With innovative technologies and constant advances across fields, many companies have been shifting their entire operations and revamping their business models. But if there’s one thing that hasn’t changed, it’s the importance of high-quality customer service.
Customer service is the engine of growth. After all, 93% of customers are likely to repeat purchase with a business that offers great customer service. However, this also means that a negative experience can significantly damage the reputation of a company, especially when shared in the digital realm. That’s why keeping happy customers and offering transparent and efficient communication has never been more important.
As consumers demand remarkable support and convenience throughout their buying journey, we have seen a growth in expectations. In 2018, 59% of consumers claimed to have higher expectations for customer service than they did just a year ago.
Smart companies already know that innovation is the springboard of success. We are seeing big data and automation play an increasingly bigger part in how brands communicate with their customers. But there’s far more to it than that — let’s take a look at the top customer service trends that will dominate next year and beyond.
The future isn’t all about the chatbot
In recent years, we have seen companies increasingly installing chatbots. However, deploying automation as a panacea is highly problematic. Chatbots shouldn’t be the only pillar of successful customer service and shouldn’t replace valuable human interaction.
Particularly when looking to resolve issues, not being able to talk to a human agent can lead to frustration and damage the relationship with the brand. Currently, 50% of shoppers believe their feedback doesn’t go to anyone who can actually act on it.
While this may be a hard pill to swallow, the chatbot hype is slowly fading away. Machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI) will continue to play an increasingly important role in customer service. However, we are likely to see them assisting support agents instead of wholly taking over the support process.
That said, chatbots will not be discarded — self-service is and will remain a popular tool. However, organizations will deploy chatbots more strategically, particularly leveraging them in a particular stage of the support journey or as a complementary tool of enhancing the customer experience.
For example, Whole Foods, a multinational supermarket, created a powerful chatbot that finds new recipes and ways to use the ingredients bought from its store. Its setup even reacts to food emojis by connecting them to certain recipes, presenting a fun and easy way for customers to interact with a brand.
Customer service back on-site
To outsource or not to outsource — that has traditionally been one of the most precarious questions. Third-party customer service agencies, often based overseas, provide a strong organizational background with certain standards. On-site support, on the other hand, offers a more familiar, if smaller-scale approach. As companies realize the importance of customer experience, the latter will become the preferred choice.
On-site support ensures more flexibility and functionality. Companies will focus on educating their agents and empower them to gain strong customer service skills and leverage creativity to personalize their support. However, these steps will also require the development of robust quality assurance frameworks to ensure that organizations have the tools for continuous improvement.
Interestingly, as remote work becomes even more widespread, on-site customer service will become more comprehensive. As support reps increasingly work remotely from their homes or places around the world, companies will encompass multiple time zones and will have more multicultural wealth to benefit from, while keeping the same close-knit connection to each customer.
Omnichannel experience not an accessory, but a norm
Omnichannel — communicating in a coordinated way across multiple channels — is here to stay. Having a clearly defined and effective omnichannel marketing strategy is essential to successful ecommerce in 2020. And just like your marketing, customer service also has to take place wherever your customers are. And as we see the appearance of different channels, whether it’s social media, messenger (WhatsApp, Telegram or Facebook), or even push notifications, maintaining a strong presence on each of these platforms is an absolute necessity.
It’s said that over 63% of the US adult population seeks customer service with a mobile device several times a month or more. This is even more prominent among younger generations, including the tech-savvy millennials, who view brands that operate a mobile-responsive customer support portal much more positively.
Due to its convenience, we are likely to see social media customer support becoming even more prevalent. Companies should interact both privately in messaging sections and publicly, to answer any questions and concerns raised in the comments sections of posts. In the future, customer demands will grow further.
At the same time, social media platforms allow brands to gain a competitive edge through different features, such as live-streams or augmented reality (AR) features. Sephora, the cosmetics juggernaut, offers such an experience in Facebook Messenger. The brand lets anyone try on different makeup looks just by opening their front camera.
Video to the forefront
Instead of static images, we will also see customer service adopt a more mobile facade through the use of videos. Whether its video conferencing, streaming or webinars, these tools present unique opportunities to connect with the audience and provide them handy tips on how to use a product or a service.
Agents can deliver one-to-one support or record how-to videos that cover the most common issues or interact directly with the audience by answering questions in real-time. All of this should have the ultimate goal of one-time contact resolution, making the customer happy and cutting down any unnecessary and time-consuming communication.
Personalization and approachability: The cornerstone of customer experience
The days of empty catch-all messaging are gone: Customers demand personalized and potent conversations. To cater to these needs, companies should collect more information and leverage automated technology setups. Maintaining databases is fundamental: 72% of consumers expect agents to know who they are, what they have purchased, and to have insights into their previous engagements.
All companies should adopt a customer-centric attitude. Even if most of our interactions take place digitally these days, a humane approach never goes out of style. More than anything, brands score big by being conversational and showing their willingness to communicate. For example, Xfinity, the multichannel service provider, was praised for creating an original Twitter haiku as a response to a customer who shared he was a poet on his Twitter profile.
Proactive and preemptive support
Another smart way to leverage the increased amounts of customer data is to provide proactive and preemptive support. Companies will be paying more attention to their analytics in order to understand when someone is about to churn or trigger actions that might indicate frustration. These should be followed by immediate extra support, ensuring that the customer has everything they may need.
Experience is at the forefront of customer-brand interactions and it’s no different in customer service. As we head to 2020, we will see companies making more data-driven decisions and leveraging automated setups to offer flawless service. With personalized messaging and keeping a human face, companies can reach the perfect equilibrium to satisfy the modern consumer.
