What do you think are the key trends on customer services?

Hello Nadia it would be better to know why you’re asking this question. From which point of view. So that the answer could be relevant. That will be my pleasure then to share information with you. Regards
Juliette

Is this a general question across all industries or you have a specific sector in mind? One trend that cuts across sectors could be companies are trying to relate to customers in their comfort zone with…apps like WhatsApp e.t.c

Hi Nadia. To give more detailed thoughts need context - who are your customers? B2C, B2B, demographic targets, as the answers change with context. And do you mean generic service - the e2e customer experience,  or specifically front and back office service support ? Will be happy to help if you can reply.

The answer to that depends – as always – on your starting point. If you still don’t use Mulitchannel-Management by now … go get it! The same is true, if you still neglect WhatsApp and other messaging services (like Facebook Messenger or iMessage) as service channels or if you don’t use Social Media for 1:many service. So while many in the industry struggle with just keeping up with the increasingly more digital needs of their customers, a few others are already ahead of the game.

But we do see some overarching trends:

1. Self-service options: Not a new trend, but expanding the options for customers to solve issues themselves will remain an important task.
2. Intelligent use of data: Although realization has set in that “Big Data” is not the solution for everything, using data for service purposes is becoming increasingly important. The main focus on working with data is to offer predictive, personalized and localized service.
3. Personalization and localization are trends that we see across the industry.
4. Variety of channels: While most companies tried to force customers into self-service and certain digital channels, the focus now lays on providing all channels and leaving the choice to the customer.
5. Chat is dead at last. The industry collectively will turn to messaging services like WhatsApp.
6.  etc.

Much greater emphasis on the employee experience and its connection to the standard of the customer experience that us then delivered…as Richard Branson will tell you look after your employee experience as the priority and you will see that flow through to your customer service levels

It’s a very general question: However there is one answer to it; Customer Engagement and Value delivery using customer journey maps and Value mapping.

One key visible trend is the demand for hyper personalization. Clients want to be treated as an individual as opposed to as a part of a larger segment.

Observed trends in Customer Service include deployment of chatbots, leveraging RPA for integration of data to other systems and uptake in using Process and Task Mining for identifying process flow.

Nadia, without context re product, market, tech, B2b/B2C, etc there are already some good bits of advice above. I would add that “it” shouldn’t be left as an afterthought, it needs to be owned by marketing and co-ordinated heavily with sales - in other words, part of the product/service. By doing so, it helps both the marketing and sales teams achieve the company’s goals too.

Self-serve support is a game-changer and differentiator. Design it into the “education” process with a strong content plan, so the customer gets to fully answer his/her own pre-sales questions. Get the sales team to provide all of the questions they get asked and provide those answers so that they can be accessed everywhere, i.e. via multiple channels, and add to it regularly. Some 60% plus of customer support questions are trivial, but not being able to find answers easily or waiting in a “Your call is important to us” queue just frustrates people. So to reiterate what’s been said, design the customer service function with the customer at the centre.

The ability to design and maintain the Customer Intimacy at scale and Automation Technologies to safeguard corporate objectives and performance ...