How to use technology to take the stress out of customer relationships

By Sarah Tierney, Digital Storyteller, Microsoft UK

15/04/2019

There’s never been more choice out there for the customer. Which sometimes can seem like a double-edged sword. Thanks to technology and the internet, your business is open to a wider audience than ever before. But with that comes more competition. Which means you have to work even harder to engage and retain your customers. And without the right technology, this can become quite a stressful task.

In Microsoft’s Global State of Customer Service Report, 96 percent of respondents said customer service was a key factor in their loyalty to a brand. Using new technology such as AI and the cloud can take the stress out of building better user experiences so you can get back to do more of what you love.

Personalised customer service

72 percent of customers expect service agents to already know who they are and have insights into their previous interactions. For frontline workers in retail, healthcare, education, engineering, and local government this could mean having a mobile device.

By having a device that can quickly access customer information in a quick and easy way, employees now have the important information they need to hand and more time to provide a personalised customer service.

The Isle of Wright Trust is one organisation that’s deployed mobile Surface devices to help their staff access and record information on the go.

“The ability to pull data in real time gives the patient confidence.”

Alan Sheward, Executive Director of Nursing & Quality.

Clinicians are using the device to better illustrate treatment programmes to patients, thus improving their overall experience. And clinicians are also now better placed to evaluate progress and treatment with their devices, improving patient outcomes.

Expand your horizons

It’s important to make the right choices to engage your customers better. By doing this, you can gain new loyal customers and keep your current customers excited about your service or product.

However, with text ads being the primary way that many businesses market their products and services, getting your message across in a limited number of characters can be challenging, and can negatively affect engagement.

For On the Beach, a holiday specialist in the UK, a recent update to Bing Ads called Expanded Text Ads enabled them to produce more compelling ads.

“Expanded Text Ads have given us the extra room to get our message across, and they have not only increased CTR but also helped improve our conversion rates,” says Danny Catapano, Performance Marketing Manager at On the Beach, a holiday specialist operating in the UK.

Because they were able to optimise their ads to better connect to customers, they experienced an uplift in customer engagement, illustrated by a 12 percent increase in its click-through rate.

A businesswoman sits in front of a Dynamics chart and talking to two other businesswomen

Using data to improve service

A sophisticated CRM such as Dynamics 365 makes it much easier to give your customers a personalised and engaging experience. And using the AI tools baked into the platform, it makes delivering this faster, meaning your employees can spend more time developing these relationships.

Using a modern CRM empowers people across your organisation to discover predictive insights, take informed actions, and communicate with customers by leveraging the power of artificial intelligence.

Dynamics 365 enables you to track customer interactions across different channels, making it easier to follow up, create bespoke messaging, and even know when a customer is about to leave your service (before they do!).

Dynamics 365 will help you build a successful and intelligent customer service platform, and all in the most secure environment, leveraging Microsoft’s compliance offerings and best-in-class security features such as role based administration, data auditing tools, and user session management. And with security second only to quality when in purchasing decisions, it’s important to ensure you are secure and GDPR compliant to maintain that all important customer trust.

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