Digital Transformation of Clienteling and the Contact Center

Traditionally, the majority of clienteling occurred at the store level, with associates leveraging shopper data in person to provide consumers with a customized and impactful experience. However, with in-store traffic declining, the spotlight is now on the tech-fueled contact center as a means of providing a meaningful customer experience for shoppers.

To ensure that every customer has a personalized and memorable experience; forward-thinking businesses are updating their contact centers with innovative clienteling solutions.

Below we explore how retailers can best put their clienteling software to work in their digital contact centers.

1. A traditional contact center agent has no idea what to expect with an inbound customer call. These calls are measured by criteria such as first call resolution, average call handling time, and other customer satisfaction indicators. To be success in the contact center, online retail associates must have real-time access to unified customer data that includes complete buyer journey information. And that data must be accessible regardless of the channel of engagement -- voice, email, text, chat video, etc.

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2. Retailers must collect omnichannel customer behavior data, link online and offline data with customer service initiatives, and provide data to their employees. However management must also: 

• Provide employees with adequate and up-to-date training to support sales, marketing, and customer communication efforts.
• Provide employees with up-to-date information about each individual customer, as well as personalized recommendations and next best actions for associates to take if initial actions and suggestions fail to close the sale.
• Provide employees with regular opportunities to learn about privacy and data-driven culture.

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3. Customers expect digital customer service to be personalized and tailored to their individual needs and preferences. This may involve using customer data to provide personalized recommendations or solutions, or offering personalized communication options such as chat or messaging. in the same dashboard, AI-based, next-best actions recommendations are available to guide associates towards fully leveraging these engagement opportunities.

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4. Beyond text chat or a phone call; tools such as real-time video chat allow customers to connect with customer service representatives from anywhere, at any time. This can help to resolve issues more quickly and efficiently while improving the customer support experience and increase customer satisfaction. Video is especially helpful for customers who may not be able to easily access phone or in-person customer service.