The future of customer support is the future of your business. Customers are always in control and it will stay like that.
Customers demand amazing service and will pay more to receive it. Businesses that don’t adapt to providing a higher standard of customer service ultimately risk their future. And organizations that do reap the rewards. Time to revamp customer service trends to stay with a good rapport in the market.
85% of customer-brand relationships handled by customer support experts by 2021. (Source)
Businesses across the globe will agree that customer service trends 2021 determine the growth of their business. Companies are supposed to be up to date with the newest customer service trends. The main support for effective customer service is a combination of tools, systems, and processes to convert your policies into customer satisfaction.
Some of the customer service trends 2021 that companies can currently rely on include, but aren’t limited to:
As we are rolling out of 2020, let’s check out what has changed over the years.
For customers, the future of customer support cannot come soon enough. The customer experience (CX) landscape is ripe for disruption. Businesses are slowly making progress toward more seamless and simpler CX. Now only a picked few companies leverage all the technology at their fingertips to enable customers to use the technology they use regularly in their personal lives when dealing with the brand. Today the technology for most customer service operations is still not savvy enough for customers to avoid the difficulty of the old phone call.
Customers prefer self-service but will call when it’s a more complex matter. For example, account closure or booking a complex airline ticket with multi-city travel. It’s only a matter of time until the game changes entirely because of improved technology. Let’s face it, the younger generation does not want to call brands and those will soon be the bulk of your customers. We’re at an awkward inflection point where some companies are doing an amazing job of being at the forefront of CX technology, and others are still struggling with the basics. In the future customer support will be much more simple.
Businesses are investing heavily in improving the quality of customer support. Customer service trends have become as pivotal as innovation in products and services. No longer can the businesses be profitable by simply being reactive. To be proactive, companies must utilize emerging trends in customer support in the market. This is easier said than done. Industry leaders believe their efforts have exceeded customer expectations whereas, a maximum of them consent that their brands will compete on experience in the next few years. By leveraging these customer support trends, many companies are indeed making giant leaps in CX. Below all these trends, the prime focus should be on omnichannel support since customers now expect to get help anytime, anywhere across various channels.
Omnichannel support is an emergence in new trends in customer service. Gone are those days of contacting the company in two ways: (a) phone (b) fax. The most advanced customer service trends allow you to choose your pick to connect with the support agent – phone, email, live chat, SMS, and social media, etc.
Google finds, as many as 85% of digital consumers start the purchasing workflow on one device yet finish it on another. (Source)
Following the omnichannel customer service trend, companies can create a seamless CX and gain maximum CSAT.
Streamlining the customer information and messages across various channels so that you can provide exceptional service to your customers. The customer service team can easily handle customer conversations through multiple channels from one roof.
Advanced technology and new marketing tactics have offered several ways to connect with the customer and help them to know the product and service transparently. But what if the customers are on your website browsing the services or the pricing page before the final purchase.
Video chat or live chat is the best way to guide the customer with his queries and help him to walk through the services and provide accurate information via real-time assistance. Including real-time assistance to the customer service trends of your business will benefit you in many ways.
According to Thomas Husson, Vice President, and Principal Analyst at Forrester Research – “Mobile is becoming not only the new digital hub but also the bridge to the physical world but also new customer service trends 2021. That’s why mobile will influence more than just your digital business, it will transform your entire operation.” Mobile plays the main role in customer success and efficiency of your customer care team. Resolution of the issues through the phone is a great indicator of CSAT. It develops customer loyalty and rapport with customers. It can be concluded that customer care via mobile phones is an advantage for your business because of its use of emerging trends in customer service.
Often the quality of customer care offered by the support team determines the brand image. Automation leads to maximize the efficiency and accuracy of your customer service team, at the same time, minimizes the response time and escalates CSAT. Automation is an important self-service trend that not only CX but also gets lots of time to focus on significant communication with customers for elevating better care.
A survey made by Deloitte’s Global Human Capital Trends states that only 28% of them “believe they understand their culture well, while only 19% believe they have the ‘right culture.”
Good customer service is one of the essential ingredients that impact growth else it may be left behind. Effective customer service along with customer data collection is essential to achieve growth in the revenue, increase market share, etc.
One of the most predictable customer service trends is the growing use of chatbots to manage customer service at scale without a human touch. The emergence and continuous rise of customer support bots or chatbots authorize companies to provide a gateway for round the clock support via automated replies that immediately assist the customer to figure out the technical fault.
Big enterprises are looking forward to endorsing customer service future trends in the year 2021, which will take it to the peak of upgraded trends. Coupled with automated workflows and AI, chatbots fuel round the clock self-service action. Quick and easy chatbots is a pocket-friendly solution to meet the common inquiries of the customers. According to a CNBC report – the way chatbots are rising it is predicted that it can curtail the business costs by $8 billion by 2022.
Everyone loves the personalization. It has been adopted by businesses to entice customers to purchase products and services with personalized offers. Personalized customer service trends help develop loyalty with customers. Providing customers a chance to choose the way to connect with the brand surely adds value to their experience. It is all about providing an excellent personalized experience. Personalized support can do wonders for customer retention.
Customers expect a business to understand their requirements fully and recommend product and service options. By sending proper marketing messages and considering customers as unique individuals take business one step ahead.
“You can use social media to turn strangers into friends, friends into customers, and customers into salespeople.” – Seth Godin, American author.
Social media is the best way to connect with your customers. It is imperative to give your business a face on top social platforms in today’s time and deliver quick social media customer support. About 63% of customers expect companies to offer support via social media.
The customer complaints and help requests are intercepted and displayed to the customer service team on their dashboard. The t team can then contact the customer over the same platform and resolve their issues.
Machine learning (ML), emerging customer service trends 2021 can help businesses in improving overall CX. Chat applications powered by AI are trending. Large companies, as well as startups, are leveraging this to reduce costs and improve service for customers.
For instance, Swiggy, a food delivery startup, has recently powered their live chat support with an AI chatbot, which has enabled customers to automatically place their orders faster without any human involvement, also cancel orders, or provide special instructions.
Predictive analytics has particularly proved to be very useful. Through this, quarries that will result in a call for assistance can be predicted easily. Implementing ML in customer service trends will give you a significant difference in business growth.
For decades, businesses have recommended the same reactive support strategy: answer every inquiry as it comes in and hope your support team can keep up.
The problem with this model? It traps your representatives on an endless treadmill of inquiries and leaves your customers hanging waiting on hold. Today customer support leaders are increasingly investing in a different approach – proactive support. Research shows 78% of support leaders want to move from a reactive to a proactive approach.
It makes sense: proactive support empowers businesses to get ahead of known customer issues and problems before they arise. For companies with millions of customers, it’s the antidote to turnaround times, unending ticket backlogs, and burnt out agents.
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