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Introduction
PCC (Programmable Contact Center) has gone under the radar for some time and only garnered public attention a few years back, particularly in Asian countries.
Despite its late arrival, this innovative approach has quickly caught up with the current trends and is now considered the formula of success by both small and large-scale organizations. As a result, thousands of enterprises strive to learn how to use PCC API in the customer journey, an issue we will extensively cover in the guidelines below.
What Is A Customer Journey? The Six Main Stages
Mapping out the customer’s touchpoints is crucial to success.
Before our team discusses the more complex aspects of PCC API, it is important to understand what a customer journey map encompasses.
What Is A Customer Journey?
In simpler terms, it introduces a visual map of every interaction between the customer and a particular product, brand, or service. This timeline is laid out from the first moment this customer hears of your brand (through advertisements or social media) to their interactions with your support team and website. Specific customer actions aimed at a particular goal will also be fully covered in the map.
This information sheds light on the customer’s demands/ thought processes and serves as the solid groundwork for future adjustments regarding your business strategy and marketing. Your customers will have a better, more satisfying experience as a result, which benefits the business in the long run.
The Main Stages
There might be slight variations among customer journey models of different brands. However, the common main stages should be as follows:
Stage 1. Awareness
At this stage, the customer first becomes aware of your product/service through advertising, social media, word-of-mouth, or organic search. They try to gather information about your organization, what it offers, and whether those offerings are relevant to their needs.
Stage 2. Consideration
Now fully aware, the customer starts considering your offering as a potential solution. To convince themselves that your brand is the best choice, they will evaluate its value proposition through review research or comparison with other options.
Stage 3. Decision
The customer now has to decide whether to purchase from you; they might sign up for a free trial, subscribe to a service, etc. How your brand addresses their concerns can make a huge difference at this stage.
Stage 4. Purchase
Finally, here comes the actual product purchase from your customer. Consider offering them various payment options or optimizing the checkout process, as they ensure a smoother experience for the client and increase your conversion rates.
Stage 5. Retention
The journey does not end after the purchase. You should strive to keep the customer happy and engaged so they will return to your service for more. Personalized recommendations, reward programs, excellent customer support, etc., are always the golden rules.
Many brands disregard this stage, which translates to a much lower customer retention rate. It’s evident in the age-old debate between retaining existing customers and seeking new ones that retention should take precedence over acquisition. And customer service is the anchor throughout this journey.
Stage 6. Advocacy
In the best scenario, satisfied customers eventually become advocates for your brand. How so? They will recommend your services to others, write encouraging feedback on your website, or even expose smear campaigns or baseless rumors on your behalf. With this organic growth, your brand reputation will undoubtedly strengthen over time.
How to Use PCC API in Customer Journey
Businesses should integrate the PCC API every step of the way.
The notions of customer journey and PCC API are quite straightforward. However, integrating these two concepts effectively for sales increase is another more complex story.
Below is our general guide, though note that due adjustments are required for different companies and business sectors:
Stage 1. Awareness
APIs can integrate customer data from segment audiences and platforms, an advantage you should leverage to create more personalized campaigns.
Younger demographics, for instance, prefer social media messages, while some older users lean more into emails or SMS blasts. Interactive chatbots that can answer basic questions about the brand are also crucial.
Fortunately, with PCC APIs, any brand should be able to develop simple AI-powered chatbots with 24/7 engagement for their landing pages or websites. Some businesses take their marketing plans further using voice-based virtual assistants, which guide potential customers through product demos.
Stage 2. Consideration
As mentioned, PCC APIs offer incredible insights into customer preferences. Based on this information, you could tailor the website content or product recommendations to the customer’s experience.
For specific website activities or abandoned carts, consider automated text messages or calls that can remind customers about the products they are interested in. Omni-channel solutions like StringeeX even offer text-to-speech technology and MP3 file support to streamline this process for you.
Stage 3. Decision
Many businesses integrate customer sentiment analysis into calls and chats through PCC APIs - an excellent strategy that allows agents to identify potential concerns/objections immediately during the decision phase.
Furthermore, the ACD (Automatic Call Distribution) in software like StringeeX helps assign clients to different agents based on their persuasion skills, locations, and current workloads. (e.g., are they free, or do they have to deal with other clients at the time as well?). This ensures customer issues are properly addressed and taken care of.
If necessary, you may even tailor pricing or payment options according to the customer’s data or purchase history.
Stage 4. Purchase
Keeping customers informed and engaged throughout the process is key to smooth customer experiences. PCC APIs once again prove their irreplaceable roles here, smart tools that you can use to automate order confirmations, shipping updates, tracking information, etc.
The same applies to payment gateways and prevention tools. When aided by a streamlined, convenient checkout process, your customer will unlikely abandon their purchases mid-way.
Similarly, post-purchase service should not be overlooked; use PCC APIs to trigger feedback requests or automated surveys shortly after purchase. You can also create personalized thank-you messages or recommendations for related products to encourage repeat purchases.
Stage 5. Retention
Your business should be able to identify at-risk customers before they eventually leave for other options in the marketplace. In recent years, thanks to features like support tickets, usage patterns, etc., offered by PCC APIs, this task has become much easier than it used to be.
On another note, social media can be a breeding ground for early warning signs of churn. Mentions of competitors, complaints about product or service issues, or declining engagement on brand pages can all indicate potential risks.
Therefore, monitoring Facebook, Twitter, emails, etc., through one unified PCC API allows you to interfere on time before customers’ negative feelings escalate.
With StringeeX, you can now integrate all these platforms into one single interface easily. Agents make and receive phone calls to and from different platforms in an instant, all recorded on one interface for easier tracking.
You can also keep tabs on the duration of each call, categorize customer data into groups based on filters (e.g., loyal vs. at-risk clients), and note down important parts of the conversations to ensure other agents and employees are well-informed.
And that is not all; automated information storage is probably the best part of StringeeX. When agents contact a client a second time via this app, all the client’s existing information and previous notes from the first phone call will promptly appear on the interface.
This feature allows both parties to get straight to the point, saving the client from built-up frustration and wasted time.
Apart from customer service, remember to send out target content, surveys, and promotional offers relevant to individual customer preferences. Most importantly, you should integrate your loyalty program into the website, using APIs to reward customer engagement or provide exclusive offers when the time calls for it. Customer experience management proves significant at this stage.
Stage 6. Advocacy
Automating referral programs or incentives for loyal customers is quite a breeze using updated PCC APIs. They also play a crucial role in monitoring customer inquiries or brand mentions on social media platforms; that way, you can instantly respond to their concerns and turn potential advocates into vocal supporters.
And that is not all; some brands even rely on these APIs to reach out to satisfied customers and request video testimonials/written reviews. One instance is Uber, which constantly includes customers' record testimonials in its well-received advertisements and marketing campaigns.
Extra Tips You Might Have Missed
- Implementing APIs solely for internal metrics or automation without considering user experience is a deadly yet quite common mistake. Make sure these APIs can address genuine user needs within the journey.
- Avoid bombarding your potential customers with excessive API-based notifications or recommendations. They will be quite overwhelming, not to mention intrusive.
- Contextual relevance is key; do not recommend winter boots in summer based on the customer’s past purchases. Instead, you should utilize both dynamic data and user behavior to tailor the API outputs more appropriately to the current context.
Conclusion
Given the diverse platforms and customer demographics, using PCC API in the customer journey has become integral to most business marketing plans.
However, to avoid potential backfires, try to strike a good balance between personalization and respect for user preferences. And remember, technical automation is only part of the journey; genuine empathy for customers’ struggles will always remain an irreplaceable element of successful marketing.
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