Call centers. In our day and age, they are objects of scorn. Customers needing help find that a soulless corporation hides behind the automatons answering the phones. Customers not wanting to be bothered get unwanted sales pitches at unwanted times. Who needs call centers!
That’s the narrative, right?
So yesterday I got a pleasant surprise at one of my clients. I learned something from some employees of its very good BDC (Business Development Center, what automotive dealerships often name their call centers).
They told me that, through the pandemic, customers are grateful and relieved to talk to them.
For instance, this BDC reaches out to customers who have yet to buy. Many of them are waiting to find a vehicle as the industry continues to fight through the computer chip crisis. The store gives them an update, even if the update is “no vehicles yet.”
The customers are thankful to know they are still on the radar.
Cars are the second-most expensive purchase most customers make. And the shopping process happens so infrequently that customers are unsure, insecure and on guard. (Horror stories through the decades haven’t helped matters much.)
Yet here is a company injecting some humanity into that shopping process. Providing some reassurance and making it a human experience, not a computer experience, not an adversarial experience.
When the market returns to normal, and customers have more choices, where do you think they’ll return?
My pleasant surprise echoes much of what this article lists as CX trends for 2022, especially 1 and 5.
Which of the five trends gives you insight into what you can be doing to ensure your clients return to you?