Blog

Customers can make or break a business. And any business paying more attention to only making money instead of improving customer experience will find it hard to retain customers. Customer experience becomes even more important when you’re an international business working with customers and clients spread across the globe.

Here we discuss the importance of customer experience and creating a global CX strategy for your business’ global customer support system.

What is Customer Experience (CX) Strategy? And Why Do You Need One Globally?

Customer experience (CX) covers almost every aspect of a business’ offering such as product features and services, customer care and support, product marketing, packaging and shipping, reliability, and more.

Another way to think of CX is the experience and interaction a customer goes through when connecting with your company; whether they are researching for a new product or making a purchase or getting support.

A good customer experience means that customers were satisfied with your business or product. And these satisfied customers are likely to remain loyal to your brand and also recommend it to others. A bad experience will lead to fallouts, cancellations, returns, and ultimately lower sales.

Therefore, developing a strong customer experience strategy can prove crucial to the success of your international business.

What is the Goal of Customer Experience?

Before you start to create a CX strategy for global customer support, you need to determine what the goals are for your particular business. In other words, what CX objectives do you want to accomplish? A customer experience strategy can help you achieve core business and customer experience goals when executed well. Here are some CX goals to consider:

A) Business goals may include:

B) CX goals may include:

• Including new features and tools
• Collaborating with other companies that customers use regularly (think: integrations)
• Giving customers self-service options
• Improving responsiveness and reliability
• Preparing for different buyer personas and profiles (remember: not all customers have the same views, and even customers with similar demographics may not have the same experience)

This being said, the main role of a global CX strategy is to get global customers and improve your business’ international presence. And to do this, you will need to focus on your customers and what your business can do to improve their experience.

The ROI of Global Customer Support

But is spending time making customer experience for your global customers worth it? Here are some key benefits for providing global customer support and improving global CX:

1. Access to a wider, diversified audience and market
2. Increase revenue and coverage
3. Improve global customer retention
4. Improve company’s international reputation
5. Access to greater talent
6. Gain a competitive edge

While doing business internationally may come with new costs and experiences, there is great value in reaching a wider audience and providing support to your customers wherever they are.

Learn more about growing your business globally in our guide to global expansion.

Is Customer Experience and Customer Support the Same?

The short answer: yes and no. Customer support, more appropriately, is a part of a business’ customer experience strategy. In a CX strategy, you aspire to make every process of the customer’s interaction with your brand easy and valuable.

This starts with marketing, where your customers first see your brand. This can be via different digital marketing channels or offline marketing strategies.

Next, you focus on other touchpoints such as signing up for a newsletter, downloading a PDF, reading online content, signing up for a demo, chatting with a chatbot, navigating the website, booking a demo, and so on.

Finally, focus on the process of making a purchase, onboarding, customer service and assistance, tech support, and so on.

It is important to note that CX does not end at the customer making a purchase. You will want to retain that customer by continuing to provide value via new features, reward programs, and responsive customer support. Customers who continue to have a good experience with your brand will promote it and become advocates for it.

Building a CX Strategy for Global Customer Support: 11 Best Practices

When developing a customer experience strategy for global customer support, you need to also consider ways and tools that can help your global teams work well together to ensure your customers experience the same quality of service no matter where they are located. Here we list 11 global CX strategies that will help your business improve CX for global customers.

1. Set Clear Goals and Objectives

First, you and your teams need to have clear goals and objectives that everyone will work to achieve. What aspects of the customer experience do you want to improve? How can each team contribute to this improvement? What steps do these teams need to take to achieve this goal? These are questions to consider when setting objectives. The more clear and specific you get with these goals, the better your team will perform.

2. Adopt a Customer-First Approach

A customer-first strategy is an approach that focuses entirely on the customer and improving CX. Such an approach looks at different ways your business or products can help your customers succeed and live better lives. And to adopt a customer-first approach, you need to work closely with your customers. What do their day-to-day lives look like? What issues do your customers face? Which problems are they trying to solve? And so on.

Learn how to put your customers first in our post about building a customer-first strategy.

3. Take Time to Understand Your Customers and the Market

To understand how to improve customer experience, you need to understand your customers. Who they are, what they need, and how to solve their problems with your solution. And to understand this, you will need to conduct market research.

VoC is a part of a customer-first approach because it makes your business and employees take time to listen to the customer and the market you are trying to sell in. VoC collects customer feedback about a business and its products. This research is then used to inform product and service development.

Market research is the process of researching, studying, and collecting information about potential prospects and current customers. Usually conducted by the sales and marketing teams, market research provides insights into how a product is performing in a new or existing market. Marketing teams may even use this research to update their buyer personas and customer profiles, and to understand the customer journey.

4. Work with Local Recruiters and Hire Locally

Part of running global customer support means being available for your customers in a time and language that they prefer. This means providing local customer support for each location. Experts recommend working with local recruiters and hiring local talent.

Local agents and employees can more effectively communicate with international customers. They’re able to provide cultural context and familiarity which makes callers comfortable. And it bridges the distance between your business and your global customers.

5. Improve Responsiveness and Reliability

This goes without saying but your global customer support team needs to be reachable and quick to resolve issues. Irrespective of the type of business you run, customers experiencing an issue will want answers and resolutions quickly. They need to know that your business is dependable, especially if it is not located in their own country. This means your business should:

1. 1. Make it easy for global customers to call your business with international toll free numbers, and
   2. Adopt a Follow the Sun support model with time-based routing and location-based routing features.

Cloud-based phone numbers use international call forwarding to route calls from one location to another. This way, you can get international toll free numbers or local phone numbers for multiple countries around the world. Callers from these countries can then call your international business for free or local calling rates, instead of high long-distance rates. And you can route those calls to your global customer support teams spread in different regions and time zones.

By managing your international calls this way, you are providing support without regard for geographic locations and time zones. This is called a Follow the Sun support model. Such a model enables your business to offer 24/7 customer support by routing calls to available agents in different countries. And global customers can get their support in a language and time that works best for them.

Such a model also improves your business’ ability to be responsive and reachable. And that, in turn, makes your global business more reliable.

6. Consider Multilingual Support Tools

In an effort to improve your business’ reliability and accessibility, you want to offer global support in multiple languages. And while most teams may not have the means or budget to hire multilingual employees, there are some tools you can use to translate chat messages and conversations to bypass language barriers.

Tools like Unbabel and Lokalise can translate messages reliably and in real-time. What’s better? They can be integrated into your existing chat or CRM systems such as Intercom, Salesforce, and so on. Use these to reach more customers and improve their interactions with your business.

7. Train Your Staff Well

One key point to offering excellent global customer service is to maintain consistency across all channels and regions. To do this, you need to train your employees consistently throughout all regions and locations. Create a rigorous cross-cultural training program and ensure managers stick to it when training new employees. Conduct regular performance reviews for each support team to see how every region is performing.

8. Ensure Smooth Handoffs Between Regions

You don’t want a customer to have to call back or wait because the agent does not have the right information. Time spent searching through information or making up for lost information can lead to dissatisfied customers. Agents should be able to get the most recent and updated information quickly.

To maintain consistency and reduce interruptions, invest in the right technology and software that ensures smooth handoffs between regions. Consider project management tools, content management systems, and CRMs. You may even consider phone system automation tools that make it easy to update and share information via the cloud.

9. Optimize for Local and International SEO

Building a CX strategy means improving engagement on all touchpoints within the customer journey. You need to map out the journey and look for ways to make it easy for your global customers to find your brand and interact with it comfortably.

This means optimizing your website for local and international SEO. A local SEO strategy means improving your business’ ranking in search results. By doing this, you can increase organic traffic from customers in your location.

International SEO, on the other hand, works similarly to geotargeting where you deliver different content and ads for different locations. Use international SEO to optimize your website for different countries and languages to attract organic international traffic.

You can learn more about local and international SEO from SEO guides published on HubSpot, Moz, Semrush, Search Engine Journal, and more.

10. Provide Self-Service Solutions

Make it easy for customers to get support and help resolve their questions or issues by offering self-service solutions. This could be in the form of:

• • FAQ sheets
  • Knowledge Base or online support center with how-to and troubleshooting guides
  • Help articles and content available online and in-app
  • Ticketing system that automates issues and resolutions

This way, customers can go in and resolve issues quickly, especially with simple tasks. For more complex ones, they can reach out to your global customer support teams.

11. Review and Set Milestones to Match Your Objectives

No strategy is perfect. And as your business grows, your goals and objectives might change. You will need to update your current strategy, identify strengths and weaknesses, and make changes. Review goals, measure and track key metrics, set new milestones, and continue moving forward.

Customers Drive Your Business — Make CX a Priority

It is evident when a business is not paying attention to its customers and their experience. Customers will leave and find another business that takes the time to prepare valuable experiences for them. Don’t fall behind. Don’t underestimate loyalty and word-of-mouth marketing. Give your customers a reason to become advocates for your products and services.

Start building your global CX strategy now because, at the end of the day, your global customers will help your business grow and become more successful worldwide.

Why should companies centralize business communication? What does centralized communication even look like? And can it really help improve productivity?

Centralized business communication — like centralized processes — unifies all necessary information and tools in one place, reducing time spent navigating through different channels, software, and services. But how do you know if your business needs to upgrade its communication system? Let’s have a look.

Centralized Business Communication: What, How, and Why?

When managing a business — whether a small business or global enterprise — not prioritizing and organizing business communication can lead to confusion and chaos.

For example, your business has several players or employees working on different tasks.

There is a lot of work to do. A lot of documentation to handle. Everyone’s main goal is to get the work done quickly.

But that may not always mean getting the work done efficiently.

Now, think of all the different communication channels your business uses to connect with employees and customers: phone, fax, voicemail, email, chat, video, and text.

These channels store important files and information. And when you do not have one centralized hub for your communications, important information and data can get lost.

This can make it hard to find that one file or locate that one customer’s complaint or find the brilliant way your employee handled a difficult customer. And that loss can hurt.

So, how do you prevent this from happening? You centralize business communication so that all essential business-related communication is connected to and stored in one central hub or platform.

What Does it Mean to Centralize Communication?

Time spent searching for information or a document is time taken away from being productive. Depending on your business size, your business communicates through multiple channels:

• Phone conversations
• Email
• Two-way SMS
• Video conferences
• Intranet communication options
• Chat (internal chat as well as chat for customers)
• Content and project management system comments and chat
• Town halls
• Social networks
• Voicemail, fax, and document-sharing apps, etc.

And when you use multiple channels through different services, chances are, things will get lost in translation and movement. And you cannot always afford to lose conversations, information, and documents.

Centralizing business communication means connecting all business members and stakeholders through one platform where communication occurs and is stored. In fact, 2024 cloud communications stats suggest that companies are looking for cloud-based tools to integrate all their communication needs into one platform and improve business communication.

In theory, through this centralized business communication platform, all communication, conversations, transcripts, documentation, scheduling, etc., can be stored and tracked efficiently.

How to Centralize Business Communication?

So, how does your company start to centralize business communication? Let’s look at some important factors and how to go about centralizing your communication system.

1. Map Out All Business-Related Communication

First, you need to map out all forms of communication that occur within your company. We’re talking about all kinds of internal (between employees and teams) and external (between the company and its customers) communication.

Once you can visualize all communication channels, you can identify high-priority channels. For example, phone, email, and chat channels may contain more important information. So, you will make those channels more accessible by centralizing them. Company-wide newsletters or training videos may not fall under this list. So, you may look for software or a platform that supports your phone, email, and chat needs.

2. Find a Unified Communications Platform to Support Your Needs

Once you determine your needs, you can start looking for UC solutions that support channels essential for your business. Unified communication platforms unify phone conversations, video conferencing, text messaging, email, chat, and other communication channels in one place. In this UC platform, users can:

• • Share and access information and documents
  • Store information and data
  • Communicate and collaborate in real-time
  • And by doing so, information and data can be shared and located quickly within one place, reducing time spent on searching or lost conversations.

Start by looking for UCaaS providers and comparing what they offer. Find a provider that fits your needs and budget.

3. Think About Integrations

Integrations aid in data accessibility by bringing all necessary systems and processes together in a one-stop service.

Many UCaaS and cloud-based communication providers will offer you various integrations to help organize all communication-relation tools and features in one place. This way, you can bring your work calendars into your communication platform or access all channels (voice, video, SMS, chat) in one place, even if you use different services.

Some providers may even offer a custom API integration. Application Program Interface (API) is a code that gives two separate software programs the ability to communicate and work with each other. API, therefore, allows you to integrate systems and software to create a robust platform. Check with providers to see what options are available before signing up.

4. Upgrade Your Business Communication System

Once you have explored the market and the many features and services available, make the decision to upgrade your existing business communication system. Either sign up with a provider that can provide you with all the features you need in one place, or look for integrations to include within your existing system.

Note that upgrading or switching to a new communication system may seem expensive at first but can cut down on long-term costs and increase office productivity. This, in the long run, can help your business focus on more important things such as product development, customer research, and so on.

4 Benefits of Centralized Business Communication

So, is it really worthwhile bringing all communication-related services and processes together? Especially if you may need to change certain providers and services? This depends on what benefits you wish to reap when you centralize business communication. Let’s look at some advantages of streamlining communications.

1. Keep Everyone Connected

All employees, managers, and stakeholders have access to this centralized communication system. This is especially helpful for businesses that have remote employees and distributed teams spread across the globe. Being able to communicate in real-time and through an easy-to-use platform is crucial for information and knowledge sharing and data storage. A centralized business communication system keeps everyone connected.

2. Increase Transparency

To improve team collaboration and help them work towards common goals, they need to communicate well and know what each other is doing. By having access to all information, communication, and team members in one place, your business can ensure increased transparency.

3. Make Document and Knowledge Sharing Easy

With all channels connected, users can quickly share important information and documents in real-time. Furthermore, documents and data remain on the system for future reference; that is, to bring a new member up to speed or to compare with new content. By making document and file-sharing easy, everyone can have access to necessary and up-to-date information.

4. Improve Productivity and Efficiency

When processes are streamlined and centralized, you can cut time spent looking for documents or important conversations. This is because users can quickly search for information within the centralized business communication system and share it with other members. This further improves task focus as fewer distractions are likely to occur.

Additionally, managers can share important business-related information and documents with multiple employees through a platform that everyone has access to. All of this contributes to an efficient work environment.

Centralize Business Communication with Cloud-Based Phone Solutions

Global Call Forwarding can help you unify all your communication needs in one place. We offer a cloud-based business phone service along with our custom API. Speak with our representatives today to learn how our integrated services can help streamline your business communication efficiently and effectively.

Learn how having a DID number for every department in your office can help streamline business communication and call management. Here we explain how DID numbers work, what these numbers are used for, and their many associated benefits.

What is Direct Inward Dialing (DID)?

A DID number works within a business’ cloud phone system and allows callers to ‘dial in’ to a specific phone number. In other words, callers can dial a direct number to reach a specific person or department instantly without the need for an operator.

How Does a DID Number Work?

Local and international DID numbers work through a direct inward dialing (DID) facility that enables calls to be routed directly to any phone number or global SIP destination. They are not tied to any physical phone line

Most modern businesses — especially medium-to-large enterprises — use DID numbers in some way or form. This telecom facility gives them unique contact numbers for specific departments or employees. As such, your business can have an international DID number for support, sales, marketing, and other functions.

What is a DID Number Used for?

DID numbers can take a simple phone system and give it added functionality and benefits. In other words, you can expand your business phone system by adding international DID numbers.

Calls made to DIDs can be routed to any network; including to remote workers and satellite offices. All your employees, teams, and business locations are, therefore, bound into one private branch exchange.

This way, you can increase the chances of calls being answered and ensure business continuity.

8 Ways Your Customers Benefit from DID Numbers

There are multiple benefits of using DID numbers for your business. These benefits range from support for scalability to tracking calls to saving on communication-related costs.

1. Scalability

Your business can have multiple unique DID numbers spread across various departments and teams. Add new numbers and lines without additional equipment. Scale your network up or down as your business grows without worrying about wasting money.

2. Cost-Savings

Expanding your business with international DID numbers is cheaper compared to legacy telecom carriers. Reduce costs up to one-third by switching to direct inward dialing.

3. Reachability

By dialing a DID number, your customers can quickly reach the right department. They can get the assistance they need without dealing with a receptionist or response system or waiting in a call queue. This helps your business manage high call volumes.

4. Call Tracking

When you use specific or unique DID numbers for each department and/or employee, you can track incoming calls, time spent on calls, and other metrics with call detail records. Use call analytics to track and improve productivity and quality. You can even track return on marketing investments by assigning numbers to marketing campaigns.

5. Global Expansion

You can get a DID number for global expansion. This means your business can expand internationally without establishing a physical presence. Here you can save on global expansion costs and still increase your international coverage. Furthermore, your customers can evade long-distance calling charges to reach you.

6. Access to Advanced Features

Take advantage of our full set of communication features including call forwarding, cloud call recording, hosted IVR, outbound calling, and more. Use these features to create an efficient business phone system.

7. Multichannel Communication

Open up new communication channels such as voice, fax, text messages, voicemail, and fax.

8. 24/7 Customer Support

Provide 24/7 round-the-clock customer service by adopting a Follow the Sun customer support model with location- and time-based routing. This way, your global customers can find support in their region, time zone, and language.

Finding a DID Number Provider: 10 Things to Consider

Open your business up to new avenues and growth opportunities with a DID provider. When looking for the right provider, consider these questions:

1. What do you need the DID numbers for?
2. How many international and local DID numbers will your whole company need? Consider satellite offices, remote workers, etc.
3. What regions and countries does this provider cover? Are these regions included in your list of target countries?
4. What additional features does this provider offer? Are these features customizable?
5. Can your business benefit from these features?
6. Does the provider offer multiple pricing plans?
7. Do you need to sign a long-term contract to use their service?
8. Are there any set-up, installation, or cancellation fees? Check for hidden fees.
9. What are their current customers saying about their service?
10. What is their customer service response rate? Are their support teams easy to reach?

Research each provider thoroughly. Look through their services and features. Read the content on their blog or customer stories to see how their features work in practice and in your field. Read case studies, testimonials, and reviews to understand how customers have used their service. Review different providers’ pricing structures to understand what the industry expectation is and compare that to your budget.

Once you have gathered all the information, choose the provider that is the most transparent and reliable.

Get DID Numbers with Global Call Forwarding

Have questions about how DID numbers for your departments and employees can streamline business processes and improve caller experience? Speak with our telecom experts today! Call us at 1 (888) 908 6171 or chat with us online.