As customer expectations continue to evolve, customer service trends are adjusting in tandem. Companies across all industries must keep up with emerging customer service experience trends to meet customer expectations and foster better customer relationships, which is critical to remain competitive in their respective markets.
This blog provides an in-depth look at the top 6 customer service experience trends to watch in 2022.
This blog provides an in-depth look at the top 6 customer service experience trends to watch in 2022.
Use customer support software which contains an efficient knowledge base, ticketing system and Live chat. Minimal cost to enhance customer experience.| BClinked
Rapid deployment, simple enough but effective customer support system
Recent Customer Service Developments
Emphasis on customer experience over product: The new focus is on differentiating your brand by providing a more comprehensive customer experience than price and product. Nearly 96 per cent of customers surveyed said that customer experience is the primary driver for the companies they choose to support. In addition, according to PwC, 86% of buyers say they are willing to pay more for a better customer experience. This means customer service teams need to identify and respond to customer expectations, identify potential issues and resolve them before they become significant complaints.
Using artificial intelligence agents: Technology advances in 2021 allow the use of artificial intelligence agents to help mine historical data and predict future customer needs. This new development automates the tasks of call centre agents and frees service teams from mundane, repetitive tasks.
Secure authentication: With the increase in cybercrime cases in 2021, secure authentication is imperative, mainly as hackers primarily target organizations with rich customer data. Customers are more likely to trust organizations that combine privacy and security with valuable, personalized services.
Self-service popularity: More and more customers are embracing the "self-service" principle, with many turning to video and off-the-shelf resources to resolve their queries. However, many customers prefer to speak with a service representative via live chat or email.
Six trends to watch in the customer service experience in 2022
Discover the latest trends shaping the future of the customer service experience.
The new norm in customer service is to adopt more proactive customer service than reactive customer service. Companies must identify potential problems in advance and anticipate their occurrence to ensure a more positive experience for customers. The following are some tips for adopting proactive customer service.
Create a proactive customer experience
Statistics show that more than 50% of consumers will move to another brand if the company does not regularly anticipate their needs. Then you need to anticipate customer needs and stop potential problems before they become significant complaints. The main goal of proactive customer experience is to anticipate the type of help customers may need before they ask for it. This allows the team to address potential issues at the source in a timely and effective manner, thus ensuring an excellent customer experience. In addition, brands need to do everything possible to minimize inconvenience and keep customers informed of the actions taken to resolve their issues. In short, awareness needs to be raised by ensuring a free flow of information from the company to the consumer to help turn a potentially harmful experience into a positive one.
Break down corporate silos
Consider integrating customer service team systems, billing systems, customer management systems and operations teams with AI analytics to effectively predict when and what problems may arise. Combining technology with human expertise enables your team to solve problems proactively and turn potentially harmful experiences into positive ones. It also provides the platform to achieve brand loyalty.
Recommendations
Review and evaluate potential technologies to improve existing processes and anticipate and seize potential problem areas.
Trend 2: Customer Experience Role
Customer experience is now a highly respected and rewarding career, especially when companies integrate systems that allow human-machine collaboration. Recent research shows that 79 per cent of contact centre leaders plan to invest in more robust AI capabilities within two years. Due to the recent massive customer service disruptions caused by COVID-19, live chat, email and phone calls are now indispensable tools for improving the customer experience. However, the future points to higher-priority teams that leverage trained, professional agents and digital tools and predictive technologies. Customer support teams should now receive the support and recognition they deserve. Often, happy agents translate into happier customers. Companies need to realign their budgets and provide agents with better tools to develop more effective teams.
Recommendations
-Keep up with the latest customer service trends, including AI and virtual agents for customer service. Make sure you're one step ahead of your competitors to reap new rewards.
-Consider joining professional organizations such as the International Customer Service Association. Attend insightful conferences to keep you well-informed of emerging trends.
Recommendations
-Keep up with the latest customer service trends, including AI and virtual agents for customer service. Make sure you're one step ahead of your competitors to reap new rewards.
-Consider joining professional organizations such as the International Customer Service Association. Attend insightful conferences to keep you well-informed of emerging trends.
Trend 3 - Automating the customer experience
No matter what industry you're in, automation is now the new normal. If you don't adopt an automated approach, you will likely be left out sooner or later. Recent data shows that 90% of companies report that they plan to deploy AI by 2022. That means nearly 40 per cent of customer interactions will be automated through artificial intelligence and machine learning. As technology brings more convenience to our daily lives, virtual assistants like Alexa and Siri will continue to optimize your brand's interactions with customers. A new study of Millennials and Generation Z shows that more than 60 per cent of people in these age groups prefer the help of a virtual assistant or AR/VR support when they have a software-related problem rather than talking to a live agent over the phone.
Recommendations
-If automation is in your plans, choose a virtual agent that uses NLP, optimized to understand and respond to queries.
-Implement an automation solution that allows you to train, monitor and manage your virtual assistants
Recommendations
-If automation is in your plans, choose a virtual agent that uses NLP, optimized to understand and respond to queries.
-Implement an automation solution that allows you to train, monitor and manage your virtual assistants
Trend 4 - Customer Data Protection
Losing privacy may not enable a personalized customer experience. Transparency and security are integral to the customized experience you want to provide to your customers. With the increase in hacking cases, customers are becoming more security conscious and savvier than ever in considering potential threats to their safety.
Transparency in how customers' personal information is collected and stored is critical. Priority must be given to the secure handling of personal data and maintaining security certifications to ensure enhanced consumer trust. For security purposes, all personal information is purged to ensure that you can provide personalized services without compromising the privacy of individuals.
Recommendations
-Regularly evaluate security protocols and certifications to protect your company and customers
-Understand how back-office systems such as integrated order management systems (oms) or CRM can personalize the customer experience without the risk of security breaches.
Recommendations
-Regularly evaluate security protocols and certifications to protect your company and customers
-Understand how back-office systems such as integrated order management systems (oms) or CRM can personalize the customer experience without the risk of security breaches.
Trend 5 - Customer Expectations
In the post-epidemic era, after a year of transition and adaptation, customer expectations are now a clear and permanent reality. Recent statistics show that 59% of consumers now care more about the post-COVID-19 customer experience than ever before. Some new expectations to keep in mind include adherence to ethics, convenience and purpose. Therefore, you must prioritize comfort, 24/7 product and information availability, next-day delivery, and unparalleled customer service.
Recommendations
-Let customers self-serve at their convenience. You can provide an FAQ section on your website for collecting repeat inquiries.
-Automate routine customer requests. Run your CRM through impact reports to identify the most frequent queries. This will help you identify ways to resolve these issues.
Trend 6 - Holistic Approach
A holistic CX approach transforms your customer experience into multilingual, multi-market support. The future vision is shifting from omnichannel to a more comprehensive, company-wide strategy. As more and more brands make this shift, a variety of customer-centric functions need to be integrated to better nurture the entire customer journey. This future trend will require solid internal communications to ensure end-to-end process improvements.
Recommendations
-Hold regular meetings between sales and marketing teams with the company's customer experience team. Create common goals and propose follow-up techniques. Also, come up with better ways to streamline your customer experience.
-If you are planning to enter a new market, determine if multilingual AI technology can reduce implementation costs while effectively facilitating your expansion.
Use customer support software which contains an efficient knowledge base, ticketing system and Live chat. Minimal cost to enhance customer experience.| BClinked
Rapid deployment, simple enough but effective customer support system