Two-thirds of customers contact customer service after receiving proactive outreach from a brand, often using costly assisted channels because they needed additional information or confirmation. This flawed approach to proactive customer service can create customer confusion and unanswered questions that erode the benefits of a proactive strategy.
The findings show that proactive service creates a better customer experience for B2C and B2B customers. Respondents who received proactive service reported better customer effort scores compared to those who did not.
However, the survey findings also revealed that rather than resolving the issue on their own or taking no action, 66% of B2C and 82% of B2B customers contact the company after receiving proactive outreach.
“Receiving proactive service leads to a 9% increase in a customer’s value enhancement score,” said Eric Keller, senior research director in the Gartner Customer Service & Support practice.
“However, proactive outreach that raises unanswered questions erodes the benefits for customers and leads to additional costs for the company. To avoid this, customer service and support leaders must centre their proactive approach around building customers’ confidence in the company’s ability to serve them effectively.”
Eric Keller
Action items for customer service
Use proactive outreach to build confidence in the company’s ability to resolve service issues. Among different elements of proactive outreach tested, instilling confidence, and providing clear directions had the most impact on reducing customer effort. Confidence in the authenticity of the message is important – 10% of BC2 customers and 24% of B2B customers followed up with the company simply to confirm the outreach wasn’t a scam.
Prioritize proactive outreach for urgent issues. Customers value proactive outreach when it alerts them to urgent issues that need their attention. Customers who received outreach about issues they saw as urgent (for example, a credit fraud notification) reported better customer effort scores compared to customers who discovered the issue on their own.
Prepare for additional contacts after proactive outreach by considering the timing and dynamically adjusting the interactive voice response (IVR). If an uptick in customer phone calls after proactive outreach is likely and intended, time messages to coincide with low call volume periods.
Also, consider dynamically adjusting the IVR to identify callers who received proactive outreach, prompt them with a few options if their call is related to that outreach, and attempt to resolve their issue without sending them to an agent.
