Four Reasons Proactive Customer Care Means Customer Loyalty: Aspect Software

Author: Aspect Software

Date: 26th February 2012

Too often contact centers are seen purely as cost centers. When companies bring down contact resolution time they push up agent productivity and save money, but as a profitability driver this practice has limits. A far more reliable approach is to transform contact centers into customer loyalty centers – through proactive customer care.

While at first it might seem more costly for customer service representatives (CSRs) to interact in new ways with customers, the differentiated service they provide can pay real dividends. Proactive customer outreach helps increase immediate incremental revenue through activities such as cross-selling and up-selling, but that’s just a fraction of its upside potential. The real value of proactive care is in building a healthy bottom line over the long term through an ongoing, elevated focus on the customer experience. By anticipating and addressing customer needs before they can become inbound contact center expenses, proactive contact increases customer retention and loyalty and boosts agent retention and job satisfaction.

Proactive customer care is more than a “feel good” benefit. Here are four reasons why this strategy makes good business sense, along with some basic tips on how to start a proactive customer care campaign.

1. Customers Repay Anticipatory Service with Greater Loyalty and Long-Term Value

Forward-looking companies are measuring their customers’ long-term value or profitability. Lifetime value is based on the profit earned from a customer over the total lifespan of an active account. Meeting or exceeding customers’ support expectations maximizes their longevity and, as a result, increases their value.

The science of customer relationships is simple – the value you get is proportionate to the value you give. To achieve and maintain this harmony, today’s companies must establish a dialogue with customers that shows an awareness of their information needs and respect for their communication preferences. The more contacts made with a customer, the “stickier” that customer becomes. When customers are consistently given valuable information, this stickiness can form a durable bond of loyalty.

There’s no doubt that one-way proactive communications are welcome conveniences for customers. For example:
- A major airline proactively texts customers or leaves passengers an automated voice message to advise them of flight delays and severe weather warnings before they head out to the airport.
- A corporate billing department alerts customers when an invoice is nearly due. Rather than waiting until an account is delinquent, a reminder call or email gets bills paid sooner, saving the company money on write-offs and lost interest income. It also provides a better customer experience by diminishing the ill will of finance charges, penalties and collections agencies

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