As we move into the third year of COVID, we have seen enough to understand the acceleration in the adoption of digital technologies that has occurred as a result of the pandemic and its effect on customer and employee experiences.
Prior to COVID, many businesses recognized the need for a real-time virtual communications component of their customer support strategy, but few actually pursued it. However, COVID forced them into a position where they had to quickly implement virtual service and support systems. Suddenly, there was a need for help desks with features including video calling, screen sharing, and remote takeover capabilities in order to support the customers without physical contact.
Expectations Changed …For Both Customers and Employees
The result of this paradigm shift is a change in customer expectations and behaviors—it has become the norm rather than the exception that customers can have their issues resolved and questions answered through live virtual interactions with human support agents.
The composition of the workforce has changed as well: employees expect simple to use, low-friction technologies that allow them to interface with their clients remotely, independent of where the client or the help desk is geographically located. Just as customers no longer feel the need to bring their physical device into a brick-and-mortar store for service, help desk service agents no longer feel the need to have to be in a physical office to provide support for their customers. Working remotely is not simply acceptable now, it is expected by many employees. Since it costs roughly 50 percent of a salary to replace an employee, and with the current trend of people quitting their jobs, retention is significant and quantifiable.
The evolution of companies to a digital world, spurred on by the pandemic, has impacted the customer experience and the employee experience. Companies must think about what their service and support employees want and need from these virtual technologies. Employees need to be able to do their jobs efficiently, wherever they and their customers are located.
Technology Can Meet New Expectations Quickly and Without Disruption
All of us, whether as consumers or as employees, want solutions that are easy to use and that integrate across the business applications we are accustomed to using.
ScreenMeet’s technology caters to both trends: For the employees, ScreenMeet works in the cloud using a standard browser, so it can be accessed by anyone, anywhere there is an internet connection. And for customers, ScreenMeet is easy to use and requires no software downloads. These technologies facilitate rapid resolutions of customer issues, resulting in greater efficiency that translates into a greater customer experience.
Case in Point: A Large SaaS Company Sees Big Improvements in First-Call Resolution
What types of things make customers happier with the experience technology like ScreenMeet can provide?
In one example, by implementing ScreenMeet, a large SaaS company realized a 35 percent increase in first-call resolution, meaning they were solving customer issues in under 30 minutes—issues that used to take five days. This company handles a million tickets a year, so implementing ScreenMeet saved their customers two million days of waiting for a problem to be fixed. While it is impossible to quantify this in terms of the actual experience of the customer, it’s reasonable to assume the company should expect to see happier customers, improved satisfaction, and higher renewal rates.
It’s all about bringing value to the customer journey.
Want to Find Out How You Can Bring More Value to the Customer Journey?
Hear how businesses can improve customer and employee support experiences in this interview with Ben Lilienthal, CEO of ScreenMeet and HDI's Tim McElgunn.