Today’s customers demand world-class customer service, or they go elsewhere


Customers have high expectations. They know the technology marketers have at their fingertips and expect them to use it.

In the last two years, customer expectations have increased, along with a greater emphasis on the customer experience and, naturally, on customer service. How has customer service changed in the last two years, and how are brands approaching it with improved technology and a more personalized connection?

“Obsessing with understanding the customer should be the goal of every company,” said Tomas Gorny, CEO of Nextiva, a provider of telephone services for businesses. “Knowing that the better a company understands its customers, the better it can deliver a superior customer experience, and that’s what customers want.”

“This superior service results in a more seamless customer experience that reduces customer churn,” added Gorny. “The best way to create that experience is not to compare your company to the competition, but to provide the best possible experience for customers, regardless of industry. We live in an era where the customer comes first. Customer expectations have never been higher, and while companies hear more from customers, they understand less.”

Personalized customer service

John Nash, director of marketing and strategy for global red dot, spoke with CMSWire about the ways customer service has changed. Nash said the last two years have put customer service in the spotlight, especially when it comes to personalization and automation. “Today’s customers have higher expectations than ever; they know that brands have the technology tools to automate and personalize many aspects of customer service, and they expect it to.

citing the harris survey Commissioned by Redpoint, Nash said, “39% of customers surveyed said they won’t do business with any company that doesn’t offer a personalized experience.” Additionally, the recent State of the Verint Digital Customer Experience The survey revealed that 64% of consumers have switched to a competitor after having a bad customer experience. The value of exceptional customer service cannot be stressed enough.

Just as a brand website presents customers with a personalized experience (it recognizes previous purchases, points to relevant products, and already knows their name, address, and contact information), customers expect customer service experiences to be highly personalized as well. .

“The brands that have been successful in the last two years (and continue to be successful now) are largely those that prioritize personalization at scale, adapting to the fact that consumers are now increasingly in control of their experiences. , your data, and more. And expect a high degree of personalization,” Nash said. “The ability to deliver that kind of personalized customer service across all of a brand’s channels seamlessly and in real time requires the use of technology that unifies all data throughout the customer journey.”

Related Article: Improving Your One-on-One Personalization Efforts

Customer service is omnichannel

The omnichannel customer experience requires customer service data to be accessible across all channels of a brand, minimizing or eliminating pain points in the customer journey. For example, there is rarely something as frustrating as repeating information, either verbally to a customer service agent or through a web form. In fact, having to repeat the information listed in the The 5 most frustrating things They ruin the customer experience.

“Consumers now expect brands to provide access to information and support/service anytime, anywhere and on any channel,” said Ravi Sundararajan, COO of Gupshup, a conversational messaging platform. “Omnichannel customer service delivery has therefore become the number one business priority and a key differentiator for brands. In addition, empathy, personalization, speed and convenience are defining the modern service experience.” to the client”.

Personalization can be effectively combined with conversational AI to deliver customer service that excites, rather than frustrates, customers.

“Using conversational AI, we see many companies taking a hyper-personalized approach to automating customer service/support, with real-time interactivity and feedback management,” said Sundararajan. “This is helping brands transform customer service into a richer, more contextual and individual experience for each consumer.

“With AI-enabled intelligent voice/chat bots as frontline customer service agents, coupled with the ability to seamlessly transition complex inquiries to a live/human agent, businesses are getting better and better at delivering natural, human-like customer service experiences through advanced automation.”

Actions speak louder than words

Today’s customers aren’t interested in the hot air of the brands they do business with. Feedback from a brand is helpful, but actions carry more weight and show that a brand really cares about its customers.

“Recently, customers have put more emphasis on seeing a company in action,” said David Sholkovitz, director of marketing for star technology, a provider of IT and A/V accessories. “If they have a complaint, they want it resolved instead of listening to the brand saying they saw their complaint.”

“In response to this,” Sholkovitz continued, “we have adopted a new process with our customer support team. The team provides post-interaction customer satisfaction surveys and then responds directly to customers with a description of the actions they take.” we’re taking in response to survey feedback. This not only creates a feedback loop with the customer, but also ensures they have the answers they need. It also creates a sense of community and appreciation when they realize that their Comments were received and taken into consideration.



Reference-www.cmswire.com

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