In the past few years, customer service has shifted from a transactional approach to one that aims to establish customer loyalty and trust. Today, customers have high expectations for fast resolutions and personalized service.
This has created a challenge for companies that are still adjusting to the changing needs of customers. But there are several emerging trends in customer support that will help businesses improve their overall CX.
1. Customer Service Recovery
Customer Service Recovery is a strategy that businesses use to turn disgruntled customers into satisfied ones. This is an important component of any customer experience strategy because unhappy customers are more likely to spread negative feedback, affecting the brand’s reputation.
The first step in any service recovery program is to listen to the customer’s complaint and identify what went wrong. Once you understand the issue, it’s time to work with them to resolve it.
It’s also important to train your employees on how to approach this type of problem. You can do this through a variety of methods, including using a centralized knowledge base for training videos and examples.
2. Automation
Automation is the use of technology to reduce human intervention in processes. It is used to maximize efficiency, minimize response time, and escalate customer satisfaction.
Today, companies are embracing automation as an essential part of modernizing their customer service. They’re using call center software, AI, and customer messaging platforms to enhance their customers’ experience and make their support agents more efficient.
One popular example of automated customer service is chatbots. These simple conversational AI tools can cut down support queues without raising headcount, enabling customers to instantly solve their most common questions or fulfill online orders.
3. Self-Service
Self-Service is an approach that empowers customers to find solutions on their own without the assistance of a service agent. When done correctly, this process can significantly reduce customer wait times and strain on support staff.
Effective self-service portals are centralized online libraries of knowledge base articles, FAQs, and videos that can help users understand your product better. They should be organized in categories for easy navigation and optimized for desktop, tablet and mobile devices.
Self-service solutions are scalable and can easily be updated as new questions arise. They are an invaluable resource that can help your team tackle common issues before they get out of hand, thereby drastically reducing ticket resolution time and costs.
4. Social Media
Social media is a powerful customer service tool, and companies are increasingly using it to communicate with their customers. It also allows businesses to build brand awareness and establish themselves as experts in their field.
Despite the growing business case for social customer service, however, it comes with unique challenges. Among them are different customer engagement expectations across platforms, unpredictable spikes in demand, skills gaps, and complicated workflow and technology investment choices.
To successfully provide end-to-end social media customer service, organizations need to design the right strategy, organizational structure, processes, and empowered resolution teams. They should also ensure a timely response and resolution effectiveness.
5. Live Chat
Live chat is a great way to provide instant customer service to visitors to your website. It enables you to clear up inquiries in real time, forge closer relationships with customers and boost your sales and conversions.
But not all live chat software is created equal, and it’s important to choose the right one for your business. The wrong tool could impede your customers’ experience, and it might also cost you a lot of money in the long run.
One of the most common mistakes companies make with their live chat support is using canned responses. This is annoying to more than a quarter of customers, and it can lead to poor customer satisfaction levels.
