Why You Should Invest in Preemptive Customer Service

An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

Benjamin Franklin’s wise words ring true for customer service as well as for health. Customer service quality often makes or breaks customer experience, creating loyal customers or sending them packing.  A PwC survey revealed that 32% of survey respondents who stopped using or buying from a business did so because of a bad experience with customer service. According to the 2022 State of Customer Churn in Telecom report, customer loyalty to telecom providers is down 22% post-pandemic due to poor customer experience, with 21% of consumers switching providers after a single poor service experience.

Businesses need to prioritize exceptional customer service. Delivering preemptive customer service is a valuable strategy to boost customer satisfaction and loyalty and reduce contact center calls, ultimately resulting in long term growth for an organization.

Preemptive Customer Service Stops Problems Before They Start

What Does Preemptive Customer Service Look Like?

What are some examples of preemptive customer service?

Service outage notifications. Utility companies or communication service providers can prevent problems by notifying customers—before the fact—of planned maintenance that may impact service. For example, one CSP gave customers a heads-up that a technician would be working on the cell tower in their neighborhood on a particular date, possibly disrupting wireless service. That advance warning gave customers time to plan accordingly (e.g., work at the office or another location instead of at home). Preemptive service prevented the stress and frustration that would have occurred if the customer discovered the lack of coverage five minutes before a client call.

Multi-channel billing notifications. Sending bills or payment reminders via multiple communication channels (such as mail, email, SMS)—particularly by the customer’s preferred channel—increases the likelihood of on-time payment. This in turn prevents customer frustration and the expense associated with collections. For example, if a patient misses an email indicating they owe money for a recent medical procedure, the next communication they receive may be from the collection agency. If the hospital billing department sent a payment reminder by text message (the patient’s preferred channel), the patient would be more likely to pay the bill promptly, preventing stress and late fees. And the business would avoid the expense of utilizing a collection agency.

Fraud detection. Sending an immediate notification regarding suspicious charges on a customer’s credit card—before the customer is aware of them—prevents additional fraudulent activity. A simple text message saying “We see a charge for a $2500 massage chair. Did you make this purchase?” gives the customer an opportunity to confirm the charge or initiate fraud procedures right away, before the bad actor spends more money. Without this warning, the customer may not realize there’s a problem until their credit card is declined at the gas pump.

How can you deliver preemptive customer service?

To deliver preemptive customer service, you need the ability to anticipate customer needs and pivot accordingly. Real-time event detection is crucial, enabling you to observe customer interactions with your brand and adjust communications to meet those needs—sometimes before customers are aware of them.

What makes this magic happen?

See What Customers Need Before They Do: Preemptive Service Through Journey Orchestration

Customer journey orchestration. Customer journey orchestration (CJO) refers to using real-time customer data to analyze current behavior, predict future behavior, and send the right messages at the right time via the customer’s preferred communication channel. Customer journey orchestration allows you to guide customers’ behavior, adjusting the experience in real time to help the customer achieve the desired outcome.

A journey orchestration system acts as an air traffic controller for all communications to prevent sending conflicting messages—or sending marketing messages at the wrong time. For example, someone who signed a contract for a wireless/internet bundle doesn’t want to receive an email the next day promoting a better deal on that same bundle.

The STAR Approach to Stellar Customer Service

Journey orchestration is all about signals—detecting, interpreting, and acting on them. To get journey orchestration right, CX teams must be able to See, Think, Act and React. By noticing that a customer’s data usage has recently increased (coming close to exceeding the wireless plan’s data limit), the JO system recommends an unlimited data plan. This preemptive approach prevents the customer from incurring future overage charges.