Customer service is key to long-lasting customer satisfaction. When a company’s customers are deeply impressed by the assistance they receive before, during, and after the purchasing process, they are more inclined to not only come back for repeat purchases but also bring their friends along as new leads for the respective company. This is one of the major reasons why top-tier companies are investing aggressively in optimizing and streamlining their customer care and support platforms. Take Cox customer service as an example, which goes out of the way to ensure a fantastic and seamless customer journey, reaping greater profits and a well-rounded success at the end of the day.
Like everything else around us, technology transforms customer service, as well, upgrading it from the inefficient times of bogged-down support that frustrated customers to no end. Today, customer service has evolved to a remarkable degree by incorporating technological innovations in its structure and strategy. What are the technology trends that have the potential to redefine customer service as a whole? Let’s unravel them below.
Video-Based Communication
Why do people reach out to customer service? Because they have questions, requests, complaints, and other forms of feedback that they want to convey to the representatives of a company first hand. Though many companies still offer phone support, the lines are often busy, the reception is poor and the treatment customers receive from apathetic agents is hopeless. This drives customers away. However, organizations, which inculcate the latest trend of video-based communication in their customer service channels, prove to be victorious.
Due to the pandemic, almost all users have come to rely on video-conferencing apps like Skype or Zoom for continuing their work, education, or other necessities of life. There is something so honest about face-to-face communication that builds a relationship of transparency and credibility, which is all that customers are seeking in a company’s customer support.
So, if you want to offer better customer service, facilitate your customers with an option for video call, and hear them out. In the future, we might also see virtual reality technology enter the arena of customer service, allowing buyers to have a meeting with sellers in a completely simulated environment.
Mobile-First Practices
For many people, smartphones are a gateway to the digital world. This is why the total number of smartphone users exceeds 6 billion on a global level in 2021. Smartphones are sleek, compact mini-computers, which play media, enable communication, and transport users to the World Wide Web. Companies that see the rising trend of smartphone usage among the consumers and make their customer service “mobile-friendly” come out stronger than their competitors.
So, to deliver better customer service, you should design a customer service app, which should ideally be free to download and compatible with several smartphone operating systems. Make sure to keep the interface smooth and user-friendly, with prominent options to contact customer support agents in multiple manners (i.e. on phone, on email, on text, on social media, and on live chat) as well as the buttons to open a self-service portal, wherein customers can find the top FAQs, video tutorials, community forums, and troubleshooting guides.
This kind of mobile-first customer service can promote the sense of self-help among millennials and save the resources of the company, as well.
Automation in Customer Service
Have you ever wondered why customer service representatives are generally disgruntled? Because they have to handle the same problems, answer the same questions, and repeat the same process with hundreds of customers again and again throughout a day. This menial drudgery extinguishes their spark, bringing their performance and productivity bar down.
Automation promises to relieve customer support by taking up 90% of the repetitive tasks with near-accurate efficiency. Yes, companies that employ chatbots in their operations succeed in raising the morale of their agents and satisfying customers at the same time. Chatbots deployed in messenger platforms and live chat support can respond to customer queries around the clock and provide solutions to the degree they’re programmed to handle.
Moreover, digital voice assistants can take customer calls, recognize their intent, and offer query resolution from a shared knowledge base. In case of a complex issue, the automated assistants can instantly route the customer calls to the right department for human support.
We’ve also seen how Artificial Intelligence exhibits Machine Learning capabilities. AI programs can analyze customer interactions and give valuable insights as to how a company can improve its products or upgrade its customer service. So on and so forth.
Blockchain-Based Loyalty Programs
Retaining customers is a vital part of customer service. Your customers may indeed leave you when they find a better opportunity elsewhere, or if they are not satisfied with your company’s offerings. To cancel their commitment, they may reach out to customer service, where the retention department comes into play.
If blockchain technology is integrated into the retention process, it could lead to an effective “incentivization” of the customers, who may reverse the gear and become loyal subscribers of the company. How can you achieve this? By distributing rewards or tokens to customers, who are on the verge of leaving, through blockchain.
Since everyone knows blockchain to be a time-stamped and transparent ledger, which is impossible to hack and is open for everyone to view, customers will be more willing to trust the reward program and stay with the company, increasing the retention rate and making customer service better.
The Final Word
Technology is dynamic. It constantly improves with time. Once technology and customer service join hands, they can change the face of customer-to-company interactions – dispensing ease, convenience, and credibility throughout the communication.
This post covers the top technological trends, such as face-to-face video contact, virtual reality meetings, support applications for smartphones, self-service portals, chatbots in live chats, AI analytics along with big data, and the utilization of blockchain for retention rewards, which can make customer service of a company better than ever.
Since better customer service leads to better customer satisfaction and expectation fulfillment, so applying these strategies is a worthwhile move in every sense of the word.
