5 Customer Service Experience And CX Predictions For 2018

In this Era-of-the-Customer, all business establishments understand that it is the customers who call the shots. Customers are better informed and smarter nowadays, as they have recognized that they have more options and so are more stringently demanding about the customer service experience they receive, which they expect to be right the first time and every time. The following are 5 predictions that you cannot ignore. For the most part, these are certain customer experience management trends that keep tending, and which, smart companies follow and react accordingly.

In this Era-of-the-Customer, all business establishments understand that it is the customers who call the shots. Customers are better informed and smarter nowadays, as they have recognized that they have more options and so are more stringently demanding about the customer service experience they receive, which they expect to be right the first time and every time. The new age customers expect business houses to take care of their issues in a way that not only keeps them happy but also help restore their faith and confidence in the company.

While many companies see this as a big burden on their shoulders, there are others who view this as a golden window of opportunity to meet their customers, exceed the customer expectations, and so win over new customers by creating loyalty with their existing ones.

If you make customers unhappy in the physical world, they might each tell 6 friends. If you make customers unhappy on the Internet, they can each tell 6,000 friends. - Jeff Bezos Click To Tweet

The following are 5 predictions that you cannot ignore.
For the most part, these are certain customer experience management trends that keep tending, and which, smart companies follow and react accordingly.

Self-service customer support is growing in popularity

Customers expect companies they do business with to provide them support in a way that is easy and convenient for the customers. It has been noticed in numerous studies that customers visit the company websites not to look for telephone numbers but to look for an answer to their problems or questions in hand. In the recent times, videos have become a powerful means to answer frequently asked questions. These “how-to” type videos not only offer answers to questions but they also show the customers and visitors how to properly use the company’s products or services. Hence, this video-based support also doubles up as a marketing tool, since enhancing customer service experience is the new approach to marketing.

AI continues to be the hottest topic in customer experience management

Computers now effectively handle low-level customer support questions and its capabilities are increasing. Much like, what reminds us of the Moor’s Law, which says that the power and capacity of the microchip (the number of transistors on a chip) will be doubled every passing year. This is exactly what is happening with Artificial Intelligence. The power and capability of Artificial Intelligence is growing at a stellar pace. The good news is, while in the past using AI for enhancing customer support experience, was prohibitively high for most companies, the modern day AI solutions that are now being developed for SMB (Small and Medium Business) can be found at an affordable price.

AI will also support the employee apart from the customers

While the majority of people are focusing on how AI can be used for communicating with their customers, there are some organizations those who are also using Artificial Intelligence to support the agents. In this case, the “machine” listening to the discussion between the customer and the agent, is capable of providing the agent with up-to-date information and data needed to respond to the customer’s questions. According to the words of Ginni Rometty (CEO of IBM) – when you turn around the letter in Artificial Intelligence, ‘AI’ reverses to ‘IA’, which means for ‘Intelligent Assistant’, and over here, the machine “assistant” extends help and support the agents instead of the customers.

Amazon will shift into Brick-and-mortar retail

We have already seen as more and more Brick-and-mortar retailers are gaining grounds online, giants like Amazon has similarly moved into the retail brick-and-mortar store business on grocery items by recognizing the delicate sense of balance between the traditional and the digital retail worlds. And, this is just the start, for this shifting economy fueled by customer service is a convenience that will eventually benefit the customers.

Convenience is the new CX and customer service strategy

The next wave of disruptors to any industry is going to include the concept of convenience in 2018. We all have seen how the conveniences of Uber cabs have disrupted the whole taxicab industry. Moreover, Amazon has also paved the path of convenience and has become one of the most convenient companies on the planet to do business with. Hence, convenience is the newest service weapon to enhance customer service experience, and customer experience management this year.

Conclusion

So make sure that you are keeping up with the trends to follow in 2018, by offering your customers the service and customer experience that are engaging, easy, and convenient, to make this year a great time for both your customers and your company.

Wait! If you have 2 minutes to spare… leave a comment below letting us know what was your biggest takeaway!

Why and How Should You Greet the Customers In 2018?

To gain business and grow your reputations never forget to treat your customers, as you would want to be treated. Use your own experience, think beyond products and services, and closely inspect your customer service experience with other brands, which may help your customers to build a positive connection with your company this year.

In the Internet-age, to greet the customers and create a customer-service strategy has never been more important ever before. News travels fast and news that is bad travels even faster. Companies that relax their customer-service standards, fail to comply and respond, or reply to every customer complains, can spell disaster for their business.

We have seen numerous stories in 2017 of poorly handled customer support situations that have gone viral. Business establishments that allow customers to direct their angst towards a specific brand have proliferated in the recent times.

According to Zendesk 79% of high-income households, avoid vendors for 2+ years after having a bad customer service experience. Click To Tweet

On a local level, as bloggers can help you gain business, they can also create havoc on a company’s reputation, canceling out years of good reputation with a few negative posts about your brand online.

However, this news is not that bad. For, businesses that embrace the customer-experience responsibilities can adopt social media and take the help of technology, to circulate endorsements, positive reviews, and their success stories. There are many organizations those who have succeeded in turning their customers into “wild fans”, by superseding the expectations of their customers and clients, or by identifying unique touch points in their customer engagement process that can create or destroy a sale.

So how do you fight with this double-edged sword of social media and customer experience in 2018?

To start with, let us discuss the fundamental aspects of what signifies a great customer experience for your customers. Delivering great customer experience can create a lifelong relationship with your customers, but it is really hard to start with the earliest levels of engagement.

Hence, as you check on your brand’s customer-service strategies, here are three quick tips that can help you support your end goals to gain business by creating happy customers that spread the good word about your brand, services, products, and technology:

  1. Captivate customers from the first point of engagement

In this very moment, while you are reading this article, hundreds of companies across the world are losing business by mistreating their customers.

For example, if your employees do not know how to greet the customer, a customer may walk into your store, is greeted by nobody, and is compelled to wait for service. This is obviously not a great way to create a first impression of yourself to your customers.

We know of instances, whereby there are business establishments those have lost more than half of their customers this way. Similarly, many businesses do not even know how many clienteles they lose.

Efficient business establishments never make their customers wait, but they roll out the red carpet, by knowing how to greet the customers in a proper way.

Therefore, always make sure that you have an employee ready to greet your clienteles.

There are many technologies that can even do the “greeting” for you, like as in in-store kiosk that help customers “check-in” for service, or mobile application technology that queue customers in a virtual line.

  1. Address negative reviews and customer complaints, openly and compassionately

In case of negative feedback and customer complains, move quickly and be empathetic. Always put yourself in the customer’s shoes to understand what is driving their unhappiness. The most important thing to gain business and recover lost sale is to never become confrontational.  Since doing this most often fans the fire rather than dousing it.

In order to “COPE” with negative feedback and complains your employees need 4 elements in their checklist:

Contrition- the ability to feel sorry and apologize

Own up the issue and take responsibility

Prevent the mistake from happening again

Explain to the customer what has happened and what and you are doing to prevent it from happening once more.

  1. Encourage customers to share their experience with your brand

The era when a bad customer experience was only confined to a few close friends and relatives is over. Today, mobile and online reviews can magnify every customer experience, be it good or bad, in space and time. Social media like Facebook and Twitter are a platform that can make both good and bad reviews spread and swell like a wildfire.

Therefore, not only greet your customers once they enter your brick and mortar or virtual space, but it is also a good practice to encourage them to review your services and provide feedback, which makes it easier for your customers to promote your brand.

This can be as simple as sending a “Review and Like our page on Facebook” reminder on email to your customers, using CRM software to automate your email campaigns or offer a discount to customers those who send a tweet with a referral or recommendation for your brand.

Always remember to keep up the interaction, by thanking your customers who provide a nice shout-out.

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Takeaway

Lastly, to gain business and grow your reputations never forget to treat your customers, as you would want to be treated. Use your own experience, think beyond products and services, and closely inspect your customer service experience with other brands, which may help your customers to build a positive connection with your company this year.

Wait! If you have 2 minutes to spare… leave a comment below letting us know what was your biggest takeaway!