The Importance of Keeping Customers Updated

According to recent research, three out of four customers feel angry when they don’t receive any follow-up communication after chasing for an update on their complaint. When you consider that almost half (46%) of customers questioned said they had to chase at least once for an update having lodged a complaint, that equates to a lot of angry customers out there.

Without a doubt, customers who are kept informed throughout the complaints process feel more positive about their complaints experience, reassured that not only is action being taken, but that they’re being listened to and taken seriously. Additionally, customers are 19% more likely to remain as customers if they don’t have to chase for an update.

Requesting updates might be annoying and time-consuming for customers, but fielding these requests for updates is time-consuming and costly for your business too, requiring teams to receive and (hopefully) respond to your customer queries.

So, what’s the answer? Well, in short, proactive customer updates are key.

The Need for Proactive Updates

The aforementioned research found that only 56% of businesses always send proactive updates. Where these updates are received daily, 69% of customers don’t feel the need to chase at all. But, if these updates are only sent out weekly, 58% of customers follow-up at least once, with 17% chasing for updates on numerous occasions.

In light of this, more businesses are turning to automated updates. This approach represents a low-cost solution, which ensures regular, on-brand, on-message and customer-relevant updates are sent out without taking up your precious resources and, most importantly, meaning customers don’t have to chase for updates.

Fewer Errors, Increased Customer Satisfaction

Manual updates can be time-consuming and costly, not to mention liable to inconsistency of message, tone and brand as they might not be standardised. They’re also at higher risk of human error, with simple typos or slips of the tongue potentially making a bad situation even worse, and adding to the already often heavy workloads of frontline complaint teams.

But to ensure any automated updates are accurate and consistent, you need the right systems in place to not only send out the communications, but to centrally gather and process the data needed to provide the updates, be it via SMS, email or letter. Disparate spreadsheets and systems deliver fragmented, incomplete information to customers AND complaint handlers, thwarting any efforts to update customers regularly and accurately. The right systems will ensure the right information is available to the right people, in the right format, at the right time—paving the way for timely updates sent out to your customers.

Intuitive Complaint Management Solutions

This is why more businesses are turning to intuitive complaint management systems for help. The right solution can conform to your existing workflows, triggering the right automated update for a specific customer. And, it will be carried out within the parameters of your customer’s preferred communication method.

The intuitive part comes into play with a drop-down list or menu of the next course of action for the frontline complaint handler. This can also specify what data is needed in what format to ensure consistency and accuracy of correspondence. You can then put in motion a series of updates that accompany the customer throughout their complaint journey, automatically keeping them in-the-loop with everything you’re doing to resolve their complaint at every step of the way. The best complaint management solutions will also flag-up any need for human intervention, for example, in those situations where only a phone call will do.

If your business is going to provide timely, accurate updates to customers throughout their complaints journeys, you need the infrastructure in place to do this. Not only can the right system take care of the actual updating of customers, it can make sure that the information that goes into the updates is accurate, timely and consistent.

While no one can deny the effectiveness of a human touch when it comes to managing complaints, in reality, automated updates, if done well, have a major role to play in ensuring effective outcomes for your customers and your business too. With an industry-leading complaints management solution, you can keep costs down and free-up frontline staff to add real value to each and every customer interaction. Are you ready?

For more information on how our complaints management software, Aptean Respond, can underpin consistent, effective and proactive customer updates, contact us today.