Top Technologies to Improve the Customer Experience

For managers of retail, hospitality and other customer-facing companies, developing an effective customer experience strategy is paramount to business success. Though to truly provide excellent customer service, management teams must ensure that their staff are also appropriately supported. 

Studies regularly show that happy employees are more willing to engage with customers in a meaningful way. Combine this with data indicating that 83% of consumers cite good customer service as the most important factor when making purchasing decisions and it becomes clear that employee satisfaction and customer experience share a fundamental connection. 

With the right technology, modern management teams can assess these metrics far more accurately than ever before, helping businesses to adjust training programs and policies to improve both employee and customer experiences. Read on as we discuss the top technologies to improve customer and employee satisfaction for your business.

Digital Customer Satisfaction Surveys

To ensure that management teams and employees are able to address their customer’s most pressing concerns, it makes sense to request direct feedback in the form of wellness verification and customer satisfaction surveys. Research suggests that 96% of unhappy customers will not complain of their own accord, so direct feedback will often be the best way to gauge customer opinions.  

With modern technology, businesses can create quick, simple and non-invasive surveys for customers to fill out at their own pace using their own smart devices. 

An effective way to do this is to place QR codes around a store or premises in high-traffic areas like checkouts and waiting rooms, or attached to receipts, menus and services lists. Customers can then use these codes to access a digital survey with questions designed to produce actionable feedback. Offer rewards such as discount codes and store-specific prize raffles to incentivise participation.  

Regularly performing customer feedback surveys can help employees improve within their own roles in response to the needs of their specific customers, ultimately leading to a more positive environment for guests and staff. However, to ensure that surveys aren’t poorly received, consider these best practises: 

• Keep the survey short – A good survey should take around 5-10 minutes to complete 
• Use open-ended questions – Doing so will allow customers to provide unique feedback 
• Avoid loaded questions – Don't imply responses by claiming your own products / services to be great
•  Use consistent rating scales – If some answers are presented as part of a scale, such as 1-5 strongly agree or disagree, make sure these scales remain consistent

Appointment Booking Software

Whether you're a retailer, a restaurateur or a service provider, the chances are that meetings between managers, employees, customers and suppliers will be fairly regular occurrences. Though it may seem straightforward to settle on a time and place best suited to both parties when arranging such meetings, it’s not uncommon for business to make a few glaring appointment scheduling mistakes. 

To help teams avoid these common issues, implement a bespoke appointment booking system with features that optimise efficiency for staff  and offer a range of options to improve the customer experience. It’s estimated that 70% of consumers prefer to book appointments online, with 94% claiming they’d seek a new service provider if they were no online booking options - therefore it’s essential your system includes online booking options, with easy integration to your digital channels such as websites and social media.

Additionally, 81% of consumers say they’d prefer companies to provide more self-service options to help create a more intuitive customer journey, such as browsing and buying products online or managing and booking appointments entirely through digital channels. 

By implementing dedicated appointment booking software with a business’ existing website, customers are able to self-schedule appointments for a time that suits both parties, with no need for staff to be involved in back and forth communications to confirm availability. Choosing a platform like TIMIFY with an integrated calendar is ideal, as all bookings are automatically synchronized across existing calendar resources, locations and online platforms.

Smart appointment scheduling software can also be configured to provide omni-channel booking support, allowing businesses to host the same scheduling platform across multiple social media channels and websites. This ensures that customers can use whichever platform they find most convenient - and even move between platforms during the customer journey - while the system will consolidate data insights from every channel into one database, assisting in wider aspects of the business’ marketing and outreach policies to improve customer service.

Convenient Entry with Access Control Technology

For business owners managing a high level of  customer and/or employees accessing their  properties on a daily basis, it is worth considering the benefits of touchless access control systems. Using cloud-based technology, these frictionless physical security systems can offer a more convenient way for employees and guests to enter business locations whilst ensuring that intruders are denied access. 

Typical access control systems operate using key cards or fobs, though physical credentials like these can be easily lost and are often expensive to replace. Touchless systems allow teams to issue digital access credentials directly to users’ smart devices, with all relevant permission data stored in a bespoke application. 

Touchless access control systems are ideal for use in leisure and hospitality locations such as gyms, hotels and sports centers, as the credential system can be integrated alongside existing apps and web services, allowing guests to book specific facilities and have their permissions instantly updated in-app.

Operating such a network reduces the need for on-site employees to manage reception desks and booking systems, helping to ease staff workloads and in turn allowing more time spent on  personalized customer service and customer requests. Additionally, users will be granted more freedom to access facilities at their own leisure, promoting user convenience. 

Here’s what everyday building access can look like with a touchless access control system: 

• Touchless entry – Staff and customers will no longer need to constantly touch  surfaces like door handles and buttons, aiding hygiene at your premises. Instead users can enter the premises by simply holding phone to a reader 
• Reduced wait times – If a customer has booked an appointment online and their credentials have been updated with this information, they’ll be able to enter the property as soon as they arrive without needing to request access or fill out any time-consuming paperwork 
• Security integrations – Access control devices can be connected to existing security systems like ONVIF security cameras and alarms to ensure that all active systems can be viewed and adjusted from a single unified platform for improved convenience and security 

Summary

By investing in smart technologies and taking the time to implement customer feedback into daily operations, modern business owners can dramatically improve both the employee and customer experience. Providing customers with more self-service options, a greater degree of control over appointments and a more convenient way to access facilities will generally lead to a more positive business environment, encouraging repeat customers, good reviews and glowing recommendations.