Companies across the globe will agree that customer service determines the growth of their business. Businesses are supposed to be up to date with the latest customer service trends. The main pillars for effective customer service are a combination of tools, systems, and processes to convert your strategies into customer satisfaction. Top 10 Customer Service Technology Trends to Follow in 2021.
The three main customer service technology trends recommended for the companies to redefine their business affair in 2021 are:
- Customer service anytime, anywhere across various channels
- Automation to streamline the multiple support channels under one platform
- Customer service handled via automation should not be complex to diagnose and fix
As we are rolling out to 2021, let's check out what are the fresh customer service trends that the new year holds?
What is customer service technology?
Customer service technology is defined as a combination of emerging technology, tools, systems, and strategies to deliver optimal customer service with the best return on investment (RoI). In simple terms, customer service technology makes your whole business processes centered around your customers and designs communication strategies across all touchpoints to deliver a great customer experience.
With the emerging customer service trends, businesses can harvest the latest tools and technologies to adapt their customer service and in a way automate their processes. During the holidays, businesses need to create a concrete plan to manage holiday customer support without compromising on quality. The end goal of any customer service technology is to deliver the best customer experience and satisfaction.
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How businesses can make the best out of customer service technology trends?
Companies are investing heavily in improving the quality of customer support. Currently, innovation in customer experience trends has become as important as innovation in products and services. No longer can the companies be profitable by simply being reactive.
In order to be proactive, companies must utilize emerging trends in customer service in the market. This is obviously easier said than done. Many leaders believe their efforts have exceeded customer expectations whereas, a maximum of the customer experience leaders consent that their companies will compete on experience in the new few years.
Some of the customer service trends that companies can currently rely on include, but aren't limited to:
- Data analytics (especially predictive analysis)
- Cybersecurity to keep user's data safe
- Augmented reality to make things fun
- Round the clock live chat customer support
- Omnichannel support (social media, email, etc)
By leveraging these customer support technology trends, many companies are indeed making giant leaps in customer experience. Of all these trends, the prime focus should be on omnichannel support since customers now expect to get help over email and social media platforms.
Top 10 customer service trends to follow
1. Omnichannel support
Being omnichannel is an emergence of new trends in customer service. Gone are those days of contacting the company in two ways: (i) phone (ii) fax. The latest customer service trends allow you to choose your own pick to connect with the support agent - phone, email, live chat, SMS, and social media, etc.
Following the omnichannel customer service trend, companies can create a seamless customer experience and gain maximum customer satisfaction.
Benefits
- High business performance with on the go customer service
- Providing real-time assistance via voice and video chat
- Fetch in-depth insights on customer profile
- Make availability across various channels
Streamlining the customer information and messages across multiple channels so that you can provide exceptional service to your customers. The customer support team can easily handle customer conversations through various channels from one roof.
2. Real-time assistance with co-browsing and video chat
Advanced technology and new marketing strategies have offered a number of ways to connect with the consumer and help them to know the products or services transparently. But what if the customers are on your website browsing the services or the pricing page prior to the final purchase.
Video chat or live chat is the right way to guide the customer with his queries and help him to walk through the services and provide accurate information via real-time support. Including real-time support to the customer service trends of your company will benefit you in many ways.
Highlights of Real-time support:
- Instant resolution of the customer queries and problems
- Saves plenty of time for the agent and the customer
- Maximizes chances of conversion of sales
- Simple usability for the customer
- Escalates customer engagement and satisfaction
3. Be mobile first
"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 affect more than just your digital operations - it will transform your entire business." - Thomas Husson, Vice President, and Principal Analyst at Forrester Research.
Mobile channel plays the main role in customer success and efficiency of your customer support team. Resolution of the issues through the phone is a great indicator of customer satisfaction. It develops customer loyalty and rapport with customers.
It can be concluded that customer service via mobile phones is a benefit for your organization because of their use of emerging trends in customer service.
4. Automated self-service
Often the quality of customer support offered by the support team determines the product image. Automation leads to maximize the efficiency and accuracy of your customer support team, at the same time minimizes the response time and escalates customer satisfaction.
Automation can be an important customer self service trend that can not only customer service experience but also get plenty of time to focus on significant communication with customers for elevating better support.
Time to reconstruct customer service technology trends to stay with a good rapport in the market. According to Gartner Report, "85% of customer-brand relationships handled by customer support experts by 2021. "
5. Customer service as a part of the company culture
Good customer service is one of the key ingredients that impact business growth else it may be left behind. Effective customer service along with customer data collection is imperative to achieve growth in the revenue, gain market share, etc.
A survey made by Deloitte's Global Human Capital Trends covering more than 7,000 executives in 130 countries reports that only 28% of them "believe they understand their culture well, while only 19% believe they have the 'right culture."
6. Support automation with AI chatbots
One of the most anticipated customer care trends is the growing use of bots to manage customer support at scale without a human touch. The emergence and continuous rise of customer service bots or chatbots authorize organizations to provide a gateway for round the clock support via automated replies that instantly assists the customer to figure out the technical fault.
Many large businesses have and are looking forward to endorsing customer service future trends in the new year 2021 that will take it to the peak of upgraded trends. Combined 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 queries of the customers. The way chatbots are rising it is predicted that it can curtail the business costs by $8 billion by 2022 - according to a CNBC report.
7. Personalization: an integral part of customer care trends
Everyone loves the personalization. It has been adopted by organizations to entice consumers to purchase products and services with personalized offers.
Personalized customer care trends help developing loyalty with customers. Giving customers a chance to choose the way to connect with businesses undoubtedly add value to their experience. It is all about giving a wonderful personalized experience. Personalized support can do wonders for customer retention in the following ways:
- Engage with customers giving a personal touch
- Converse with customers using their name
- Learn customer interests
- Know their requirements
Every customer expects a business to understand him or her requirements fully and recommend product or service options. By sending proper marketing messages and considering customers as unique individual takes business one step ahead.
8. Connect via social media channels
"You can use social media to turn strangers into friends, friends into customers and customers into salespeople." - Seth Godin
Social media channels are the best way to connect with your customers. It is essential to give your company a face on top social platforms in today's time and deliver prompt social media customer service. About 63% of customers expect companies to offer support via social media, and 35% of customers prefer it over other channels. "
The customer complaints and support requests are intercepted and displayed to the support team on their dashboard. The support team can then contact the customer / client over the same platform and resolve their queries.
Advantages:
- Engage directly with your customers.
- Respond and resolve customer problems in public will improve public relations
- Impress your customers by treating them with respect
9. Machine learning to improve CX
Machine learning, emerging customer service trends 2021 can help organizations in improving overall customer experience. Chat applications powered by artificial intelligence are trending. Large organizations, as well as startups, are leveraging this to reduce costs and improve support for customers.
For instance, Swiggy, a food delivery network, has recently powered their live chat support with an artificial intelligence bot, which has enabled customers to automatically place their orders faster without any human interaction, also cancel orders, or provide special instructions.
Predictive analytics has especially proved to be very effective. Through this, scenarios that will result in support calls can be predicted easily. Implementing m + achine learning in customer service technology trends will give you a significant difference in business growth.
10. UX is a key in customer service
The success of your business is determined by the experience of your end-users. User experience matters a lot if you want your business to grow and more customers to visit your website.
As per studies 88% of online consumers hardly choose to return back to the website after a bad experience. A case study shows a well-tailored user interface could escalate your website's conversion rate by up to 200%, while better UX design could boost conversion rates up to 400%.
Sometimes, you can even associate user experience with customer service. As stated by the Nielsen Norman Group, a good user experience meets "the exact needs of the customer, without fuss or bother." But, to go above and beyond with user experience means creating something that is “a joy to use,” they said.
Key takeaways of customer service technology trends
Hopefully, the aforementioned customer service trends convinces you. A business with a customer centric vision definitely helps to be in the game for a long time. The tools and customer service trends discussed above can make your business highly customer success-driven and make your customer service a true differentiator factor for you.
