We propose to the reader of this blog a test of intuitive acuity: write down, without trickery, the first three ideas that come to mind when using the adjective "demanding". What do you imagine when you talk about someone who is portrayed as "demanding"? Most probably associate the concept with terms like "tough," "inflexible," "rigorous," "thorough," "rigid," "stern," "severe," or "straight," right? But if the reader has managed to associate it also with words like "fair", "grateful" or "loyal", congratulations: you are in line with the leading trends in Customer Experience.
This is clear from a report recently published by the widely recognised specialist software company Zendesk, whose key insights can be accessed in a web version and, in slightly more detail, in a PDF version. The document is based on data from 45,000 companies operating Zendesk software worldwide, and interviews with 1,850 customers, 570 support agents and 170 support managers in six countries: Australia, Brazil, Canada, Germany, the United States and the United Kingdom.
According to this report, new technology that allows companies to establish relationships directly with consumers has resulted in an increase in the interest that customers themselves have taken in these relationships. Customers today compare companies to the "best of the best" in Customer Experience. They are not satisfied with just anything; they demand that their relationships be more memorable and promising than ever before.
Being a direct-to-customer (B2C) business is perhaps tougher today than ever before. Precisely because of the increased demands, metrics are showing higher drops in customer satisfaction (CSAT), as well as an increase of more than 2.5 hours in the average time spent satisfying customer needs. Specifically, and according to Zendesk data, in the last five years CSAT has fallen from 94.6% in 2013 to 92.5% in 2018, and although it may not seem a significant drop, it should not be forgotten that it is a trend that is accelerating: in 2018 alone the fall was 0.9%.
In fact, customers themselves claim to be more demanding than before, and this is something that the agents themselves perceive. Nearly 6 out of 10 (59%) agree that their clients' expectations have increased significantly.
So where is the good news? Well, those same customers, whose levels of demand are unprecedented, are also willing to reward the best customer service. So much so that 17 out of every 20 customers (84%) say that it is an important variable when deciding to purchase products or services from a company, above other premises such as convenience, or even the company's reputation. This being the case, and in a scenario of higher levels of demand than ever before, both in quantity and intensity, it is advisable to adapt the pace of companies to that of their markets. In this sense, the report stresses that globally there has been an increase of 145% in the number of tickets, compared to only 66% in the size of the service and support teams.
Taking into account these changing attitudes and the benefits derived from investing in Customer Experience, the paper identifies the following six major trends for this year:
Omnichannel is the way
"Customers like to switch channels and choose the channel that best suits their needs. For example, baby boomers prefer phone support, while millennials and Generation Z prefer chat and self-service." Data that is not exactly consistent with reality in terms of support devices. But above all they are inconsistent with the absence of integrated omnichannel support solutions, to keep all touch points covered.
The necessary investment: data platforms
A good platform is the gateway to customer data, something the report's authors call "the secret sauce to creating a seamless experience for customers and agents." Two out of three support teams are "flying blind" because of something as basic as not collecting feedback from their own customers, which is just one of the areas customers are most critical of: they don't like repeating the same information over and over again.
Being "proactive" needs to be demonstrated.
And being proactive is as "simple" as contacting customers before they know they need help. It's something that 3 out of 10 support teams already do with a good impact on their sales and marketing. It's about informing customers about promotions, discounts and offers, but not just that. The real benefit of proactive engagement is "reducing customer effort, preventing problems with a product and minimizing support tickets".
AI is the future
Humans still like to deal with humans, but having artificial intelligence on your side improves the Customer Experience. "High-performing companies are twice as likely to partner with Artificial Intelligence." While this is legitimate hype from the company responsible for the report, the data derived from the use of AI capabilities does not bear replication: 225,000 agent hours saved, 2,800 years "paid back" to customers, 21% faster ticket resolution and up to six times the volume of requests handled.
Advocate for your agents
Support agents need to feel supported in their working environment. Approximately 90% of customer service managers predict that customer enquiries will increase in the coming year, therefore the flow needs to be more efficient and activity oriented based on metrics, allowing for a holistic view of the customer journey.
Photo by Startaê Team on Unsplash
