The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 saw significant growth in the digital transformation of businesses. With remote working becoming the new normal, businesses started adapting to new tools for the smooth functioning of company operations.
This increased adoption of innovative technologies triggered an era of digital transformation that fosters a business environment that promotes growth. It also helps businesses achieve their goals. One sector that has seen this tremendous shift is the customer service industry.
Today, customer service is about how you engage your customers with your services and your brand. It is about providing a hiccup-free experience by offering them excellent services on a regular basis. Customer service is no longer a destination, it is a journey.
The primary aim of the customer service industry today is fostering meaningful relationships with the customers and bringing them together to form a community.
From customer relationship training to chatbots for improved customer satisfaction, every aspect of the customer service industry is impacted by digital transformation.
In this post, we will learn about the top five emerging trends that show how digital transformation is improving the customer service industry.
#1 – Chatbots, Automation, and AI Will Continue to Transform Customer Service
One of the best customer service techniques that will continue to gain attention in the customer service industry is 24X7 chat support. Based on this research, live chat is said to deliver higher customer satisfaction (73%) when compared with phone support (44%) and email support (61%).
Chats enable you to engage with your customers in real time more seamlessly and conveniently. Besides, it also helps you personalize the experience for your customers.
Chat support is no longer restricted to a person sitting behind a computer screen to answer customer’s queries. This happened with the spread of chatbot and WhatsApp chatbot popularity spreading. By employing artificial intelligence, machine learning and natural language processing, chatbots can carry out certain support-related activities without any manual intervention.
According to the survey conducted by HubSpot, 90% of customers expect an immediate response (10 minutes or less) with their customer service questions.
Indeed, chatbots are the future of the customer service industry. Chatbots act as human agents to aid the customers with their queries and ensure a smooth experience with your system. Thus, helping you engage with your customers proactively and scaling your support efforts seamlessly.
You can configure your chatbots for
- Scheduling appointments
- Tracking orders, shipments, and deliveries
- Tracking returns and refunds
- Managing subscriptions and renewals
- Handling complaints and queries
We all are aware of the famous Marriott International. Their chatbot named ChatBotlr is designed to help Marriott Rewards members with researching and booking hotels.
It is also programmed to suggest members with trip ideas from their magazine, Marriott Traveler. This chatbot is available through Facebook Messenger and Slack messaging platforms.
Let us not forget that automation speeds up your processes to make them more efficient. For example, instead of assigning support tickets to your team manually, you can quicken the process by configuring automated ticket prioritization and assignment.
Similarly, you can utilize email marketing automation to nurture your customers by providing them tailored guidance on using your system.
#2 – The Demand for Consistent Messaging across Multiple Channels Is Growing
Customers expect excellent experiences from businesses in terms of quality of service, pricing structure, and interactions with the customer service team. They expect consistent messaging across all departments. According to Salesforce, 74% of customers interact with a brand using multiple channels throughout their entire journey.
Whether it is email, business phone, chat, or social media, your messaging should be optimized across all platforms. It should provide a seamless experience to your customers. Failing to do so will show that there is poor collaboration between your sales, support, and marketing teams.
Although messaging is the preferred mode of communication today, aiming towards having an omnichannel customer engagement strategy will help you gain a competitive edge. It is one of the best ways to show your customers that you are available for them. It will help you understand your customers more closely and cater to their needs exceptionally well.
Sephora has nailed their marketing strategy by offering seamless online and in-store shopping experiences.
Source – Moengage Blog
They provide free makeovers, an educated sales team, realistic beauty tips and products to try at their offline stores. While their online store is equipped with extraordinary features such as virtual try-on, makeup tutorials, items wishlists, reward points, and much more. Sephora was one among the few retailers to adopt this strategy in their early days of marketing.
#3 – The Need for Having a Cohesive Customer Service Team Will Grow
The success of your customer service efforts depends largely on your team performance. According to the studies conducted at Goremotely, connected teams have shown a profitability increase of 21%.The more your employees feel connected and engaged, the better they work towards achieving the goals i.e. delivering extraordinary customer service.
Your customer service team should be able to communicate with one another as well as other departments effectively. You should provide them with the necessary tools to collaborate and share information.
To get started, you can sign up for tools like –
- HelpScout for knowledge base
- Zoom for video conferencing
- Calendly for scheduling demos and meetings
- HubSpot CRM for managing your customers
Building a successful and cohesive team is easy. Here are some of the best practices you can implement right away.
- Define your goals for the team
- Provide required training, tools, and other assets for team development
- Plan team-building activities to promote enhanced team chemistry and communication
- Celebrate their achievements with tangible rewards
- Motivate your team to give their best to their designated roles
#4 – Resourceful and Valued Service Will Be the Key to Enhanced Customer Satisfaction
Customer experience is not just about being available for your customers and answering their queries. One of the core ideologies of the customer service industry is to provide them value and resources to make their lives simpler.
A B2B sales study by Gartner revealed around 57% of customers choose to look for other purchase options if they do not receive quality and immediate responses to their queries.
You should ensure that you are offering solutions to the issues your customers are facing. Meeting their needs and expectations with your system and other additional resources will add more value and a personal touch to your brand. You can ask your customers for detailed feedback and try incorporating those changes in your processes if possible.
A popular beauty brand from India, MyGlamm conducts a survey to understand their customers’ needs before launching new products in the market.
They also give away a free lipstick to all the participants of the survey as a reward for their time and efforts. Their gesture of placing the customers first and understanding their requirements is something that every brand should learn from.
Source – MyGlamm Survey
Here are some easy tips that you can use to create value for your customers.
- Identify your strengths i.e. your offerings that sets you apart from your competitors
- Build your content and marketing assets around those strengths
- Streamline your marketing efforts to deliver quality over quantity
- Educate your customers with valuable content about your system via demos, tutorials, webinars, knowledge base, etc.
- Be available for your customers and build lasting relationships with them
- Reward your customers with special discounts and offers to thank them for choosing you
You should aim at building a sense of trust and dependability with your customers.
#5 – Agile Business Culture Will Boost Customer Service Operations
The customer service industry is rapidly evolving. In order to stay at par with these changing industry trends, you need to follow processes that can easily adapt and accommodate these changes.
Having an agile approach to your business will help you identify and invest in the right technologies at the right time. It will also provide a boost to your customer service strategies. Agile methodologies are no longer just a part of the software development industry!
The customer experience management market is expected to grow at an annual growth rate of 17.7% between 2020 to 2027 as per Grand View Research survey.
You can leverage cloud-based SaaS applications such as support helpdesks, chatbots, email marketing software, CRM, digital signature software, and analytics tools to have a complete omnichannel customer service strategy.
For instance, CRM helps businesses manage their customer interactions in a single place. It also helps customer service teams to organize contact data and plan out outreach strategies based on their location, industry, and team size.
Similarly, digital signature tools can take away the hassles of signing and maintaining paper documents. The signing of all your important documents can be done at a click of a button.
According to the FinancesOnline report, 80% of businesses today are already using at least one SaaS software for their business operations. The insights you gain from these SaaS tools will provide you a better idea about your customers and their behavior. Thus, helping you improve your customer experience and deliver the best. In addition, when it comes to customer onboarding processes, you can also use an in app guidance for a more pleasant experience.
Furthermore, you can motivate your teams to perform better by conducting team stand-up meetings to understand their work status and challenges, if any. They can discuss their work, share productivity tips, and stay abreast with the latest customer service trends.
This will bring the entire team together and encourage everyone to communicate and collaborate. It will also build a sense of accountability among the team members.
Wrapping Up
In today’s digitally-empowered, fast-moving customer service industry, digital transformation is no longer a choice. It is mandatory for growth and success. It provides you with an opportunity to attract, engage and retain your customers.
However, it is true that digitally transforming your business can be a tedious and overwhelming task.
Here are a few easy steps that you can follow.
- Identify the features and your offerings that sets you apart from your competitors.
- Establish your presence on various channels – support helpdesk and social media. Design a chatbot with Botsify to guide your customers with their journey.
- Delight your customers with a personalized experience based on their preferences and order history.
Follow these three steps and you will be ready to start your digital transformation journey.
