Leveraging Customer Obsession to Drive Business

Call centers are driven by customer obsession. Everything we do, from onboarding to agent coaching, to process improvement, to quality assurance, is focused on improving the customer experience. But doing these things well requires a deep commitment to understanding every need and requirement from customers, including how to delight them every step of the way of their buyer’s journey.  

Using a motto like “customer obsession” may sound a little scary. But when we talk about it in a business context, we are talking about a true connection with customers. It’s about switching our customers into fans who are loyal, believe in the business and keep returning again and again.  

It’s not enough to simply say, we are “customer-obsessed.” That’s not how it works. Customer obsession must be built into our business ecosystem. It should be reinforced through strategic planning and tactical practices.  

In this blog post, we’ll look at customer obsession, how valuable it is for long-term success, and how it makes a meaningful difference in contact centers.  

What Does it Mean to be Customer Obsessed? 

63% of customers expect a personalized experience. Companies can only provide this type of service when they understand their customers, i.e., when they become customer obsessed. Customer obsession is also when organizations purposely add value to the customer experience at every touchpoint. Customer-obsessed organizations are always thinking of innovative and exciting ways to increase retention and encourage customer loyalty. 

How Do You Introduce Customer Obsession in Your Call Center? 

Your business needs to work on improving the buyer’s journey and building dependence on your brand. Investing in customer obsession is great for business; it can result in at least a 700% ROI over a period of twelve years. Some of the tactics you can use to introduce the customer obsession concept into your call center include:  

• Communicating with your team and sharing the importance of this type of customer focus. 
• Map your customer journey from start to finish and analyze each step. 
• Obsess over the user journey and every customer experience. 
• Deliver a personal touch, including giving customers easy and quick help from real people. 
• View your customers as people, not just transactions. 
• Protect security and privacy. 
• Accept customer feedback and use it to introduce change. 
• Add value to every interaction. 

Why Customer Obsession is Important for Contact Centers 

Companies face ever-increasing levels of competition in today’s challenging environment. Retaining and acquiring new customers is vital for long-term success. Customer obsession does exactly this; it focuses on creating a robust list of repeat customers.  

When a customer knows they’ll get great service and product, they are more likely to return again and again. The proof is in the statistics. Customer obsessed companies have 2.5 times improved revenue growth, and 2.2 times higher retention rates than companies that do not focus on customer obsession.  

Here’s a deeper dive into how customer obsession can improve retention and acquisition rates in call centers:  

• Retention. We all know how important customer loyalty is. Customer obsession is a part of keeping customers happy and ensuring that loyalty. One way to do this is to be always thinking of ways to exceed customer expectations. This is something call centers should always keep in the back of their minds. Because call centers that do not strive to exceed expectations risk losing customers for good.  
• Acquisition. All businesses benefit from the exposure. Word of mouth is a great channel for communication, and a customer-first or customer-obsessed experience helps to place your business in a positive light.  

How to Create Customer Obsessed Contact Center Agents  

Implementing a contact center quality assurance (QA) plan is a fantastic way to create customer-obsessed agents. A QA plan offers agents opportunities for growth and development in all areas of the customer experience, which in turn makes agents more engaged and motivated in their work. Here are a few other ways to encourage agents to become more customer obsessed:  

1. Take an empathy-first approach. Call center agents need to have soft skills that drive the customer experience forward. Empathy is one of these important skills. Empathetic agents can help fuel a customer obsessed contact center by always thinking of ways to improve the customer journey.
2. Humanize the customer experience. Prioritizing a quality customer experience is a key way to create customer-obsessed agents. Understanding how to quickly and efficiently resolve customer issues is an important way to humanize every interaction your call center agents have with your customers. 
3. Use Scorecards and KPIs to manage agent coaching. There are two key ways to improve your agent coaching processes: scorecards and key performance indicators (KPIs).  
   

• Scorecards are a self-evaluation tool that measures how well an agent recognized a customer’s mood, how the agent responded to the customer’s needs, and whether or not the agent provided a positive customer experience. Scorecards are an excellent addition to agent coaching because they allow the agent to gauge and analyze their own performance, encouraging them to be more invested.  
• Understanding KPIs is another way to improve coaching and create customer-obsessed agents. These metrics, like Average Handling Time (AHT) and Net Promoter Scores (NPS), provide an overview of how well the entire call center is performing, and how likely your customers are to recommend your center to their friends and family. When you have a good handle on these metrics, you can develop a plan of action.  

1. Give agents the tools to provide a better experience. Agents need modern tools to do their jobs well. These tools go beyond soft skills and empathy. The data and metrics collected in a QA program helps call center agents understand how their performance factors into the customer experience. This makes them feel more connected to the entire process.  
   

Building a Customer Obsessed Culture 

Choosing the right technology can help you to scale your customer-obsessed business. In a hyper-competitive market, customer obsession is more than a buzzword. It is a necessity for accomplishing your goals. We can help you understand how to bridge technology and customer obsession in the pursuit of long-term success.  

Here at Scorebuddy, we share your customer-obsessed vision. That’s why we designed a QA platform that helps you understand the nuances behind customer expectations and experiences. The tools in a QA program can help you maximize the potential of your call center team and expand your capabilities like never before. What are you waiting for? Book a free 30-day trial of Scorebuddy’s solution today.