Customer service is at the core of customer experience. It’s the service that has changed the most in recent years, and its importance in companies is growing.
Salesforce Research recently published its fifth edition of the “State of Service” report. 8,050 customer service professionals were surveyed to determine:
How service organizations continue to adapt to an ever more digital-first environment;
How economic uncertainty is impacting plans for investments in people, processes, and technology;
The evolving role of field service in overall customer service strategies;
Approaches to talent management and development in a challenging labor market.
This report highlighted 4 major trends:
Connection is the heart of service
Customers have increasing expectations of brands. Companies, especially customer services, need visibility into the entire customer journey in order to provide the best response. Efforts are well underway: 62% of service pros say all departments use the same CRM software.
Customer service teams must also understand the qualities that will set them apart from the competition. One of the most important: empathy. 73% of customers expect companies to understand their unique needs and expectations, yet 56% say most companies treat them like numbers, according to another Salesforce study. However, an empathetic and connected service is not the only thing that is important. Speedy resolution is also a strong expectation, as 83% of customers expect to interact with someone immediately upon contact. On the agent side, 78% say it’s difficult to balance speed and quality.
Digital engagement becomes the norm
The pandemic sent an increasing number of customers to digital channels. As their expectations rise and habits change, they aren’t turning back. The increased use of digital service channels has not dissipated since the previous State of Service survey from early in the pandemic. The use of digital channels such as video support or online chat have seen substantial upticks.
The telephone, despite having decreased since 2020, remains the most used customer service channel today. It is preferred for solving complex issues.
The one with the biggest increase is the video channel. Adoption of video support has increased by 43% since 2020. In 2022, 66% of customer services are using it, compared to 46% in 2020. It’s a channel that appeals to both customers and businesses as it allows:
A humanized customer relationship with fluid and quality exchanges
Faster assistance
More efficient processing of requests
A resolution of problems from the 1st exchange
Improved customer satisfaction and experience
The integration of visual assistance in a CRM is essential to increase customer service performance. It provides a seamless user experience. Today, many video solutions can be integrated with CRMs on the market.
Customer service extends to your doorstep
While a contact center remains essential, field service is also important to ensure customer satisfaction. Many brands now offer in-home service. The vast majority of decision makers at organizations with field service view it as a key element of their business model, as well as an additional sales channel.
There are still obstacles when companies turn to outsourcers to develop their services. In fact, 80% of executives who use outsourcers say that it is difficult to train and equip them.
To meet this challenge, many companies are turning to remote assistance solutions. These solutions promote knowledge transfer and a rapid increase in skills. New recruits or subcontractors can be trained more quickly and be assisted remotely in a simple way.
Labor dynamics put focus on the agent experience
Service organizations have not been immune by the Great Resignation. Service professionals report an average turnover rate of 19% over the past year.
Eighty-five percent of decision makers agree there is a direct link between employee experience and customer experience. That’s why there have been a slew of employee experience initiatives at service organizations such as flexible schedules, wellness benefits, and career development improvements.
The health crisis has also encouraged hybrid work. 76% of service professionals say they’re allowed to choose where they work. The contact center, office, or store may not be the primary daily destination for service professionals anymore, but it’s not gone by any means. 97% of service organizations plan to bring employees together in a physical location this year, whether it be for team building, daily work, or training purposes.
Another important point for employees is the increase in skills.
High customer expectations means that service organizations must empower their employees with a wide range of both hard and soft skills, and given high turnover rates, training is also important for onboarding new employees and ramping them up quickly.
Implementing video support in customer service can help improve the employee experience. Reducing effort, enhancing the expertise of customer advisors, better managing the processing of customer requests in the after-sales service department, many are the benefits of video for a company.
Visual assistance for customer support via Salesforce
Apizee, as a CPaaS provider, we provide aWebRTC-based, installation-free, real-time web video communication across all mobile devices for business applications.
We offer a number of strong and distinctive solutions, yet our solution that enables remote video assistance for users, clients, or technicians is what we are most well known for.
With its help, any customer or user can be invited by SMS or email with just one click, as well as an on-site consultant or subject-matter expert with immediate visual access to the issue can share their smartphone camera via the provided link with the user.
Additionally, our real-time sharing feature allows users to save money by addressing customer service issues before they occur.
Apizee offers a Salesforce connector to integrate video support into the application. You can easily launch video calls from your CRM and more specifically from your customer records. The goal of this integration is to provide a personalized experience to customers while making the work of support agents easier.
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