With your customer behavior and customer expectations changing every day, your customer service must get a makeover too. As we enter a new decade, we must take a look back at the ways customer behavior and expectations have changed in the last few years and decide which tools and technologies can help us to keep up with the changing customer behavior.
In the past decade, we have seen specific changes in consumer behavior. There are:
- Customers today do not like to wait in a call queue for a long time.
- They expect the companies to respond to their queries and requests immediately.
- They want a personalized customer service experience from brands round the clock.
- They want the convenience of talking to a live agent.
- They do not want to repeat themselves when they are assigned another agent.
- They want their purchased related queries answered on the spot
- They want to do other things while interacting with a company
Therefore, to satisfy the customers, a faster, more personalized, timely customer assistance is needed, one that does not cause hindrance in the daily routine of the customers. Also, having continuous data-driven insights can help you improve your customer satisfaction score. Add a little bit of artificial intelligence into the mix, and you can deliver customer service and customer experience that puts you ahead of your competitors.
Many tools and technologies can help you today in your journey towards customer service excellence. Some of the technologies that are transforming customer service in 2020 and will continue to do so beyond that are:
Live Chat
In 2020, customers are increasingly looking for live web chat assistance. Over 41% of customers today expect a live chat channel to be on a company’s website. That number is even higher for mobile-first customers – more than 50%. That means live chat is no longer a nice to have feature – it has become a competitive necessity. Within the next year or two, live chat is expected to grow by 87%.
Therefore, it is essential to offer your customers this interaction channel to stay ahead of the competition. Live chat allows you to promptly reply to customer queries, save every interaction for further reference, and assist the customers in making online purchasing decisions while allowing the customers the convenience of multitasking and interacting with a live agent without waiting on hold. You can hire a multichannel call center to help you set up and manage a live chat tool embedded on your website, app, or social media pages.
Artificial Intelligence (AI)
Many modern call centers are also implementing artificial intelligence to serve their client companies’ customers better. AI has made a significant impact on call centers with interactive voice response (IVR), the automated phone trees that several customer service teams use to improve efficiency. AI can also be used to assist agents in serving the customers better as it can be used to project all the necessary customer information on the agent’s screen, saving the time to search for relevant information. Advanced AI-enabled IVR tools can interpret customer accents and intonation better, and assign the right calls to the right agents.
However, AI technology is still in the development stage. It will take some time to mature. In the near future, we will see AI becoming more efficient in interpreting tones and emotions. As a result, it will emerge as one of the most powerful customer service tools in the future.
Big Data
Big data and granular insights are the driving force of modern businesses. Call centers today are making it easier for their clients to access their data analytics and make more informed and customer-focused business decisions. Thanks to data-driven insights, it is now possible to know your customers’ preferences and determine where there are scopes for improvement in your customer service. Big data also helps call centers to hire and retain qualified agents who can deliver better customer experience.
Quality Assurance
Quality assurance is the key to deliver the customer experience that your customers have come to expect from you. It can help you build your brand, gain new customers, and get repeat business. According to a survey, by 2020, customers will give importance to the experience than to price or product. Even today, 86% of customers are willing to pay more for better service. 67% of customers cite poor service as a reason for leaving a company.
QA in the call center plays a crucial role in managing customer expectations and loyalty as well as the health of the business in general. It can not only help you improve your methods and services but also can help you measure agent performance, ensure regulatory compliances, and shed light on what is essential for your business success.
These are some of the technologies that are taking the customer service industry by storm in 2020. Each of these technologies will continue to improve and benefit the call center customer service industry for years to come.
Having years of experience in the customer service field, Fusion CX has incorporated several technologies over the years. Fusion CX is a multichannel call center offering Live chat, AI, data analysis, and quality assurance services to its clients. Therefore, we can be the perfect call center partner for you. To know more about our services offered, contact us today!
