What is proactive customer care?
Question
What is proactive customer care?
Answer
DMG Consulting defines proactive customer care (PCC) as “a business strategy that makes the lives of consumers, partners, constituents or employees better and easier by addressing issues before a problem or need arises. PCC enables organizations to identify and pre-emptively address customer needs, and preventively avert customer difficulties by sending pertinent messages or other communications to customers and other interested parties who have opted to receive them, at the most advantageous time.” PCC facilitates multi-channel outreach that puts customer concerns at the forefront while driving desired business results.
Proactive customer care is an important part of the customer journey because it can influence, shape and enhance each customer’s experience with the organization. PCC is tied into customer preferences, behaviors and patterns, and it promotes meaningful engagement that remains relevant throughout the customer lifecycle. PCC enables companies of all sizes, from mom–and-pop businesses and doctors’ offices to large multinational enterprises, to cost effectively automate routine, important and time-sensitive communications. Applications of PCC outreach span everything from welcome calls and appointment or service reminders to point-of-sale discount coupons. Also common are vertical-specific applications for regulatory-compliant collections, healthcare and financial services contacts, or emergency announcements for local government, weather services or utilities. These notifications serve as reminders, set expectations, and provide important and timely information They reduce customer effort and alleviate customer concerns while building high levels of loyalty and satisfaction. Moreover, PCC is a highly profitable activity that can reduce operating costs and increase revenue. PCC is highly effective at kicking off and automating processes that impact profit and loss, e.g., fraud alerts, payments, collections, renewals, reorders, etc.
Many categories of vendors offer PCC functionality as a component of their offering. PCC is a standard feature of many outbound solutions, and is offered as an option module by automatic call distributor (ACD) and interactive voice response (IVR) vendors. It is also sold by carriers, outsourcers and professional services firms.
