention, better customer experiences, and overall cost savings.

What Does Empowerment Look Like?

In order for customer care teams to be successful, they need the right tools and resources available to them.

The Right Information

It’s a game changer when customer care teams have accurate information at their fingertips. As soon as an interaction is answered, the focus needs to be on the customer. A?360° view?is key for this – think of it as a way to see the customer’s past, present, and future relationship with a brand. This includes interactions across all channels, order history, and any previous issues that can provide context into the current one. Having access to this information allows customer care teams to make knowledgeable decisions and provide customer experiences that are both personalized and effective.

The Right Person

It’s crucial for customer care teams to confirm that they’re dealing with the right person. This involves customer?verification?software or tools that will provide a detailed profile of the customer’s full name, date of birth, address, and financial history. In addition to having access to this information, it also helps to provide a better overall customer service experience. The sooner the customer care team can confirm an inquiring customer’s details, the sooner they can move on to resolving the issue at hand.

Better Work Spaces

When employees have a brand-aligned environment to spend their shifts in, they will feel more empowered to provide the best customer service possible. This means immersing the team into the brand and making them feel proud to come to work every day. Whether that’s mimicking the look of headquarters, providing product samples, giving out branded swag, and so on. These details help teams feel like they are a core part of the brand.

More Autonomy

By prioritizing flexibility and autonomy, brands have the ability to make natural decisions based on the flow of the customer conversation.?

This type of approach requires the right resources, such as searchable knowledge bases and extensive soft-skill training. Ongoing coaching also ensures metrics such as First Contact Resolution (FCR) and Average Handle Time (AHT) are achieved, while calibrating for quality and accuracy.

The Bottom Line

Empowering your customer care teams to make autonomous decisions is vital to your brand’s success. By introducing this approach in phases, it becomes easier to keep track of additional costs and increased ROI. It allows time to properly measure how these changes are affecting both employee and customer satisfaction. Read our?thought paper?to learn more about how providing ongoing training in an empowered culture and thoughtfully recognizing teams ensures extraordinary customer experiences every single time.