Feedback management is innovating in order to be as close as possible to the customer's journey and on all the channels where he expresses himself. Used at all levels of the company, this customer satisfaction management tool also allows companies to seize more and more business opportunities.
Listening to the voice of the customer allows you to check that the brand promise is being kept, reduce irritants, stay in tune with your market... Surveys sent by email, at regular intervals or after an interaction, are still widely used. "In retail, 60 to 70% of the volume of knowledge about customer experience and satisfaction comes from these classic methods. They do a lot of the work, but all retailers are aware that they provide a rather limiting view. Not to mention that with these customers who often have a loyalty card, have left their email and made a purchase, the scores are generally quite good," observes Nicolas Hammer, co-founder and CEO of Critizr. As tools become more sophisticated, customer feedback is no longer limited to post-purchase observations, but can be collected on the spot to manage the customer experience more agilely, to bounce back on sensitive terms when the customer asks for a refund or is angry, to improve referencing or reputation...
On the condition that you go and find the customer on the channels where they express themselves! "Those who are not used to answering questionnaires can leave comments on WhatsApp or Google Review, on social networks or through a contact center... Associating the different feedbacks to an individual allows to collect their perception on the different contact points and to have a more homogeneous vision of their customer experience. Making the link with all the information that companies have internally on the customer is also a way to improve," adds Estelle Villard, head of Medallia France. She also insists on the importance of leaving aside questions that are too closed because "it is when the customer expresses himself freely that his feedback is the richest". This more holistic approach to listening to the customer implies equipping oneself with tools capable of managing feedback from emails, chats, social networks, transcriptions of voice calls, videos... While its platform already reconciles these different types of data, Medallia launched in March 2022 an Athena Studio solution for companies to create customized artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning models that will analyze their unstructured data without any coding.
Regardless of how a company measures customer satisfaction or the quality of the experience delivered, only if the results are used correctly can the company be part of an improvement process. However, this is far from being the case... While 93.8% of companies believe it is necessary to work regularly on customer journeys, only 47.7% integrate customer feedback into their strategy, according to the Customer Experience Benchmark 2022 study conducted by NTT, Genesys' partner in customer engagement programs. "The observation is a bit harsh. By capturing information at the source and integrating customer feedback into the thinking loop, it is possible to create a virtuous circle of agility to adapt existing customer journeys but also to design the journeys of tomorrow," notes Laurent Millan, customer experience manager at NTT France.
Browsing data helps improve the online shopping experience on desktop and mobile. Skeepers is testing a solution that triggers a specific inquiry when the customer needs help or seems stuck. "By displaying a pop-in once the customer has been on the same page three times or by inserting a feedback button, often at the bottom right of the page, the brand positions itself closer to the customer journey and gains agility in its response. The conversion rate increases if it intervenes in time when the customer's journey shows that he is about to abandon the basket", explains Thierry Auber, Chief Product Officer of Skeepers, which was created from the merger of Mediatech-cx, Avis Vérifiés and Teester. His group is going to launch another innovation, which will integrate AI and machine learning as soon as the feedback is collected. It will automatically analyze "the gap between different indicators that show a drop in satisfaction on a specific point of the journey, which can be partially compensated by other elements, but which could be improved," he explains.
A multiplication of new tools
Since notifications on WhatsApp during a delivery or the integration of chat tools in mobile e-commerce sites are becoming more and more common, customer listening is gaining to be part of this trend. Integrating conversational APIs on WhatsApp or Facebook Messenger avoids a channel break," continues Thierry Aubert. The brand offers a moment of listening that replicates what happens in person in the store. The customer no longer has the impression of being interviewed but is part of a natural exchange. The response rate is high because this proposal comes after the interaction. Moreover, teams can take advantage of this savings in marketing pressure to focus on other actions.
On the consumer side, WhatsApp is very popular. "When we suggest several ways to communicate, 40% of customers choose this channel, which is considered simpler and more intuitive than email, even if it means giving their phone number. In one year, Carrefour stores got in touch with 100,000 customers on WhatsApp," says Nicolas Hammer. To help retailers be proactive in managing irritants - some of which are impossible to avoid - and multiply the opportunities for contact with the end customer, Critizr has integrated Google's Business Messages and WhatsApp into its platform. Carrefour, Auchan or Monoprix use it for example to reduce the waiting time at the checkout. A message sent by the customer when there are more than three people in the queue alerts the staff on their smartphones, who see internally how to open an additional checkout. These GSA brands, like Bricoman in GSS, offer the customer who is preparing his visit to the store to write to the point of sale via WhatsApp or Google Business Message to check the availability of products. It is still unpleasant not to find the item you need, but being warned in advance avoids some of the frustration...
Video is a growing viewing channel. "An advanced survey via a link allows the recipient to record their video. Real-time analysis of voice intonations or facial expressions allows for a finer appreciation of the customer experience," explains Estelle Villard. This same type of approach can be implemented by listening to the audio stream recorded in contact center exchanges. After the acquisition of Spockee, a French live shopping specialist, Skeepers will launch in the coming months a video solution to collect "augmented" verbatims. The use will not necessarily be limited to customer service or marketing: "Video multiplies the effect of the comment or verbatim and transmits more emotion. Instead of reading customer feedback, offering two or three video testimonials from customers during a Comex can help move the lines," says Thierry Aubert.
Voice messages can open up new horizons, especially because of their practicality, but their use for customer listening requires some precautions. Critizr, which will be experimenting with them in the retail sector in the next few months, plans to use them in conjunction with speech-to-text technologies, as computers in stores often do not have a sound card. Without a written transcript, the teams would not be able to listen to the customer's message, nor to respond to it... "Speech analytics remains a fairly expensive technology and teams need to be able to justify its use. It can be useful in a contact center to check that compliance issues have been respected, for example during a sale or the conclusion of a contract, but it is probably still a bit expensive to deal with quality issues," points out Laurent Millan.
Inventing new relationship modes
The prospect of new business opportunities may convince players to accelerate their efforts to listen to and understand customers. In the case of retail, these feedbacks are also an opportunity to reflect on the role of the store. Critizr and Monoprix have strengthened their partnership so that some of the chain's points of sale - about two-thirds of the network - can send messages to their customers locally. "A lot of data is available through the analysis of receipts and loyalty cards, but it is rarely used because the chains remain mostly in mass marketing. At Monoprix, 50% of the marketing pressure will be managed by the store, which will become the animator of its community in order to solve customer problems in real time, but also to manage satisfaction, for example by creating a link of proximity around the ultra-local", says Nicolas Hammer. As an example, he points to the Prado Monoprix in Marseille, "which on Fridays sets up a fish counter from the city's fish market and informs its customers of the contents of the fish", or the Lille Monoprix, which has a very large parking lot and has set up a partnership with a car washer "to offer its customers who spend more than 200 euros on shopping on Saturdays the possibility of washing their vehicles". Services that can only be imagined and managed on this scale!
These more service-oriented exchanges are a way to keep in touch with satisfied customers, who are often the most difficult to call back without an up-sell or cross-sell offer. The bank, which has developed a lot of self-care, also needs to strengthen its ties with customers who are not seen in the branch. Some Crédit Agricole branches are experimenting with WhatsApp exchanges with Critiz in order to recreate proximity with this target group and prevent it from slipping away. Existing links can also be strengthened with more active customers. Skeepers asked the more than 20,000 consumers who respond to requests on Verified Reviews what would make them want to share those reviews. They especially wanted to be rewarded a little," says Thierry Aubert. We launched a POC on the integration of rewards for these customers, thanks to an algorithm that evaluates their level of engagement with the brand. If this proves successful, it would be a step forward for the brand on opinions and feedback and for the consumer who would be a little richer." And another illustration that proves that customer listening is a win-win lever.
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