The ultimate aim of customer service is to ensure customers receive measurable value in the expected timeframe. While many associate proactive communications with collections or telemarketing, proactive outreach includes many use cases that enable you to deliver a high-quality user experience throughout the customer's journey. A few examples of proactive outreach include sending follow-up emails to customers after a purchase, offering personalized recommendations based on their previous interactions with your business, and proactively reaching out to customers who have not interacted with your business in a while to check in and see if they need any help, or notifying customers of a problem before they found it and suggest a resolution. Implementing such programs can lead to increased customer satisfaction and loyalty, as well as improved sales and revenue. Additionally, proactive outreach can help you stay top-of-mind with potential customers, making it more likely that they will think of you when they are ready to purchase. Some examples of how proactive outreach might be used in different industries include:

• Banking: A bank might use proactive outreach to contact potential customers and offer them special deals on products such as credit cards or loans and financial advice. Messaging about transactions is also a way to keep customers informed and connected.
• Telecoms: A telecom company might use proactive outreach to contact potential customers and offer them special deals on mobile phone plans or broadband packages. As important, they could also use proactive outreach to prevent churn.
• Retail: A clothing retailer might use proactive outreach to push personalized product recommendations to customers based on their previous purchases and browsing history – the ‘product you may like’ feature. Research indicates that two-thirds of shoppers abandon a purchase after adding it to their cart. Proactive engagement helps keep these shoppers engaged and transacting.
• Healthcare: A provider might contact patients to schedule regular check-ups or health screenings, send reminders about upcoming appointments or medication refills, or offer personalized health and wellness recommendations based on the patient’s medical history. By adopting a patient-first, highly engaged, and proactive mindset, healthcare providers deliver better patient outcomes.
• Hospitality: A restaurant might use proactive outreach to reach out to regular customers and offer them special deals or promotions to encourage them to return and dine with them again.

Overall, proactive outreach can be an effective way for businesses to create new opportunities, build relationships with potential customers, increase sales/revenue and improve the overall customer experience. Proactive outreach can be based on social media listening and response, direct messaging, voice calls, and email, and of course, is still very often delivered by your mailperson. Yet, most customers report that they have yet to experience proactive customer service, according to a Gartner study of 6,000 customers. Gartner also found that two-thirds of customers contact customer service after receiving proactive outreach from a brand. Servion can help you identify and deploy proactive customer service solutions that benefit your organization. Contact our CX experts to get started with your proactive customer service strategies and improve your customer experience.