Guest Post: 6 Customer Service Trends That You’ll Want to Adopt in 2022

This week’s guest post by Sharavanan Shanmugaraju shares six customer service trends that companies need to adopt this year.

Every year, companies find ways to improve customer service. This could be investing in new tools, changing processes, or adding new people to your team against customers. Today we open the main customer service areas in anticipation of 2022. This helps you make better product decisions, increase customer satisfaction and retain more customers overall. 

1. AI bots will continue to automate simple support tasks

The role of AI in customer service has grown exponentially in recent years. Every year we witness great achievements. Watson claims that IBM customer service AI robots answer customer questions with 95% accuracy. That’s great. Of course, many companies use bots to automate customer support. 

Smart IVR allows you to serve customers directly without going through an agent for support calls. For example, a hospital could use an IVR to allow clients to change appointments over the phone. Hospitals can integrate CRM to monitor patients and appointments. Because the entire process is automated, agents can focus on more important tasks and provide a better customer experience. 

But does that mean that robots are replacing human agents? Absolutely not. This allows agents to manage more customers faster and more efficiently. 

2. Protecting customer privacy is not optional anymore

With daily reports of data breaches, today’s consumers are more concerned about the security of their personal information than ever before. Confidentiality is a growing concern of governments and businesses. The EU has taken a major step in the fight against privacy through its GDPR regulation. 

Recently, information such as phone numbers and email addresses has become more personalized. Therefore, it is a priority for companies receiving this data to protect and process this information responsibly. 

 According to Marketing Dive, 71% of consumers are concerned about how brands handle personal data. Companies and government entities have been seen protecting their customers’ contact information by hiding their phone numbers. Many countries, such as Canada, the United Kingdom, and Australia, require consumer consent before sending an email. This is no longer mandatory for consumer privacy organizations. This is crucial for building consumer confidence and a positive overall brand image. 

3. Personalisation will be a key differentiator

As individuals, we all want specially designed experiences. Even the smallest step in the customization process can have amazing results for your brand. Today, banks face stiff competition from leading privatization-based technology companies. However, banks can also offer personal experiences. 

Banks can use Smart IVR to provide personalized experiences to registered customers upon request. For example, you can already set the user’s language (depending on your selection). The IVR menu (for registered users) can only read popular options to help users navigate faster.  

This may seem like a small improvement, but everything improves the banking experience. The product has many tools to help you create customized experiences on a scale. However, it is a good idea to understand the user’s entire life cycle before you begin. 

4. Omni-channel support is critical moving forward

Multichannel support may not be sufficient today. Connecting through these channels is important for a smoother user experience. Omnichannel support is provided here. 

Unlike multichannel support, omnichannel combines all channels, such as SMS, calls, social media, and email to serve a single customer without compromising the brand experience. This allows consumers to change channels without repeating questions/problems. 

U.S. businesses lose more than $ 62 billion annually because of poor customer service. This clearly shows the need to improve the consumer experience. But no matter what channel you support, creating an experience that is useful and has a lasting impact on users’ minds should always be a priority. 

5. Data will empower support agents to make a better and faster decision

Every company wants to offer a perfect support experience for its customers. It depends on the agent’s job. However, agencies often struggle to meet consumer demands. The main reason is the use of outdated software. It slows you down instead of increasing your productivity. 

Giving your agents the right support software can make a big difference. But what can a software support agent do to help? Let’s find out. 

1. It must be seamlessly integrated with all applications to provide real-time customer information. 
2. Automate all basic tasks like scheduling callbacks, dialing calls, and running email / SMS.  
3. Route the conversation to the appropriate agent based on your past. 
4. Automatically solve simple customer questions without contacting an agent. 

6. Predictive Analytics will help businesses to stay ahead and provide high-touch CX

According to the report, the team’s two biggest challenges are cost control and adapting to seasonal peaks. Predictive analytics is an effective way to solve problems. Simply put, predictive analytics is a branch of advanced analytics used to predict the future. Display statistics, machine learning, artificial intelligence, and big data results. 

When it comes to supporting, here’s what organizations can achieve using this – 

1. Plan for future peaks and anomalies 
2. Pay close attention to customer satisfaction 
3. Service quality monitoring 

Why should companies care? 

Providing better customer service is vital for companies that offer superior services for which customers are willing to pay more. This can be done by investing in better support tools, a strong communication platform, or hiring the right people for your team. 

Sharavanan is the content marketing lead at Exotel. He finds joy in writing about tech by day and poems by night.