Did you know, a whopping 89% of customers have switched to doing business with a competitor following a poor customer experience?
Now we‘re sure you wouldn’t want that to happen to your business, right?
That’s why, we’ve compiled top 5 customer service predictions in this article to help you stay on top of your game in 2020 (and beyond).
But, why is it so important to keep track of all these customer service trends?
Because with the advancement in technology, the dynamics of customer service are also changing drastically.
Today, there are several networks through which customers can interact with your company. Unlike mere telephone calls and traditional mails in the past, they can now get in touch via e-mail, social media, text messages, Skype calls, and even live chat support.
All thanks to the mobile technology, customers are empowered with endless connectivity. They can easily access public platforms at any time of the day.
These platforms give them the voice to praise or condemn your business.
So, only those businesses that are ready to adapt and respond to this change in business-customer dynamics will survive.
Customer Service Predictions for 2020
So, what’s going to be ‘in’ for customer services? Let’s find out.
1. The phone won’t be dead for customer service
An increasing number of companies today are leveraging technology for improving their customer service. They’re actively communicating with their customers via social media, email, Whatsapp, and every possible digital channel.
This gets us thinking: Is the phone dead for customer service?
Absolutely not!
Undoubtedly, trends like self-service opportunities and digital solutions such as chatbots are limiting your direct communication. But customers still (and will always) want to speak to a human whenever needed.
2. Contextual awareness will redefine the customer experience
Did you know, 56% of service desks use the data collected in customer surveys to create service improvement plans?
Thus, businesses will not slow down when it comes to collecting data from customers.
As a result, customers will increasingly expect companies to use this data to offer a more bespoke and streamlined customer experience. They’ll continue demanding opportune, proactive responses and recommendations.
Offering insights based on a consumer’s context and past activities will become the new normal.
What does it mean for your Customer Services in 2020?
Suppose you’re a travel company. As the holiday season approaches, you’ll be able to use contextually-aware services to help customers enjoy hassle-free traveling experience.
Similarly, if any customer misplaces baggage, your app will instantaneously locate and deliver it to the traveler’s smartphone location and send an alert once the luggage is found.
Such a scenario will become standard in 2020 and beyond, as companies are increasingly exploring ways to predict customer needs and actively communicate with them BEFORE they even ask for assistance.
3. Personalization will be compulsory for customer satisfaction
2020 is going to be all about personalization. This means, you’ll have to leverage technology to monitor customer inclinations and journey, if you really want to deliver an excellent customer service.
Whether you like it or not, social networks are going to stay as active customer service platforms. Ignoring customer feedback, whether positive or negative, won’t stop them from posting on social networks. But, it can damage your company’s reputation.
So, use social media to offer bespoke experience that satisfies every customer’s individual needs.
4. Self-service opportunities will prevail
With every passing day, customers’ hunger for liberty and autonomy is increasing. And, it’s going to increase in 2020 as well. They’ll want more opportunities to service themselves without depending much on your customer services department.
So, if you really wish to stay in the game, you’ll have to implement self-service policies.
We think it’s going to be a win-win situation for the customers as well as your company. Your customers will find the solutions they want at a much lower cost to your business.
So how do you implement self-service opportunities?
You’ll have to nurture a strong customer community that offers customers the prospect to converse with one another and solve one another’s problems.
At the same time, expect more intricate customer queries. Use smart resources that enable your reps to tackle those queries efficiently.
5. Artificial Intelligence will be in the limelight
According to Statista, 85% of customer service interactions will be powered by artificial intelligence (AI) in 2020. So, expect an increasing use of AI in the domain of customer service.
While chatbots may not necessarily replace humans completely, they’ll greatly facilitate your customer support reps as smart assistants.
These intelligent machines will not only tackle customer requests and inquiries, but will also identify when the customer is confused, effortlessly directing the discussion to a live customer service rep.
“It comes as no surprise that real-time support channels such as chat and voice garner the highest customer satisfaction ratings. “
With voice search taking the center stage, it’s safe to say that Siri, Alexa, and Google Now will continue transforming the practices of customer service.
Final Thoughts
Today, customers have the power to decide how customer-centric a business is. If you really wish to step up your customer service game in 2020, you’ll have to target the basics of an exceptional customer experience: effortlessness, practicality, and sentiments.
No matter which industry you belong to, it’s exceptionally important to dedicate time and resources into offering superior customer care.
With such rapidly changing trends in customer services, you might get baffled.
Worry not. We’ve got you covered.
Our IntelliDesk software is an intelligent platform that can help you automate all your help desk processes, improving the productivity of your customer support reps. It helps in ticket management and tracking of every activity performed on Ticket(s) for robust reporting and data analytics.
