Customer service is a proactive blend of online and offline actions

You’ve got a lot of ground to cover if you think that customer service is what kicks in if your website visitors are having problems. The days of reactive customer service programs are gone. It’s just not good enough.

Don’t wait for customers to contact you with a problem. Be proactive. Engage them before, during, and after their purchase experience with you. Here’s why proactive customer service must be an integral part of what you’re calling your “user interface.”

What buyers want

Customer service can mean many things, and it’s not always trouble. What’s troubling is that multiple studies show that 25% to 40% of calls to customer service centers are avoidable. These calls happen for reasons ranging from a simple question to confusion about delivery times.

They’re costly to your organization, especially when customers should have been able to find the information whey wanted on your company website.

“How’s it going?”

Here’s something your website’s user interface just isn’t going to be able to accomplish. Customers prefer to be contacted proactively. One survey puts this preference as high as 87%.

Of those who expressed an opinion, 73% said they had a positive experience that led to a better view of the company when they were contacted proactively by customer service. This “how’s it going?” approach can reduce your inbound customer call volume by nearly a third, which can dramatically lower your call center operating costs.

Before they’re even customers

The website is where they’ll buy. Your interface has to create a successful sales funnel. But what can your customer service department combined with the website do for these people while they’re still prospects? Together, they create your complete user interface.

The majority of the barriers to a sale are simply the need for more information. The more proactive you can be about providing answers, the faster you’ll move prospects to the buying stage.

Nothing new

Turning the tables and transforming your customer service philosophy from reactive to proactive isn’t novel. It is something that has become more of an expectation, though.

This is mainly because of the user experience a customer has with your organization online. The buying experience continues to be more customized. Customers value this heightened level of attention, and it’s not difficult to see why an offline proactive customer service approach complements the customized online experience.

What gets in the way?

Proactive customer service becomes an obvious step as organizations develop offline relationships. So, why don’t we see more of it?

Most companies aren’t structured for it. Much more of an organization becomes customer facing when an organization transitions to offer customer service before the sale. It requires collaboration across departments that may not ever have seen themselves as responsible for customer service.

Silos have to be breached. Organizations must offer training and help to create a level of comfort for employees who suddenly find themselves interfacing with prospects and customers in a “how’s it going?” proactive role. Here are ways to get everybody on the same page.

• Mix and match: Match different people to the customer lifecycle for your product or service. Challenge them to work collaboratively and find ways to offer proactive customer service for these points.

• Play Sherlock: Gather the data and seek out the most common reactive customer issues or questions. Look for ways these issues and questions can be defused. Remember that much of your traditional reactive customer service resources are going just to answer post-purchase questions that could have been taken care of before the sale.

• Find and promote early wins: It’s going to take a while for long-held beliefs to be reprogrammed. A transition to proactive customer service needs to demonstrate some quick and obvious benefits to get everyone on board. This is especially going to be true for employees who don’t feel as if their positions are customer-facing. And in today’s customer-centric environment, everyone in an organization represents a company’s product or service.

Both sides benefit

A switch to proactivity is good for both a company and its customers. The internal engagement and collaboration you’ll generate will spark innovation as disparate departments team up to step in front of each stage of the customer lifecycle. Their efforts to anticipate and prevent customer issues are more than an expectation to match up with customized online experiences. They’re also a way for you to reduce the high, measurable costs of thinking that a customer only needs attention if they have a problem.

If you’d like to learn more ways to align all phases of your business with your company’s online experience, contact Creative Technology Partners. For more information about our services, reach out to us today through our online contact form.

All 4 design roles are key to creating a successful website or app

What does the word “design” mean to you? Not too long ago, all it meant to most people was the subject of graphic design. Our digital world has changed all that.

Design hasn’t become more complicated, but it has become more complex. It’s also created new job opportunities. Here’s a summary on four primary kinds of design to help you understand their context.

UX Design (User Experience Design)

Most design subject-matter experts agree that User Experience Design (UXD, UED or XD) is the process of strengthening user satisfaction. A designer in this field will improve the usability, accessibility, and enjoyment conveyed by the interaction between user and product.

It doesn’t have to be a website or app, but this is mostly the case. User experience design starts with traditional human–computer interaction (HCI) design. Then it continues by looking at all aspects of a product or service. The point of view is that of the user.

A UX designer is the person in charge with creating the “logic” of this interaction. Their output usually is a wireframe or a prototype. The most valuable skill of a UX designer is his or her ability to communicate.

But it’s not all about artistic abilities. A UX designer must be just as comfortable with research. They’ll look at competitive analysis so they know what others in the field are doing. They’ll conduct A/B testing after the project has launched.

The main objective is to create how the product feels to users. If an app or website is difficult to use or navigate, customers will move on. On the other hand, if they have a good experience, they’ll return again. They’ll also likely tell others.

UI Design (User Interface Design)

UX is all about the experience but UI (User Interface) is all about elements that allow users to interact. A UI expert selects the text, buttons, and colors for the task a user will accomplish.

They know they’ve succeeded when the user is able to understand and accomplish what’s being asked on their computer or app screen. Simplicity and efficiency are the two goals.

IA (Information Architecture)

Simple, pleasing elements that are laid out to be used effectively is just the start. Today’s apps and websites are huge repositories of information. And how does the visitor find it all?

Information architecture (IA) determines the way a website or app is structured. It decides how content should be organized so it can be found.

Users must find information so they can complete tasks. The architecture or “structure” of this data either helps or hinders this. We need the services of IA to help us understand where we are on a website or in an app and gain access to information such as site maps, categories, and navigation.

In this case, design isn’t relegated to just visual elements. Deciding how to divide blog posts into categories is an example of information architecture.

This type of job appeals to individuals who enjoy creating detailed documentation. They need strong communication skills and the ability to think in the way that a typical user might when coming to use the product.

IxD (Interaction Design)

This one’s a bit difficult to put into perspective. Someone who practices IxD will define the structure and behavior of an interactive system. Huh?

Think of an animation on an app or website that caught your attention. Likely it was because it helped you understand what you needed to do to successfully interact with the portal. That’s the job of IxD.

Interaction Designers take huge, complex tasks and distill them into intuitive designs. You’ll understand what you need to do as a website visitor when you see it for the first time. Often, this means transcending language.

People who do well in this position have the ability to collaborate. They’ll talk to researchers and engineers, as well as artists and marketers. It’s their job to anticipate what users will need to intuit to complete what the app or website requires.

Putting it all together

• UX = How a user feels about an app or website
• UI = What, how, and where elements work
• IA = How an app or website is organized
• IxD = How the user and the website or app act and react to each other

These four design areas are not silos. The boundaries are fluid and often overlap. This might be why some people think that UI is actually UX, or that IxD is IA, but is just another way of saying it.

Four distinct things, to be sure. But they all contribute to the same result.

If you’d like to learn more about the disciplines of digital design, or have any questions about implementing adaptive, user-friendly web content, contact Creative Technology Partners.