In this day and age customer is king, which is why customer service strategies need to be in accordance with the principles of relationship management. These principles determine the success of businesses in today's world. The aspect of customer services is undergoing change and the businesses have to keep tabs on the latest trends to keep up against their competitors. This field has become highly important because the buyers' power has increased and so has the competition. In order to get the attention of the customers and to keep them loyal toward a brand, companies need to pay great attention to their needs.
Listed below are the top trends which companies should be paying attention to:
The surge in technological progress has changed everything about customers and their behavior. They do not behave the some way; their attitude has changed, expectations and activities have changed, but the only thing that has remained the same is the underlying philosophy. Customers expect to be viewed as more than a source of income and this digital age has ensured that they are equipped with the necessary tools that allow them to get exactly what they need. This is perhaps another significant change in the market. These tools provide access to the customers to create, publish content and also give them access to available content.
Mobile applications are being developed in order to create better customer experience, by many small businesses. This provides them with a competitive edge over bigger companies. This is significant because the advent of smart phones has enabled customers to buy online with different applications. Customers, now, expect companies to be on their toes and to provide the experience and services they require at the time, and in a format which is most suitable to them.
Customer service should be present throughout the different channels of communication. Voice remains the primary communication channel across all demographic levels. This is closely followed by self service, email and chat. The rate, at which these channels of communication are used, is changing constantly. Most buyers demand exceptional customer service, throughout all the channels simultaneously as well. That's because not only does this allow them to shop quickly but efficiently as well. A business's customer service will be the deal breaker in this case.
The year 2013 witnessed a large number of organizations shifting to improve their customer service. This involved formalizing the actions of agents, so that service delivery could be streamlined, the reducing training time required by agents, compliance and assurance of different policies of the company and minimizing costs. 2014 further saw the emphasis of training and guiding agents so that they are able to perform the service resolution process in a better way.
In accordance with a survey conducted by Forrester's Forrsights Networks and Telecommunications, it is evident that around 29 percent of organizations are now planning to invest in outbound communication channels. This survey includes those companies which are planning to make the investment within the next 12 months. This trend was also seen in many of the vendor acquisitions of 2013, where it was the intent of businesses to merge these capabilities in order to provide much better customer services solutions. This also acts as the final link to cover the gap that exists between the inbound and the outbound communication channels. Now, companies are looking to provide outbound communications services which are in compliance with the regulations governing such outbound operations.
Sameer Bhatia is founder & CEO of ProProfs, a leading provider of online learning tools for building, testing, and applying knowledge. ProProfs Knowledge Base Software is used to create highly-searchable online FAQs to improve customer service and reduce tickets.