Category: Customer Engagement

With the start of the new year, for whatever reason, many companies will be looking to add new team members to their organizations. Bringing new people onboard at your organization is an expensive proposition. Not only do you want to get it right the first time, but you want to bring the ‘right’ person on board as quickly as possible.

The old adage says that it’s “cheaper to keep her”. The same is true in business as it is in your personal life. Hiring the wrong person not only creates a period of time where work isn’t being done either efficiently or the way it ‘should’ be done, but all the administrative time involved with hiring, and all the training time used just goes straight down the drain. With an eye towards saving you money, and with another firmly focused on making systems more efficient, we’ve come up with ten ways you can improve your hiring processes.

1 – Foster Partnerships with Other Hiring Managers

One of the things that separates great business people from run-of-the-mill business people is the ability to delegate responsibilities to trusted partners. When you’re busy working ‘on’ your business rather than ‘in’ your business you’re wasting time and effort. When you’re able to hand off important tasks that need to be done ‘right’ to a trusted partner, efficiency goes up, and more importantly, you’re able to work in your business, doing the things that make you money rather than doing things that steal time away from productivity.

Find a recruiting partner that you can trust to send qualified candidates your way. Sales funnels need to constantly have fresh new leads trickle into the top of the funnel in order to keep sales pumping out of the bottom. Your candidate hiring funnel is no different, and one way in which you can keep the candidates coming into your funnel is to work with a recruiting partner that places highly qualified candidates for the roles you need filled in that very same funnel.

2 – Utilize Available Data to Estimate the Hiring Cycle Length

When working with hiring managers, one of the key points that needs to be addressed in your discussions is just how long it will take in order to fill the position you’re needing to hire for. The timeframe you want the process to take may be unrealistic. Relying on solid data and having a data-driven approach to the process can not only provide realistic expectations, but it can also hold everyone involved accountable for the metric markers that need to be reached in order for the process to come to fruition.

In order to have realistic hiring expectations, look at past hiring cycles for how long they lasted. Consider how many submissions were received for similar positions. Determine just how many viable candidates were available for these previous positions. Review how long the process took from start to finish. Once you know the raw numbers with each associated step of your process, you can come up with a solid timeframe that can be expected for this new hiring cycle.

3 – Maintain a Talent Funnel

As mentioned in point one, sales funnels and hiring funnels aren’t so different from each other. In a sales funnel you need fresh leads constantly in order for the funnel to provide a steady revenue stream. You also need to have a strategy to interact with your prospects and move them down the funnel from cold to warm to hot to purchase. Similarly, you need to constantly be adding new potential hires to your funnel. You also need to interact with them along the way and not only determine their viability as a candidate, but also keep them interested in becoming a part of your organization, especially if their a candidate that seems to be a good fit.

In order to keep a Talent Funnel fresh, make sure that you regularly post engaging and informative content about your company. Creating organic traffic to your site and social media platforms not only keeps potential clientele interested, it signals to potential hiring candidates that you’re a company that has something to say and that you’re relevant in the marketplace.

4 – Utilize Your Social Media Networks

Your social media networks can be used for more than the organic content creation many companies use them for. These networks can also be used in order to find hidden gems in the market that may not be actively looking for a new opportunity, but might just be a perfect candidate for that hard to fill position that you’re desperate to get filled. Social media can shoulder much of the burden of finding new candidates for you, while the rest of your hiring team can focus on other necessary tasks and steps in the process. Translation? You can delegate finding great candidates to your social media networks.

How does that work? One of the best things in marketing, word-of-mouth, can also be utilized in your hiring process. When you have influential people who trust your company saying good things about you, and maybe even about your openings, you can bet that top talent that might not have been in the job market before but heard about your opening will start listening.

5 – Create Your Job Openings in Advance

One of the steps in the hiring process that can be a colossal time suck is the actual production and distribution of job postings. A wise person once said, “when you fail to plan, you plan to fail.” With that in mind, plan for eventual openings at your organization. Plan to have to fill even the most secure positions that you would never dream you’d need to fill. Put together job descriptions and responsibilities in advance. When a position opens, you’ll be a step ahead in the process simply by already having your job posting ready to roll.

You can use templates to get yourself started. Focus on the true core responsibilities for each position. Make sure that you’re covering your company culture as well, because ‘fit’ is something that too few people take into account when hiring.

6 – Move the Recruiting Process Along Faster with Scheduling Tools

When you’ve got your recruiting strategy streamlined, take the time to also streamline any administrative tasks that might need to be undertaken in the process. One such task you could consider is Scheduling Automation. Being able to coordinate multiple candidate schedules and the schedules of your hiring team can be an arduous process if you aren’t taking advantage of available scheduling tools.

It’s not rare to have multiple candidates active in your hiring pipeline. You may need to balance multiple schedules for multiple interviews and not having a capable tool to find available times can be a drain on your administrative resources. We’re looking for ways to speed up your hiring process, which in turn will increase your profitability. This step is not to be ignored. It’s essential to shaving crucial time off of your hiring process and freeing up the administrative time needed for it.

7 – Automation and Reminders

Much of the hiring process mirrors the sales cycle. Why? You’re selling your available position and organization to candidates, and they’re selling themselves to you too. Whether we realize it or not, hiring is sales. As such, one of the biggest ways to lose out on a sale is for you to no-show an appointment or conversely for your prospect to no-show said appointment. Automation and reminders need to be a standard part of the hiring process.

Make sure that every person involved in the hiring process, especially where interviews are concerned, is aware of every meeting they need to attend. Additionally, make sure that the where and when of the meetings/interviews are clearly communicated. Finally, make sure that regular reminders go out to everyone involved so that no one is uttering “oh no!” over a “no show”.

8 – Customize Your Interview Workflow

Interviews aren’t like snapback ball caps. One size does not fit all. Did you estimate that an interview would take 30 minutes but you booked an hour’s worth of time? Fail. Did you estimate an interview would take 30 minutes but you find you’re still speaking with your candidate an hour later? Fail. Stick to the timeframes you specify.

Also, have you overcommitted your time in the past? Booked too many interviews to the point that you can’t fit them all in? Take stock of your interview process. Determine how much time you truly need to, and can spend on each interview, and book the time accordingly.

9 – Track Your Metrics

Sumo Scheduler’s Analytics Builder can help you build customized reports to quickly track previous and upcoming interviews. You can keep track of interview cancellations and reschedules or even view the hiring process’s progress. These reports can help you with insights into how time is being used and whether it’s being used efficiently.

We previously discussed how analytical data can help to improve your hiring process. Metrics like these can provide a great foundation for setting realistic expectations for the hiring process. They can also illuminate areas of your process that can be improved.

10 – Integrate SUMO Scheduler with Your Hiring Process

We’ve discussed many ways that you can improve your hiring process. One of the easiest ways to improve it, is to integrate SUMO Scheduler with your process. SUMO’s robust platform can help you integrate virtually every step we’ve discussed from robust Calendar APIs that integrate with multiple calendar types, to Scheduling Automation and Instant Booking tools, to power Data Analytics tools.

For more information on Sumo Scheduler book a free consult with an expert!

Many businesses claim to offer excellent customer service, but only a few stand out for genuinely exceptional customer service. You’re about to find out the processes and methods some of the world’s most successful brands use to deliver above-average customer service. Before revealing those secrets, let’s answer a question you’re probably thinking about right now:

 

Why Focus On Improving Customer Service?

A significant amount of industry research has found high levels of customer service lead to more successful businesses.

• Increase Profits. A 5% increase in customer retention in financial services products more than a 25% increase in profit, according to Bain & Company. Improving the quality of customer service is one way to boost customer retention.
• Several Industries Have A Customer Service Opportunity. Several industries have low customer satisfaction scores. For example, the airline industry has a 75 score according to the American Customer Satisfaction Index. The video-on-demand industry has an average score of 68 according to the same index. As a result, companies in those industries that invest in better customer service will have an easier chance of overtaking their competitors.

 

How To Use These Customer Service Secrets

Improving customer service doesn’t have to be painful. Review these case studies from both large and small businesses and look for inspiration to adapt to your company. Remember, you can constantly adapt ideas from other industries. For example, Steve Jobs took inspiration from kitchen appliances to inform Apple’s design approach, according to Fast Company.

 

American Express: Exceptional Customer service during the COVID-19 pandemic

Delivering high-quality customer service in the good times is one thing. Sustaining outstanding service during a global pandemic is another challenge altogether. That’s why American Express is impressive.

The credit card company was the top-ranked national card issuer in the 2020 J.D. Power U.S. Credit Card Satisfaction Study. The company’s high customer service is driven by several key factors. The company offers a financial relief program to allow customers to make lower monthly payments and avoid penalties. In addition, the company committed $200 million to help hard-hit businesses through the Shop Small campaign. Finally, the company rolled out a “Freeze Card” feature on its mobile app so that customers can stop purchases if they lose track of their American Express card.

Learn from the American Express example by changing your customer service practices when times are tough for your customer. For example, look for ways to offer payment flexibility or empower them to use the product more effectively.

 

Rolex: Creating Confidence with a Service Guarantee

Rolex has a unique status as a luxury brand in the watch industry. At the low end, a pre-owned Rolex watch can sell for approximately $4000 while brand new watches have a much higher price.

Several factors contribute to the watch company’s outstanding reputation. Customer service is part of the package. First, the company offers the “Rolex guarantee: Rolex guarantees the proper functioning of its watches for five years from the date of purchase. By setting expectations upfront, the company reassures customers that their watch will stay working for years.

Rolex also stands out from the competition because it explains the Rolex servicing procedure in detail. There is less anxiety about sending a multi-thousand watch in for servicing by explaining the step-by-step customer service process.

The lesson from Rolex is two-fold. Start with the company’s customer service guarantee. If you are confident in your products’ quality, prove it by offering a multi-year guarantee. Next, think about revealing your customer service procedures to the public like Rolex. This might feel scary if you have never disclosed information like that before, but Rolex shows it can be done.

 

Hilton Wins Recognition For Its Reward Program

Maintaining high levels of customer service for travelers around the world isn’t easy. Yet, Hilton Hotels has managed to achieve just that. In 2020, the global hotel business won the FlyerTalk Awards for the second year running.  Specifically, the company earned recognition for its customer loyalty program beating dozens of competing loyalty programs. In addition, Hilton won recognition for the quality of its breakfast program.

Offering a customer loyalty or rewards program is a long-established practice. Yet, the details make a critical difference. Hilton has invested in creating a contactless digital key in its app, for example. Further, the company provided greater flexibility in reward redemption due to travel disruptions in 2020.

The customer service lesson from Hilton is simple. Take an existing part of your customer experience, like rewards, and look for ways to make those programs better for customers. Can you offer customers more choices in how and when they do business with you? Can you make your rewards and loyalty programs more flexible?

 

Disney eliminates customer service problems before they happen

Over the past year, Disney has earned attention for its highly successful Disney+ streaming service. It is helpful to keep in mind that digital services are just part of the Disney business model. Hotels, theme parks, and cruises are other critical parts of the Disney experience. Those parts of the business have customer service lessons for all of us.

Disney took a different approach to the theme park industry from the beginning. Walt Disney set a rule that guests should not have to walk more than thirty feet to a trash can. In recent years, the average distance to a trash can fell to less than thirty feet. As a result, the company ended up installing a large number of trashcans which helps the parks to improve cleanliness.

Aside from trash, the company also takes extensive measures to detect and prevent mosquitos from harassing guests in Florida. For example, the company has a mosquito surveillance program that includes surveillance chickens!

There’s much more to the Disney customer experience we haven’t touched on, but these two examples are easy to apply. Take pride in your company’s physical spaces and keep them clean. In the short term, a strong focus on cleaning can help to prevent the spread of disease.

If cleanliness is not a top concern for your business, there’s a different way to apply Disney’s customer service secret. Invest time and resources into processes and equipment that cause customer complaints or discomfort.

 

DHL wins with customer onboarding and mystery shopping

DHL operates in a highly competitive shipping and logistics market. Despite competing against well-established brands like FedEx and UPS, DHL has distinguished itself through customer service.

As of 2019, the logistics company has won eight Stevie® Awards for customer service. In particular, the company has won recognition for developing a customer onboarding program. As a result, the company has eliminated time-consuming back-and-forth emails with new customers.

DHL is also focused on improved the customer experience for its existing customers. The company uses a mystery shopping program to improve the way it quotes rates and related processes.

Thinking in terms of the entire customer lifecycle is the key lesson from DHL. Look at the processes, forms, and activities involved in onboarding a new customer. Look for ways to make that new customer experience faster or easier. Finally, consider using a mystery shopping process (i.e., calling your company and pretending to be a customer) to detect possible gaps in the experience.

 

How Agiloft wins with a 90 day satisfaction guarantee

Based in California, Agiloft offers process management software. As a smaller company, the business has to make thoughtful decisions on where to compete. For several years, the business has focused on customer service quality and won.

In 2019, the company won the 2019 Excellence in Customer Service Award from Business Intelligence Group. The company won the award by making several significant commitments in customer service. First, the company has provided a same-day response to customer inquiries that came in during business hours. Further, the business also provides a ninety-day satisfaction guarantee to customers. If a new customer is not satisfied for any reason in their first 90 days using the product, they can request a refund. Ultimately, the company has only had three refund requests out of hundreds of customers.

Some companies might feel nervous about offering a ninety-day refund guarantee. Fortunately, Agiloft shows that refund requests tend to be relatively low. If a business already has a high customer satisfaction rate, consider making a public pledge. For example, if your business has the lowest error rate in your industry, consider making a promise about your commitment to errors.

 

The One Change That Always Improves The Customer Experience

Across all of the industries and companies we’ve studied, there is one common thread that underlies most customer service improvements. Efficient, seamless customer communication makes the difference.

When customers can get answers to questions quickly, request technical support, and more without having to wait for response from customer service or navigate complicated phone queues, life is better.

How does SUMO help companies improve the customer experience? Consider the experience of one of our large customers, a multinational healthcare insurance provider with 2.9 million members. As a result, customers can make appointments with the company that suits their schedule and receive appointment reminders.

Discover how your sales and customer service can improve customer service with every customer by contacting SUMO today.

During times of crisis, service providers often struggle to connect with their customers. Many companies have recognized the significant risk that the resulting communication and customer service missteps pose to their businesses and are turning to customer engagement software platforms for a solution. Engagement tools, such as online appointment scheduling software, are helping to bridge these gaps by connecting providers and their customers via virtual, call center or in person meetings.

Online customer engagement software enables service providers to control the number of customers that attend appointments or events at their brick and mortar locations. This capability has enabled many financial, retail and healthcare businesses to remain open during the COVID 19 pandemic, while adapting to new safety protocols and ensuring that the appropriate staff resources have been assigned to meet specific customer needs.

Here are a few tips that can help you to deliver a positive customer experience in times of crisis:

1. Encourage rescheduling and pre-booking

In times of crisis, it is important to provide your customers with the option to cancel or reschedule appointments with a service provider. By doing so, you are creating an opportunity for a positive customer interaction while making it easy for them to move the appointment to a later date. This ensures that the appointment remains a priority and is not put off indefinitely. It is always a best practice to encourage customers to reschedule by waiving rescheduling fees. By doing so, you can distinguish your business as one that is considerate and understanding of its customers’ needs

2. Adjust your cancellation policy

Make your customers feel valued by sending email or message reminders about their upcoming appointments. This way, you can avoid no-shows and receive notices whenever your customers need to cancel their appointments. In addition, you can adjust your cancellation policies in cases where your customers cannot keep their appointments due to emergencies.

For example, during regular operation, your cancellation period is 7 days before the appointment date. Whereas, in times of crisis, you can adjust this cancellation period and make it even shorter to ensure that customers can cancel their appointment anytime if emergencies arise without charging them additional fees.

3. Enhance your availability across channels

Online abandonment is one of the most common complaints from customers who attempt to schedule an appointment with a service provider via their website. This problem is typically caused by a poor virtual customer support experience that fails to connect website visitors with a company resource. A recent survey performed by Statista shows that 44% of U.S customers stopped doing business with a company due to its poor customer service.

This issue is further exacerbated during times of crises when both service providers and consumers have no choice but to utilize an online booking process. By integrating customer engagement software tools such as live chat, direct call and video appointment booking into their online customer experience, businesses can overcome this challenge while improving the overall online experience for their customers. In this model, the customer who once felt lost and unsupported is a click away from talking to a live person.

4. Provide improved interaction with Automated emails and reminders

A recent survey from Statista reveals that 20% of customers interact with businesses via email. By improving email response time and content, businesses can greatly improve a customer’s experience and ensure that they remain engaged with your support team. This can be accomplished through automated email and text messaging communications that reduce the risk of missed appointments and lost opportunities for one on one connections. Furthermore, an intelligent scheduling software platform can be used to imbed a hassle free self scheduling link into emails. This puts the customer in the driver seat and encourages continued interaction with your team.

5. Offer personalized recommendations

Personalized customer service makes your customers feel valued and fosters brand loyalty. During a crisis, many people turn to the internet to conduct their business. This offers a great opportunity for savvy business owners who utilize personalized marketing campaigns in order to reach prospective buyers.

Many online browsers offer the ability to use ad words and retargeting tools in order to analyze a customer’s browsing behavior and to generate relevant ads for products and services that align with their specific interests and needs. These tools save customers time and target them at the peak moment of interest during their buying journey. Many companies use this method to advertise special rebates and promotions during a crisis in order to show support and to compel buyers to act.

How to provide a successful customer experience in times of crisis?

A customer engagement platform can help to maintain and grow your business during times of crisis. Intuitive and interactive automated communication tools can ensure success by empowering your customers to connect with your support staff in a safe, consistent and reliable manner.

When using an online customer engagement platform, consider the 5 tips outlined above to ensure the best possible customer experience and retention.

At the federal, state and local levels of government, the interactions a citizen has with a government agency is an opportunity to be shown their government understands and can meet their needs. The value a citizen perceives in an agency lies in the quality of their interactions. It can mean getting connected to the right person on the first attempt or not spending their day waiting in a line. It can trigger a positive shift in their experience.

Citizens define good customer experience in different ways. A few of those ways are service improvements, the speed of access to information or knowledgable staff and resolving complaints.

Better Experience Starts with Better Engagement

Most times, citizens are engaging with an agency because of a life event. They are looking for assistance with their retirement, an application for financial aid or accessing survivor benefits. Imagining the experience from the standpoint of the citizen and employing tactics from the private sector, such as automation and analytics can help.

Automation can help deliver real-time, relevant information with every interaction by engaging citizens in channels they prefer like self-service, chat, and social media. Appointment self-scheduling and automated meeting reminders deliver convenience and increased quality of service to the citizen. Other experiences like online check-in or front-of-line service can reduce citizen frustration and negative public opinion.

Better Engagement Drives Organizational Value

An engagement solution like SUMO helps connect functional and channel-based silos that can create roadblocks in the citizen journey. Appointment automation removes the manual burden of staff checking calendars, phone tag and other agency resources being wasted on no-shows. Online check-in and front-of-line service increase speed of service.

Data is another resource that can improve the customer experience. Government staff does not always have a full picture of the citizen or the various services and departments they have already interacted with when they encounter them. The challenge of serving citizens effectively lies in determining who the individual is and what is it that they need. Attaching important citizen data with a scheduled meeting can reduce friction, provide immediate access to a citizen’s history and help staff better understand their needs.

Many agencies using Salesforce can better utilize the data stored in the CRM platform in this manner. By being able to send out appointment information directly from a case, all citizen information is centralized, reducing the need for staff to cross-reference other sources and can deliver service quickly and effectively.

Siloed data obstructs the view of the citizen journey. Collecting and using data from these channels – service type and time spent with the citizen can help managers make informed decisions to improve service efforts. They can spend less time searching for related information to a citizen’s case and spend more time serving.

Customer Engagement Connects the Dots

Agency leaders are beginning to recognize the connection between employee and customer experience. An engagement solution can directly trigger benefits for both the agency and its citizens. A Salesforce-native engagement solution like SUMO can help government agencies at every level transform their existing processes into individualized citizen experiences across many touchpoints. Good citizen engagement is good customer engagement and it drives success internally and externally. SUMO’s platform enables agencies to speed appointments and better meet citizen needs and behaviors.