What’s your impression of good customer service?Most businesses do their best to serve their audience in the most effective way possible. The customers demand greater efficiency, so businesses compete to deliver it. According to Customers 2020: A Progress Report by Walker,
consumers will consider customer service to be more important than product and pricing by 2020. By then, they will be getting advanced opportunities to contact support and get all issues solved.
Technology plays a major role in the future of customer support. Live chat software and other software as a service is changing everything. But that’s not all. We’ll see other important shifts in this department, so we better keep pace with the changes.
10 Changes Technology Will Bring to Customer Service in Future
Quick Navigation
- SaaS Leads the Changes
- Social Proof Is Everything
- More Technology to Keep Customers Updated
- Tech Support Is Getting More Important
- Data Analytics Will Guide Decision Making
- SEO Will Play a Greater Role in Customer Support
- Live Chat Is Becoming a Staple
- Customer Support Technology Will Be a Competitive Differentiator
- Blockchain Is Getting In Too!
- It’s Time for Video Communication to Take the Lead
#1. SaaS Leads The Changes
Businesses that start using the SaaS help desk tools never go back to their old ways of providing support. This is a tool that helps the customer service representatives to track requests and resolve any issues.
A help desk ticketing system is effective because it delivers information for the representative to start solving an issue right away. If the customer is being handled by several representatives, they won’t have to answer the same questions over and over again. Let’s say you order a makeup product and you get it with an expired date. You contact the support and you explain the issue. They forward you to another department. You get a message, but the agent asks you to explain the issue… again. The ticketing system solves that problem.
There is another element to SaaS: businesses can use it to enhance the productivity of the support team. For example something like Setapp gives them access on all kinds of Mac apps, which help the agents to manage their time, stay more focused, and write better responses.
#2. Social Proof Is Everything
As the customers start considering their experience as more important than other factors, they will expect brands to identify and fix all issues. They will want to see how your brand fixes issues, so they will check.
This is where social media comes into the picture. Social media is counted in one of the best SaaS customer service tips. It’s time to stop using it for the sole purpose of promotion. It’s a communication tool that connects brands with their users. More businesses are opening up to fixing issues via Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and other platforms. This is not only convenient for the customers, but also helps the brand build social proof.
#3. More Technology to Keep Customers Updated
When you’re thinking about boosting engagement, few things come to mind: app push notifications, website banners, great landing pages, and tons of social media activity. Yes; brands already use those techniques to boost engagement. But it’s time for the customer support department to make an effort, too.
Whenever a returning user visits your website, the live chat can push information about your new product.
Pro-tip: Combine this strategy with the benefits and functionality of an expertly designed landing page. Both your potential and existing customers will be able to derive more value from your business if you have an informative, smart landing page. The live chat can then help to answer the questions your users may still have, if any, after browsing your website.
#4. Tech Support Is Getting More Important
If you’re selling app, software or any kind of device, you clearly expect people to have issues with it. Maybe they don’t understand how to use it or maybe something really goes wrong. They want to call customer service and they need a quick solution.
Apple is known for offering outstanding technology support. They enable the customers to reach out via live chat, web form, and a special app. Live agents guide the users through various troubleshooting procedures, and it usually works.
This is the kind of effectiveness that every technology brand should reach and hope to exceed.
#5. Data Analytics Will Guide Decision Making
Whenever someone contacts the support team, they will collect quantitative measures on effectiveness. This may be done via surveys after the issues were solved. When the users share their experience about the effectiveness, the support team can become better.
We receive data even if we don’t specifically ask the customers to share it. Each interaction gives us measurable data on the speed of solutions, types of issues, and more. With this information, the team can understand the general problems of the base of customers, so they can do something to prevent them from happening.
Through surveys and other types of customer feedback, the support team will also understand the pain points of their audience. If they notice a pattern in the survey answers, they can inspire changes in the product or service. They can also instruct the content development team to improve the Q&A section at the site. With the data the customer service department collects, the marketing team can also achieve better results. They will address the pain points, so they will develop a customer-centric approach to promoting products and services.
Data analytics give us a complete view of the customers. Thanks to that knowledge, we can improve our relationships with them.
#6. SEO Will Play a Greater Role in Customer Support
The most conventional way for a customer to solve an issue is to contact the support team. But today, people are more willing to ask Google. If they search for solutions on problems related to your products or services, you want them at your website. Why? Because if they end up at another site, they may get wrong suggestions that could make the problem worse.
You need an impressive knowledge base, which guides customers through different solutions. For this, you’ll have to predict the issues and questions the users have, so you’ll develop a relevant seo campaign. If you’re struggling with this, consider leveraging professional e-commerce SEO services to enhance your strategy.
#7. Live Chat Is Becoming a Staple
Without live chat software, the customer support department is no longer considered effective.
You don’t have to hire people to attend the chat 24/7. A chatbot may act as software as a service, answering questions and resolving common issues. If the issue is unique and the bot cannot provide instructions, the customer will be effortlessly forwarded towards an agent.
#8. Customer Support Technology Will Be a Competitive Differentiator
When brands use advanced technology and data science for providing support, they become a better choice than competitors, even if they offer more expensive products. The support system is becoming a critical factor for gaining competitive advantage.
You can expect to see brands investing more in this segment.
#9. Blockchain Is Getting In Too!
Blockchain goes way beyond cryptocurrencies. It will improve the effectiveness of post-sales customer support, especially in the electronics industry. Companies will have access to a single ledger containing the manufacturing data, install date, information about ownership, and all other details about the product. Since all the information regarding these factors will be shared among the customer, the manufacturer, the parts provider, and any other parties involved in real time, the warranty entitlement will be faster and easier. By leveraging the transparency, security, and efficiency of blockchain technology, a blockchain development company can offer its clients a more streamlined and effective post-sales support system.
Through blockchain, the support can track when the customer bought the product and what condition it was in. They can track back the production batch and the date, and they can compare this issue to the overall complaints received for products from that batch, production date, and country of origin.
#10. It’s Time for Video Communication to Take the Lead
Direct contact is more powerful than text messaging. It’s about time companies start investing in real-time video support. This makes it easier for the customer to explain the issue, but it also helps the agent to understand their tone.
Did You Already Adopt Some of These Trends?
The future of customer support is not far away. Brands are making significant changes by the day. Where do you stand?
Remember: better customer support gives you a competitive advantage, so it practically takes your business forward.
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