Viewpoint: How mobile technologies are transforming customer service

A great paradox of today’s business world is that while many businesses openly trumpet the fact that the customer is their number one priority, customer service has probably never been worse.

With some organisations, it’s almost impossible to talk to a human anymore; instead we are sucked into their labyrinthine automated answering service where we may or may not get the answer we want 10, 20 or even 30 minutes later. The same applies to e-commerce sites. Yes, many of them are a pleasure to use and offer great value and service – until, that is, something goes wrong and then the email ping-pong begins…

But it’s not all doom and gloom. As a growing number of organisations are discovering, there is a way to boost customer service levels without incurring massive cost or increasing headcount. It won’t come as any surprise to learn that the answer has to do with mobile technology. 

From a commercial perspective, mobile technology is usually identified with marketing, using the likes of text-to-win competitions to drive sales, create awareness and build market share. 

Increasingly, though, mobile is being used to attend to that other crucial aspect of the customer relationship – customer service. A growing range of brands and organisations – commercial and not-for-profit alike – are using mobile tech to strengthen the bond with their customers. The most obvious manifestation of this is the recent proliferation of clever and useful apps for customers. 

Meteor recently developed a handy Android app to allow customers to manage their accounts. They can use this to perform a range of quick tasks on their mobile handsets such as checking their data usage and calling up bill summaries. 

 SMEs are also getting in on the act. For example, Eumom, the parenting and pregnancy website, has just launched an iPhone app which allows mothers-to-be to track their baby’s development week by week and a lot more besides. 

But it’s not just apps. SMS is also being used to drive up customer service.  Many companies have built up large opt-in databases of customer numbers, which allow them to communicate useful offers and information. For example, anyone who has taken their car for an NCT recently will remember receiving a reminder text a few days before the appointment. 

What all these apps and SMS services have in common (apart from the fact they have been developed by Púca) is that they are free. The company is making no attempt to ‘monetise’ its service; instead, it is being positioned as a value-add to customers. They are a softly-softly but highly effective way of cementing the bond between brand and customer. 

As a strategy it makes sense because, with consumers becoming ever more fickle and price sensitive, business owners need to find ways to hold on to customers. And as any CRM professional will tell you, customer retention is where it’s at these days. Recruiting new customers is such an expensive business; it makes much more sense to try first of all to hold on to the ones you have already. 

More and more businesses are waking up to the fact that mobile technology can help you do that. 

Contact us to find out more.