An estimated 1.7 billion individuals have hearing loss of mild or higher severity. It’s high time today’s customer experience technologies catch up to serve those with hearing loss.
Anyone who’s brushed against the customer service side of their industries knows that creating a truly accessible customer experience can be daunting. Hiring the right people for the right price, ensuring a consistent level of service that upholds the standards of your brand promise, and addressing the sheer variety of needs to create pleasant experiences that turn one-time visitors into repeat customers was once an overwhelming concept. With innovative customer experience technologies such as CxConcierge, a comprehensive, truly accessible customer experience that’s good for your clientele and even better for your business and community is within reach.
According to the World Federation of the Deaf, there are over 70 million deaf individuals worldwide who use sign language as their primary method of communication. That is more than the estimated number of native Italian speakers across the globe. Yet there continues to be a lack of customer support options for hard-of-hearing individuals, leading to situations like Bridget Lemus experienced in this TikTok video where what should have been a routine call with her local government regarding a claim turned into an aggressive encounter.
If a direct video option had been provided this scenario could have been avoided, allowing the customer to be routed directly to an ASL-speaking member of the local government’s staff. And with, on average, only 57% of hard-of-hearing individuals between the ages of 21-64 being employed, finding individuals to fulfill these roles could lead to a better diversity profile at your organization and address the growing labor shortage.
In fact, investing in these communities could reap dividends beyond the obvious social and cultural benefits. In the World Health Organization’s “World Report on Hearing”, experts believe that investing in ear and hearing care systems can improve productivity, with gains of more than 2 trillion US dollars over 10 years worldwide, and is estimated to result in an ROI of around $16 USD for every dollar invested. And that’s just one demographic. With an estimated 15% of the world population falling under the category of disabled investing in accessible technologies can open up an entirely new, and grateful, customer base.
In the United States, an estimated 8.5% of the disabled population have travel-limiting disabilities. Providing easily accessible video customer experiences can help supporting the needs of these individuals, improving government services to citizens, creating a loyal customer base that will continue to seek out your organization in gratitude for seeing and addressing their accessibility needs, as well as expanding opportunities for employment of agents with sign language skills.
Consistent, compassionate, and creative customer service is the key to ensuring the future success of government and your business. Services like CxConcierge can help you leverage the power of video communications to better serve those with hearing loss.
