The modern logistics industry is fast, nimble and seamless, and so should its customer experience. From start to finish, users want to stay connected and informed about their purchases.
That's why the best logistical brands understand that a bad experience reflects poor not only on themselves but the product brands they ship. To better navigate these expectations, here are 3 ways logistical organisation can invest in customer service capabilities that embrace a forward-thinking mindset with the right technology and people.
#1: Harness meaningful analytics at every point of the journey
The logistics industry sits on an ecosystem of data driven by millions of purchases and shipments. The differentiator is how do you use that data for a competitive advantage not only from an organisational standpoint but to improve the customer experience.
It's no longer about maintaining contact during the last-mile of the product journey. Customer feedback, sentiment and engagement needs interaction from start to finish and beyond. CX analytics solutions helps convert data into insight by deploying technologies that analyse the customer journey at multiple touchpoints:
- Voice of the customer: Integrate customer feedback from voice recordings, chats, emails, agent notes, digital footprint, social commentary and surveys to their shopping behaviour and characteristics. These insights can be used to continually optimise product development and uncover new areas to automate and deliver superior self-serve experiences.
- Growth analytics: Utilise data sets from a variety of sources to rapidly visualise information for key insights. By uncovering big data insights about customer needs and preferences, you can prescribe the best actions to achieve business goals.
- Speech analytics: Automate the ability to listen to and analyse daily interactions and pain points for the customer. Use insights gathered to help logistics organisation foster growth, enhance customer journeys and further develop associates' ability to create meaningful moments that matter for customers.
During these past months of crises logistics helped connect the world. Customer experience analytic tools can help connect siloed data that brings the user journey together as well.
#2: Deploy intelligent automation across channels
Support in logistics is a balancing act. The industry needs to rely on 24/7 availability, across channels service that provides consistent, compliant responses to all customer queries. All while being cost effective. Intelligent automation capabilities, that's AI, machine learning and robotic processing automation, make it all possible.
These tools can improve first call resolution by deflecting Tier 0 and 1 interactions, while enabling humans to manage the complex and meaningful operations:
- Robotic process automation (RPA): Implementing Robotic Process Automation (RPA) software "bots" across any application with minimal disruption can help drive bottom-line results by reducing average turnaround time, complete processes and requests around the clock, eliminate human error and help front-facing associates focus on higher quality customer interactions.
- Omnichannel technology: Cloud based omnichannel solutions can help customers engage with logistics organisation online and offline, cross channel, all with consistent experiences. Reaching customers on the channels they desire through orchestration, not just technology, can deliver the CX they demand.
- Customer assist: Most customers do not care whether a chatbot or a real human helps them, if they are getting the service they need. Customer Assist chatbot leverages AI technology to directly handle customer queries quickly, with no wait times, with skills-based routing to associates only when needed.
Leveraging automation technology, machine learning and bots can be a cost-effective way for logistics organisation to improve its customer experience by empowering customer self-service and augmenting the associate experience through intelligent virtual assistants that help them learn and serve customers better.
#3: Empower employees to deliver effortless experiences
No longer limited to industries like retail, logistics organisations can build a culture that creates brand advocates and long-term customer value by empowering their associates to deliver great experiences:
- Knowledge management: Capture all the information within an organisation and make it easily available to associates. A solid knowledge management solution can help associates collaborate better, connect faster, and find highly-relevant information anytime, anywhere.
- Digital learning: Deploy services that look at the complete associate lifecycle, as well as operational business goals and metrics, to provide repeatable and scalable personalised programs. These learning and training services can enable the efficient upskilling of new and existing associates, from front-line personnel all the way to the executive office, so they can reach their highest potential.
- AI simulated learning: Leverage Artificial Intelligence (AI) and machine learning technology to simulate real-world customer scenarios so associates learn by completing the job and getting real-time feedback and coaching.
Equipping associates with the right knowledge, skills and mindset helps ensure every interaction along a products journey is informative and enjoyable.
Deliver the right service, at the right time
The logistics industry is always on the move, it's customer service capabilities need to focus on consistent and seamless experiences for its entirety. As every industry begins a renewed focus on customer-centricity post COVID-19, logistics needs to ensure that every step of the product journey is impactful.
