Consumers’ expectations about customer service change every year. Because of this, It is important for customer service professionals to know where customer service is headed in 2013 so they can plan for success. This article outlines five customer service trends for 2013:
- Social media is here to stay and is growing in importance in relation to customer service. Companies must address customers’ complaints and fix problems, as well as respond to positive comments. You need to take charge of your image as it exists today in the public forum that is social media.
- Gamification continues to become more popular. Companies are redefining the customer experience by offering interactive games that combine customer engagement with entertainment.
- Big Data is getting bigger. Companies are gathering data in a myriad of ways – surveys, social media comments, buying trends, and so on. The key is to thoughtfully and purposefully collect effective data and then use it to your advantage.
- Mobile devices have made instant communication the norm. Customers are using their devices to connect with customer support centers via social media, voice, instant chat and video chat.
- Customer service expectations have grown. Customers expect the best. No matter what your industry, you must promise a high level of service and then keep your promise — or risk negative feedback on social media and the loss of customers.
Why is it so important to hold your customer service to the highest standard? Because if you don’t provide top-notch customer service, your competitors will! What’s worse is that people will start raving about your competitor’s services and products instead of yours. Knowing that customer feedback can be easily shared and found via mobile, email and social media, you want to make sure you impress your customers in every interaction you have with them.
Customer experience comes from the accumulation of various customer services you provide across multiple channels over time and it makes it hard for brands to manage it. Having a Customer Experience Management program in place enables you to efficiently capture customer feedback and turn it into actionable information for improving operations across locations. With the enhanced capability that is developed, you will not only be collecting solicited data from customer surveys but also unsolicited customer feedback from social media streams.
Want to learn how Customer Experience Management solution is evolving as social media is gradually taking center stage? And how can these insights gained from social channels be combined with the customer surveys you may already be using to get a full view of customer sentiment? Register for this webinar and learn how looking at the customer experience through a “social” lens can help you to see the big picture of customer feedback.