Combat Business Pressure by Reducing Your Customer Cost to Serve

Key Takeaways

• Economic pressures are making it harder for businesses to balance the books.
• AI-powered tools can cut operational costs and improve customer experience.
• Partnering with experienced providers like Elite Group helps streamline tech adoption.

External Forces Impacting Business Cost and Pressure

With so many cost drivers affecting spending, from inflation to supply chain disruptions, today’s businesses are facing mounting challenges beyond their control. Even in a strong economy, balancing the books is no small feat.Rising inflation, government legislation, and increasing operational costs are all driving up the cost to serve. To combat this, businesses need to invest in advanced tools that enhance efficiency. Two great examples? Zoom CCaaS and Leexi AI Notetaker – more on these in a moment.

Government Legislation and Rising Business Costs

The introduction of a new government always brings change. Now, some months in, we’re seeing real impact. Recent Labour Party policy changes include:

– A rise in the minimum wage

– Pressure for higher wages overall

– An increase in secondary Class 1 National Insurance Contributions (NICs) by 1.2%

– A threshold shift from £9,100 to £5,000 for employer contributions

These figures might seem modest, but they translate to approximately £1.5 billion in additional costs for UK businesses. Companies will need to reassess overheads, pricing strategies, and ultimately, their cost to serve.

Navigating the National Insurance Increase by Reducing your Cost to Serve

So, how do rising national insurance costs affect your costs to serve?

In simple terms, think of NIC increases as a tax per employee. The more employees you have, the more you’ll pay. This added cost directly impacts the cost to serve each customer.

To counteract this, businesses may be tempted to raise prices. However, depending on your industry, this could push customers to competitors.

Instead, reducing your cost to serve through automation and AI can help you maintain service levels without hiking prices.

How to Avoid Increasing Product/Service Prices to Cover Increasing Business Costs

During a time in which commercial competition is fierce, customer retention is everything. Even a small price increase can lead to churn, particularly in competitive markets.

Before passing costs onto customers, explore opportunities to reduce internal expenditure. Intelligent, AI-powered tools streamline tasks like admin, data entry, and service management, reducing the need for physical labour.A report by McKinsey & Company found that the adoption of AI to perform certain tasks could reduce business expenditure by up to 30%, particularly within logistics and customer service. By saving such huge sums, companies can avoid the damage caused by the current economic climate, keep prices low and invest in improvements that could help their business remain competitive in an uncertain market.

How to Reduce Your Customer Cost to Serve

There are many ways to reduce your cost to serve, depending on your industry. However, one universal method is automating customer service processes.

Self-service portals and AI-powered chatbots reduce reliance on human agents, improve response times, and empower customers to resolve issues themselves.

Juniper Research reported customer spending via chatbots reached £12 billion in 2023, highlighting the growing role of automation in the customer journey.

Using CCaaS to Reduce Your Cost to Serve

Contact Centre as a Service (CCaaS) is a cloud-based service businesses can use to consolidate customer contact options into a single, easy-to-use system. 

With options for phone calls, instant messaging, video conferencing, email, live chat and more, the modern customer can enjoy flexible support, which should lead to better customer engagement and improved sales.

Onboarding new technology does introduce new expenses, but businesses can use CCaaS to save cash and reduce their cost to serve in numerous ways:

• Lower hardware and maintenance costs – Cloud-based systems reduce infrastructure spending.
• Scalability – Adjust your services with market demand to avoid unnecessary costs.
• Workforce efficiency – Centralised platforms increase productivity and reduce staffing needs.

But if using AI effectively is your goal, you’d struggle to find a better option than Zoom CCaaS and its ingenious Zoom Virtual Agent.

A communications brand recognised and trusted the world over, Zoom’s goal with its CCaaS is to create a seamless omnichannel communications system for its clients. As well as accelerate customer handling time with AI-driven automation.

Its AI-powered Zoom Virtual Agent uses sentiment analysis and intent detection to:

– Answer common queries.

– Guide customers through purchases.

– Summarise interactions for seamless handoffs to human agents.

With 72% of Zoom Virtual Agent interactions resolved instantly, businesses benefit from reduced handling times and improved customer satisfaction, all while lowering the cost to serve.

For more information on Zoom CCaaS and the Zoom Virtual Agent, speak to an Elite Group expert today.

Using Unified Communications to Reduce Your Cost to Serve

While we’re discussing customer communications and their role in cost to serve, it’s important to note internal communications, too.

Much like CCaaS, unified communications (UC) systems are home to a multitude of communication tools, accessed in a single platform. These include:

• Voice chat
• Email
• Instant messaging
• Video conferencing
• File transfers
• Collaborative digital spaces

These platforms allow businesses to cut costs in numerous ways. Primarily, by reducing the number of existing subscriptions for communications tools, instead relying on a single, affordable subscription for all comms needs.

But beyond this, UC also helps reduce cost to serve in several other ways:

Worker productivity – UC enhances employee productivity by preventing the need to constantly toggle between separate comms tools.

Streamlined customer and staff interactions – In-house staff can benefit from clearer and more direct communications, while integrating CRM platforms can enhance the customer experience.

Remote and hybrid working – Because UC solutions are cloud-based, workers can remain in contact with customers and each other from virtually anywhere, as long as they have an internet connection. This helps employers benefit from the boosted productivity associated with such ways of working.

Once again, partnering with a trusted provider like Elite Group ensures seamless deployment and ongoing support.

Using AI to Reduce Your Cost to Serve

As we mentioned earlier, AI tools have the potential to seriously improve overall productivity and reduce expenditure.

One such AI tool that could be a game-changer in your business is the Leexi AI Notetaker. 

Manual notetaking and post-meeting admin can waste hundreds of hours every month. Leexi changes that by:

• Recording and transcribing meetings automatically.
• Generating detailed conversation summaries.
• Prompting follow-ups and updating calendars.

With support for over 120 languages, Leexi ensures accurate communication with global audiences. It also guarantees no customer insight is lost, strengthening your service delivery.

To find out more about how the Leexi AI Notetaker could work for you, speak to an Elite Group expert today. 

How Elite Group Can Support You in Reducing Your Business Cost to Serve

If you’re looking for ways to improve productivity, gain cost visibility and reduce your cost to serve, Elite Group is here for you.

Our expertise in cloud and AI solutions means we’re your ideal choice to onboard new technologies and embrace new ways of working to offer your customers the best service while cutting your cost to serve. We:

• Analyse your current systems and their true costs
• Identify opportunities for automation and optimisation
• Provide tailored solutions that deliver fast, impactful results

With a dedicated account manager, fast deployment through cloud technology, and ongoing support, you’ll always have the guidance you need.

Add to this our stellar support services, and you can be sure Elite Group will always have your back in times of crisis.

Want to calculate your cost to serve and explore cost-saving options? Speak to an Elite Group expert today.