Customer service solutions are necessary to understand the needs and demands of your customers and to improve the brand’s market value. Offering optimal customer service experience increases customer satisfaction. Many businesses fail to upgrade their customer service solutions according to the best practices. This means they lag in providing timely responses and urgent support to the customers. Good customer service ensures that the customers’ queries are answered vigilantly and their demands are met timely.
7 Customer Service Trends in 2022
The trends in customer service are in constant flux. Moreover, due to the pandemic, many customers now prefer to get the services via mobile phones or digital platforms. The trends in customer support systems are constantly evolving; therefore, to bolster your business, you need to keep an eye on the changing trends of customer service management and relevant software tools. In this blog, you will get to know about the top 7 trends to follow to utilize customer service solutions for the current year 2022.
1. Social Media Platforms as a Medium for Customer Service Solutions
Companies acknowledge social media platforms as a potential tool but merely for advertising purposes. There are multiple ways to use social media and customer service is one of the functions businesses can perform on their social media channels. Businesses can engage their customers and connect with them to generate leads. Track your customers and bring them on social media platforms to increase engagement. In this way, you can communicate with your audience and always reply to their comments and tweets quickly. Additionally, many businesses also connect with their customers by giving special offers. You must use your social media profiles to connect and communicate, not to sell. Social media can be used to generate leads through making connections and this, in turn, provides the best customer service.
2. The Rise of Chatbots
In 2022, another trending customer service solution is the increasing use of knowledge-based databases and chat-bots. The demand for customer service solutions has increased over time. Therefore, businesses have switched to automated chatbots and artificial intelligence. In 2020, the customer self-service trend became more popular. A Zendesk study shows that in 2020, customer interaction with automated chatbots increased by 81%. Companies use it as an integral part of their messaging strategy.
Moreover, chatbots can easily solve the less complex problems faced by customers, for example, tracking a parcel, account status, balance inquiry, and order status. Customers can also get minimal technical queries answered by chatbots while waiting for a human agent to connect to them. Similarly, the knowledge-based databases also help customers by providing them information from the company website. According to a statement from the book ‘The Effortless Experiences’, almost 58% of customers try to find answers to the queries on the company’s website before contacting their customer service department.
If businesses invest in self-service solutions and provide relevant information on the company’s website, it can greatly benefit them. Furthermore, this reduces the burden on their customer service department and allows the representatives to resolve more issues in less time. Chatbots can provide 24/7 support to the customers without requiring human agents to be present all the time. This helps in reducing a company’s operating costs.
3. Communication
The idea of personalized communication is not new in 2022. Yet it is a popular trend in customer service solutions and is widely adopted by businesses. The new aspect of this service is the use of advanced tools to access the customers and tap the relevant market. These tools enable data-driven personalization of the customer data among the executives. According to a recent KPMG CIO report, 91% of CIOs realize the fact that the way they manage customer data has become equally significant as a company’s services and products.
The year 2022 has introduced new technical tools and software to enable a data-driven customer service experience which was unimaginable in the past since it was highly resource-intensive for the majority of the companies. With the help of powerful and affordable software, it has now become convenient to tap the data to serve your customers better.
Hyper-personalization is also an important customer service trend in 2022 since customers value the highly-personalized and friendly interaction with the companies. Epsilon reports that 80% of customers are likely to purchase if the brand offers them a highly customized experience. Businesses can unify the customer data to ensure that the information is accessible by the customer service representatives. Moreover, they can use upgraded intelligence technologies to improve customer support services and fulfill customers’ expectations.
4. The Use of Customer Service Tools
Customer service tools like Zendesk, Hootsuite, etc., are the best way to empower your customers and foster an ambiance of success for your company. Various help-desk software such as Zendesk and Hootsuite is one of the customer service solutions that are trending in 2022 and has created ease for businesses and customers alike. These types of software are essential to improve the customer service experience as they unify customer information and conversations across different channels in a single location.
With the help of this software, businesses can drive customer satisfaction and streamline self-service. Hootsuite is a trending software that allows the teams and customers to engage well with each other and schedule content across different social networks from one primary dashboard. It is the best tool for customer service operations and has a vast range of features as well as a large library of integration.
Zendesk is also among the best customer service software that enables businesses to establish an effortless customer support experience leading to high productivity and greater satisfaction. The Zendesk suite consists of an Agent workspace that provides all the necessary tools needed to collaborate with customers and other teams. This is to generate personalized and fast responses from a single unified interface. Additionally, this software provides flexibility for enterprises to customize their customer services with the help of advanced tools such as AI-powered automation and advanced workflow capabilities. Small and big enterprises can work efficiently with Zendesk as it enables the customer service teams to work in a better way and make the most of their energy and time.
5. The Ticketing Software for a Customer Support System
The ticketing software has been implemented by many enterprises to bolster their customer support system. Ticketing software creates a unique ticket for each customer listing their query or request which in turn enables the customers to track the progress of their case. When a customer’s issue is resolved, the customer support team can close a ticket. This helps the teams to know how many requests are pending by tracking the number of tickets in the queue.
They can provide the customers with an estimated time required for their issue resolution. Ticketing software is the best tool for customer services as it is convenient and equally user-friendly for representatives and customers. It maintains an organized workflow and offers a personalized service experience to the customers. The BPO firms often implement the ticketing system when you outsource customer services.
6. The Live Chat Window
Live Chat has become an efficient way to resolve customers’ issues timely. It is usually active on social media platforms through a mobile app, website, or browser. Also, it has become one of the prominent customer service trends. Live chat software offer convenience by automating workflows. Queries are usually answered based on previously created responses that are canned. Using automation, these responses are then delivered through webchat. For more complex questions, the customers are offered a scheduled call with a senior support agent. Usually, businesses opt for BPO solutions to avail themselves of high-end customer support services. Outsourcing customer services to external partners can assist you in managing the live chat in a better way while your in-house team focuses on other tasks on their plates.
7. Know your Customers’ Queries with Creative FAQ and Surveys
Among various options available for keeping up with customer service standards, the most creative ones are FAQs and surveys. It is important to build a foundation to understand your customers. Businesses can offer long or random short surveys on their websites to ask customers about their experience with the services. This is the best way to extract valuable information from your customers. Once the information is obtained about their complaints, queries, and interests, it can be utilized every time they contact you.
Qeryz is a smart survey solution that can serve the purpose. You can engage visitors to your site by creating short surveys on the landing pages. Your site content must be informative enough to answer all the customers’ queries. Addressing your customers’ requests is one of the best marketing strategies and this can be attained by offering top-notch customer support solutions.
The Bottom Line
Customer service solutions are essential to promote the growth of your business. If you are looking for a reliable source to manage your customer services according to the best marketing practices, you can outsource customer service to experts. There are various benefits of outsourcing your customer services. Partnering with Outsourcing4work offers a top-notch customer service experience for your business. Want to learn more? Visit our website and book a free non-binding consultation now.