3 bolts of wisdom for lightning-fast customer response times

You have a flight to catch and your ride arrives late.  

You’re visibly panicking but the driver drives nonchalantly and won’t even turn the radio down.   

You barely catch your flight. You are already stressed out and angry. So, you call the rideshare's customer service as the plane prepares to take off.   

10 minutes of a bad music track later, you hang up, realizing their "service" in customer service is non-existent. 

If you were in charge, things would be different, right?  

Hey, wait, maybe you are kind of in charge of making customers happier?

Bolt #1 — Listen like you just got your hearing back for the first time 

If it were your first time being able to hear, wouldn’t you pay attention to and absorb every sound with a joyful awareness?  

That’s how different the experience can be with your customers. 

• Listen, even in the silence, to how happy (or unhappy) they are — on all social channels 

• Filter the noise online to focus on what truly matters to your customers 

• Design  self-help portals like AI-driven FAQ chatbots, help centers and knowledge bases 

• Launch a community where customers are empowered to help each other 

Let’s put this into perspective.  Imagine you’re an e-commerce store owner and you want to know how your customers feel about your brand.  

• One user tweets: “[Your store’s] WINTER SALE IS ON! So much out there, but I don’t really know how to find the best deals. LOL!” 

• Another user makes a TikTok: “Today I’m gonna show you how I choose outfits to get the best deals on [your store’s] winter sale!” 

Seems like your customers are confused and don’t really know how to make the best out of your annual sale.  

You might be thinking “Aksheeta, you can’t conclude that with what you heard from just two people!” 

Let me blow your mind, friend. 

Sprinklr Intuition™ can help you find out exactly what customers love and don’t. You can control your brand’s narrative by building solutions your customers demand — explicitly AND implicitly.  

With Sprinklr AI, comb through not just two but millions of positive and negative social mentions across 30+ channels to unfurl actionable insights — helping you simplify your customer's life. Who doesn't like that? 

Bolt #2 — Don’t let conversations turn into chaos 

I know it’s exasperating to sift through a tsunami of tickets and get to everyone in time. 

But are all your incoming requests equally urgent? 

I’m sure you don’t want to leave anyone behind.  

Categorizing your tickets will de-stress your agent's and customer's day.  

• Time-effort: how quickly can you close a ticket 

• Complexity: the level of expertise needed to resolve 

• Severity: tickets that affect revenue, compliance, security and reputation 

How does doing this help you though? Well, it empowers you to:  

• filter high-priority, time-sensitive problems first 

• dissolve and prevent a queue of angry customers 

• avert potential PR crises and alarming escalations 

Now, what would you do if you were confronted with this dilemma? 

Say, your online electronic store is booming. Among many users, Sarah and Kevin have things they need help with. 

Sarah asks, “When will you restock Dyson Airwraps?” 

Kevin goes, “My order failed and you guys took $750 from me!” 

You’d probably choose to get to Kevin first. His problem will take more time to resolve and is likely to have a severe impact if not resolved quickly. If you choose to attend to it later, the pressing issue might demand more from your team at the eleventh hour — which will delay response times for other customers in the queue.  

And you don’t want to go viral for angering a customer who thinks he lost $750! 

Bolt #3 — Empower your agents to lead conversations

Isn’t it enraging when you have to repeat yourself to multiple reps? Turns out, five in 10 customers feel the same way.  

And it's demoralizing and fatiguing to agents.  

• Your customers want a perceptive solution —  fix the immediate problem and underlying issue 

• Your new-gen agent wants a 360° customer view to give customers the most effective, relevant answer 

How does this work?  Imagine you are a bank. Sarah is your customer. She wants a loan. And she:  

• Clicks on a relevant marketing email 

• Visits your website and calls you 

On the other end, agent Isabella wants to wow Sarah. So, she pulls up her unified profile — and makes a discovery.  

(Confetti blows up) 

The agent can see and empathize with Sarah because it's now clear that  

• Sarah asked about loans with specific features on Reddit 

• She engaged with the bank's promotional WhatsApp messages 

Sarah didn’t have to repeat herself because agent Isabella knew exactly what Sarah wanted — all ready to help her quickly and accurately. 

Now, that’s a unified experience that makes customers happier — who eagerly tell others about the awesome customer service!

Bonus bolt: Speed without The Big "R" won't make customers happier

The Big R: Relevant.  

Just being speedy is not enough. Customers want you to understand and act on what is relevant to them, their situation and their life. 

So having a unified solution that empowers you to be both fast and relevant is your perfect path to happier, loyal and forgiving customers.  

An easy support experience will make 94% of customers buy again from you. They want businesses like yours to not only answer questions they are asking — but the ones they aren’t. 

Want other ways to speed up your resolutions and retain more customers? We’ve covered it all for you  in the e-book "5 Ways to Improve Customer Response Times — and Your Bottom Line.” 

5 Ways to Improve Customer Response Times — and Your Bottom Line

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