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Big Data. Targeted Advertising. Unless you’ve been living completely off the grid, it’s pretty likely that you’ve heard one or both of these phrases being thrown about. It all sounds like it’s coming straight from George Orwell’s “1984”, the idea of computer programs tracking our every move and marketers taking advantage of the data to increase their reach!
If you’re on Facebook, the chances are high that you’ve been on the receiving end of targeted advertising. Your browser history, the direct record of your cyber behavior and all of the virtual steps you’ve taken, along with a few other key details are all that companies who advertise on Facebook need to make this happen.
A few weeks ago, a co-worker and I were talking about a SaaS company that launched an intriguing product. We both searched Google for the product and subsequently visited the companies website to learn more about the product. The next thing I know, the very next time I opened a new browser window, there are online ads everywhere for the product that I’d been learning about. All it took was a single Google search for this business to target advertising towards me, a prospective customer.
Now it’s your turn. Think about your Internet browsing history. Just from the last hour. Now you can understand why you’re seeing ads for everything you’ve been looking at. Imagine the possibilities!
The beauty of technology is that it has made online customer support an extremely smooth process. In comparison, support via the telephone (a more traditional method used by support agents previously) seems clunky and open to missteps and errors, not to mention the potential for a loss of data related to the customers and their transactions. This is where customer support platforms, like HappyFox, have a huge opportunity to score big and help their customers out.
Automated assignment based on context
As far as HappyFox is concerned, the solution to leveraging big data is simple. There is built-in functionality that channels customers into groups, based on categories set by the system administrator. Categories like new customer, high-value customer, overseas customer, and so on. HappyFox also has the ability to add custom fields and tags to individual customers, and it can integrate with external data sources into customer support operations.
For example, let’s say that you are a business owner and a long-term customer of a software company that uses HappyFox for their customer support needs. You have learned about a new product update and want to try it out, but are unsure of how to get started. You submit an email to the support team, and now the process starts. With HappyFox, the system is able to see that you have worked with a specific customer service agent on previous tickets. As a result, you can be linked with that person with whom you already have a relationship. Right off the bat, HappyFox has allowed the business to remove the awkward steps of a random agent trying to build a rapport with a customer who they have no connection with.
This added level of comfort is really priceless for a business owner. This is because it lets the customer know that the business is keeping their happiness in mind, by allowing them to work with the same people. Familiarity is never a bad thing in the customer support world. If you’ve spent a lot of time with customer service agent Fred, and you like working with him when it comes to updating or fixing your product, it should absolutely be a priority for the business to continue to have Fred build a relationship with you.
Why would a business do this? There are several reasons, the first being that sometimes it can cost between 4-10 times more to acquire a new customer than to keep a current customer. Secondly, it’s simply good business to do your best to offer support, help, and fixes to your customers.
Luckily for us in the Saas arena, that extra bit of magic, thanks to some well thought out inclusions in our application are all that is needed to successfully implement what might take a call centre a few extra hoops.
Luckily for anyone in the support portion of a business, there is HappyFox. The application is well thought-out, with modules and functionality that users may not have even realized they needed.
Pass The Notes
So your product update went great, thanks to the help of support agent Fred. Now, as a result of some strategic company growth, you are planning to expand the business’ needs from its software supplier and you need to add a lot of new functionalities. But there’s a slight hitch to your plan: Fred is not available to help you with what you need.
Trying not to panic, you think “well, who’s going to help me now?”
Fortunately for you, while Fred might not be available, your software provider is still using HappyFox. Within the HappyFox system, everything related to your account (ticket histories, notes, etc.) is accessible to the support staff. This means that every single time that you and Fred had an interaction, or even in previous instances when Fred was unavailable, there is a trail of data and information that is visible to anyone who will be providing support. So while it’s a shame that Fred can’t help you with what you need, his backup Hannah can quickly and easily slip into helping you and getting you everything you need. You won’t lose a step!
Big Data + Happy Fox = Happy Customers
“[Henry] Ford and [Steve] Jobs knew their customers better than the customers knew themselves… when you do that, too, you won’t fall into the trap of giving your customers whatever they ask for; you’ll know what is needed to get them to their Desired Outcome and deliver that,” said Lincoln Murphy of Gainsight.
Today, it isn’t enough to give our customers what they are looking for. Not anymore. We need to be a few steps ahead. Thanks to predictive analysis, we can now go where few have gone before.
Today, it isn’t enough to just give our customers what they are looking for. Now, businesses need to be several steps ahead and need to be planning out ways to over-deliver to their customers. Thanks to big data and predictive analysis, businesses can now go where few had gone before.
So what does the future hold for big data, predictive analysis, and targeted advertising?
Craig Borowski, Market Researcher at Software Advice who recently published an article on using big data to improve call routing said, “companies that adopt agile CRM methods and share their data efficiently between their own internal departments (marketing, sales, service) will realize more of Big Data’s potential. And rather than struggling to meet rising consumer expectations, they’ll be leading them. Not only will they add more value to more customer interactions, they’ll also add value and competitive advantage to their day-to-day business operations.”
With HappyFox, see how you can take your business’ version of Big Data and use it to every advantage. Schedule your one-on-one live demo today!
Do you have any other insights as to how Big Data can be leveraged via customer service? Share with us in the comments section below!
