A couple of months ago, while on vacation, I was awoken on the last day of my trip by Delta Airlines, telling me that my 4:00pm flight had been cancelled, and I had been automatically rebooked for a flight the next day. I sprang out of bed, got hold of an agent and started figuring out how I could get home that same day, rather than waiting for the flight the next day.
I had a lot of time to think about the service the airline provided on my three separate flights to get home, and I have to say, I was impressed. I had a very important event the next day that I couldn't miss, and if I had arrived at the airport at 3:00pm to learn that the flight had been cancelled, I definitely would have been stuck.
Proactive communications is the next big thing in customer service for a reason - it can often solve a customer's problem before they even know they have one. But before you can start, you need to lay the groundwork:
- Identify use cases for outbound customer care in your organization.
- Analyze your reporting dashboards for trends.
- Prioritize.
- Choose your channel.
- Determine staffing requirements if any.
- Designate a person or team to track the success of each campaign.
If you want to learn more, read the article in Contact Professional by our own Jim Tanner, EVP of Product and Strategy, where he elaborates on each of these points.
