For any organisation serious about sustainable growth, collaboration, both within and without of the business, is essential.
A lack of alignment can only lead to disarray as services become fragmented and people, who should be kept in the loop, are left in the informational dark.
This is especially true when it comes to customer satisfaction.
After all, everything runs that little bit smoother when each team member, or affected customer, is aligned on a shared outcome.
Should any conflict, or miscommunication arise, the knock on effect will only negatively impact upon the intended result.
“86% of employees and executives cite a lack of collaboration, or ineffective communication, for workplace failures.”
Salesforce
Ultimately, increased, integrated collaboration between a company and its customers drives better experiences and builds stronger relationships.
Lets take a look at why collaboration is key to customer satisfaction, both internally and externally.
Internal Collaboration
Despite the lack of direct customer engagement, arguably the most important influence on customer experience is how you construct your service and support teams.
In other words, internal collaboration is key to customer satisfaction.
When customer service teams work together on support issues, answers are delivered in a more efficient manner. Speed is vital for satisfaction.
Similarly, in a collaborative environment, the individual with the expertise to address the issue can be immediately informed.
They can then handle the ticket personally, or assist other team members to produce a fast, accurate response.
Ensuring everyone is knowledgeable on your offering and aligned on the best advice for common occurrences also ensures, no matter who customers engage with, the answer remains the same.
This helps guarantee that your best practice approach is uniform, with no gaps to negatively affect customer satisfaction.
Having a single source of truth, and central visibility, across each and every customer also ensures no opportunity is ever missed, nor any query unanswered.
“58% of brands were inconsistent when responding to queries on email, social and live chat channels.”
Eptica
Having a coordinated, well informed support function lays an ideal foundation stone for customer satisfaction.
No delays in response, no inconsistencies in information provided, no gaps missed.
What more could a customer ask for?
External Collaboration
On the flip side, how do you engage with your customers?
Working together, and actively engineering positive experiences, allows you to provide significantly better customer service.
And when it comes to customer support and success, your hard won clients want a partner, not a provider.
What’s the difference?
A provider will orientate every interaction, every target, every goal to be focussed on their needs alone.
A partner, on the other hand, works to collaborate with customers, prioritising their wishes above anything else.
“71% of customers feel frustrated when an experience is impersonal or company focussed.”
SEGMENT
Put yourself in the shoes of a customer faced with these two options…
It quickly becomes clear which party is going to provide you with the best customer service.
There will always be situations where your experience and know how should take precedence.
However, there is no doubt that working together has a direct impact on improved customer satisfaction.
To ensure your external collaboration capabilities are up to scratch, focus on these five key areas when investing in customer relationships:
- Honesty, respect and transparency.
- Actively exploring opportunities to improve experiences.
- Embracing long term planning over short term thinking.
- Investigating solutions over stonewalling due to roadblocks.
- Inviting regular and robust feedback.
Collaboration Is Key To Customer Satisfaction
Whether your initial priority is internal or external, collaboration directly improves your efficiency and effectiveness in better serving your customers.
By creating internal channels of discussion, colleagues can work together to draw on each other’s strengths and knowledge to curate the best possible customer experience.
“Collaboration is a no-brainer for any business seeking to improve the customer experience.”
RingCentral
Likewise, removing the focus from your own aims, toward collaborating with customers to be the company facilitating their dream, will see customer satisfaction skyrocket.
All it takes, is a little collaborative communication.
Ready to explore how Anthill can enhance your collaborative capabilities? Schedule a demo today.
Intrigued to learn more? Check out our Insights Hub to keep your business at the cutting edge.
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- September 16th, 2021