Salesforce met with 7,000 experts to determine trends and issues in customer service.
Salesforce acquires customer service in 2021.
For his fourth edition “Focus on customer service”, The Salesforce interviewed more than 7,000 experts worldwide between August and September 2020. This report highlights the impact of the epidemic on companies’ customer service and new strategies to deal with it. With this report, you will find:
- Impact of the health crisis on the evolution of customer service,
- Strategies to deal with change,
- Transforming customer service teams into new work patterns.
The crisis has accelerated the transformation of customer service
Like many services, epidemic plays a key role in the evolution of customer service, especially with new consumption habits. From now on, customer support has a strategic role to play and it should provide the optimal experience for the consumer. In fact, 9 out of 10 respondents said that good customer service increases the chances of customers buying. Even more surprising: 80% of respondents noted that the experience a company provides is just as important as the products and services it sells!
To meet these strong expectations, dedicated customer service teams need to adapt their work patterns and integrate new technologies. Among the elements that experience the strongest change in teams are:
- Workflow and Processes, 84% to Specialists,
- Technical requirements, 81%
- Methods of communication with customers, 73%.
The health crisis has also led to a change in the behavior of customer service professionals. In particular, companies have encouraged their employees to show greater empathy and flexibility. A strategic choice that helped improve customer loyalty: 71% said companies that showed empathy during the consumer crisis won their loyalty.
Empathy and flexibility, quality customer service products.
There are also new standards of motivation caused by the explosion in online shopping and the digitalization of businesses. During this period, 87% of respondents reported that their customers used more digital channels such as online chat, messaging apps or video support.
Faced changes, agility of agents and expansion of customer service
Flexibility, customer support, and the implementation of digital channels require additional resources from companies. However, if these experienced a sharp increase in demand volumes (54% of respondents indicated an increase, while 14% indicated a decrease), budgets and staff did not follow the same course. Only 19% of respondents noted an increase in staff (32% in terms of budgets) and a 31% reduction (28% in terms of budgets).
Excessive workload as it is difficult to satisfy consumers during epidemics. Among the changes made by customer service customers are:
- 81% of consumers are more concerned than usual.
- 75% of them demanded more.
- 75% put forward more complex demands,
- 66% is very difficult to satisfy.
For customer service professionals, these various changes revealed major drawbacks: lack of technical skills, customer service channels or functional weaknesses.
87% of customer service professionals found technical gaps.
To overcome these shortcomings, companies need to implement some integration between their different groups: 79% of customer service professionals point out that quality service cannot be provided without integrating customer-related data.
Groups that do not share bad customer data perform very poorly.
The relationship between customer service and IT service can also be seen in the Salesforce report on the focus on genuine strategic partnerships strengthened by the digitization of customer support channels.
New operating systems for corporate customer service
Now, most customer service professionals have access to the resources they need to work from home: on average, 77% of respondents have access to all the data they need (87% for best performance teams). At the same time, following the company’s transition to telecommunications, such as training long-distance employees or predicting the size of demands, makes other tasks difficult.
The global epidemic has improved the image of customer service, which now represents a strategic asset for the company by operating as a sales and loyalty channel. For example, 78% of respondents noted that their company management was more aware of the strategic value of customer support. This key role in the organization allows teams to expand their field of operation, which requires a variety of soft skills such as communication, listening, adaptation, time management and empathy.
When customer service undergoes various changes, despite the health crisis, fieldwork continues to wind its boat: 80% of decision makers point out that fieldwork is a key aspect of their strategy.
The epidemic did not reduce business investment in field service.
For more details on customer service trends, the report can be downloaded for free at the link below.
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Beatrice Ashford is a contributor at Nintendo-power.com, covering a wide range of topics including news, politics, business, technology, sport, entertainment, and lifestyle. She focuses on delivering clear, balanced reporting and useful information that helps readers stay informed about current events and emerging developments. Her work highlights stories that matter to everyday audiences, with an emphasis on accuracy, relevance, and accessible journalism that keeps readers connected to the issues shaping the world around them.