Customer Service in 2018 – Tips, Tricks, and Must-Dos For Field Service Management

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The world is getting increasingly competitive, and to maintain an edge over the competition, companies are focusing towards delivering exceptional customer experiences. As understood by experts, customer service is a critical piece of the business success puzzle, and organizations today are in a frenzy to deliver the most personalized, tech-savvy customer services to their customers- in a bid to retain them for longer.

Recent surveys have clearly predicted that by 2020, customer experience and customer service will become the key differentiators for brands, even before their prices, products, and services are considered. According to a study that confirms this fact, about 86% of customers are willing to pay higher if they get a good customer service experience.

These stats point to a fact- customer service is a tangible and crucial aspect of any business today. Exceptional customer services can drive any business towards the success destination. Having said that, this year is expected to see some major reforms in the way customers are serviced, and in the methods and modes through which customer
services are delivered.
Here are some of the key actions businesses are swearing by this year to lock-in their customer’s with excellent services
 Embracing Customer Persona – Customers have evolved just as technologies and business processes have. Today, a business is compared to not just its competitors, but to every business that provides customer service. Organizations are setting newer service benchmarks every day and businesses are coping to keep pace with them. When service reps completely fathom the meaning behind the many customer personas, they are able to handle each service request with proficiency. Exceptional service can be ensured when communications are centered around the individual customer, rather around a vague idea of the customer. By chalking out different customer personas and building service strategies for each of them, businesses are excelling at their service games.
 Resolving to Speed – Quick resolution is still an important aspect of great customer service experience. Customers would not like to wait in queue for hours before they are addressed and their issues are heard. They would rather try other businesses. Respecting the time of the customer is another step companies can take to ensure they deliver excellent customer services. Self-service provisions that help customers resolve their tiny issues on their own are also a great way to speedy resolutions. Organizations work to help customers solve their queries by introducing FAQs about their products and services on their websites. This ensures that only the real problems get to the customer service reps, and the tiny queries are answered through your FAQs section.
 Investing in Technology – Gartner has predicted that this year, more than 50% of organizations will focus their investments on customer service innovations and disruptions. These may include investing a large chunk towards technology innovations like chatbots and AI that enhance customer service while providing personalized user experiences. Chatbots are widely used today as the conversation initiators in customer service requests. This year can witness a maturing in the use of chatbots and things can get real with Artificial Intelligence. Companies are expected to stop beating around the bush and get down to the real-world service implementations of the leading technologies. Technology remains at the forefront of all business processes, and customer service is no less impacted by it.
 Fitting into the smaller screen – Mobile devices are on the rise. According to Mobile Consumer Survey by Deloitte in 2017, mobile users check their phones about 47 times a day! That is a staggering number given the busy lifestyle of people today. The focal of the stat is the rising population of mobile device users and their increasing engagement with businesses through their smaller screens. According to a recent report by WOW Local Marketing, 66% customers revealed that even they really liked a brand or a business, a bad mobile site would still disappoint them. Customer service relies on the experience customers have over their mobile devices.
 Getting into the customer’s mind – Customer service, at times, is all about listening. Customer service reps should be trained to listen to the sad and agitated customer till they have vented their frustration all the way. This will help the customer service reps to get to the core of the problem, and suggest resolutions accordingly. Listening to the customer who has complaints also helps solve the harder part of the issue. The rest is communication and resolution, which is easily fixable once the customer has the satisfaction he was heard out.
Companies with a well-executed customer service strategy witness 92% customer retention. Personalization of customer experience, the efficient use of chatbots, exploitation of social media channels for delivering customer service, and development of messaging apps for customer service are ways in which organizations plan to up their customer experience games this year!

SEE ALSO: FIELDEZ RANKS NO.1 IN CAPTERRA’S TOP 20 FIELD SERVICE MANAGEMENT SOFTWARE

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