The year 2021, just like some previous years will be a year full of challenges for customer care. This is more or less due to the fact that this year will be a year post pandemic and will have significant impacts of the current pandemic. Apart from this, there are some key trends in customer care that will be followed in 2021.
Hence, guaranteeing customer satisfaction, and making some useful efforts regards to customer care. These are some useful efforts and are all part of the vital trends analysis. What are Trends? In the customer service and Support industry. More commonly, trends are related to most common set of activities. Importantly, activities that are followed traditionally by the practitioners. The industry pundits believe that trends are the practices that helps in achieving the benchmarks. These are set of standards as ‘benchmarks’ for future prospects. Trends and practices not only helps in making benchmarks. However, they are the key indicators of standards in customer care industry.
Here, we are dealing with people who are highly judgemental. Importantly, regards to products and services and hold opinions in form of feedback that are vital for future progress. Customer satisfaction is indeed vital for the future of support and highlighting the trends in the industry. More over as customer’s expectations is on the rise and is indeed an ingredient of success. This is vitally in the customer care and customer support industry all over globally.
Research into different areas has revealed some key trends that are vital for the growth;
CUSTOMER EXPECTATIONS ARE ON THE RISE:
Being part of the trends in year 2021, the customer expectation is always on the rise. Furthermore, the support needs catching up to higher levels. This is not only regards to the work standards. However, also managing the customer’s request and satisfaction levels on an everyday basis. Customers as being the keenest consumers are looking for quick personal support, 24/7. According to a 2020 survey, 71% of support leaders say that customer expectations are increasing. However, 44% of them believe that support is meeting their expectations. The world of customer care & customer service is a unique world where buyers have tens, if not hundreds of choices. Therefore, more importantly businesses, irrespective of their nature needs to deliver according to the diverse needs of the customers.
Part of the top level challenges facing the customer support teams includes increasing the workflow efficiency. Another primary aspect is meeting the customer expectations to higher levels. Finally, helping agents manage conversation volume.
A SHIFT TO ‘PROACTIVE SUPPORT’ GAINS MOMENTUM:
What helps in gaining momentum necessary for customer support is a ‘Proactive Support’. Being proactive will be seen as a common thing in the year 2021. Ironically, as proactive support is the New Year’s resolution for dynamic customer care. According to a Customer Care survey, a huge 73% of Support leaders want to switch from a reactive to a proactive approach. A reactive approach is not good for gaining momentum, and is indeed a slow approach in solving customer care issues. A proactive support indeed empowers businesses to get way ahead of known customer questions and vital issues before they arise.
A PATHWAY TO MEASURABLE BUSINESS IMPACT SLOWLY TAKES SHAPE:
The end result in the identification of trends for 2021 is a systematic pathway that helps in measuring business impacts. In today’s world of Customer support, the most wanted metric for support teams is customer satisfaction. A huge 26% of leaders are affirmative that this is the key metric they track most closely. The value of measuring the customer satisfaction enables businesses to know successfully they are meeting customer expectations. Something that is also vital for customer retention aspects.
Accordingly, good support is good business for most businesses in this pathway. A narrow focus on the measure of customer experience or efficiency alone misses the bigger picture. Thus, the focus on this pathway is to have a close eye on the big picture. Ironically, this is more vitally after identification of what exactly is the big picture for a company.