Digital is disrupting traditional customer service models. New customer touch-points are appearing against a backdrop of rising expectations, according to Deloitte in their report,Customer service in the digital age. Responding to digital disruption and rising customer expectations. We’re Virtual Incentives. We provide solutions that help businesses connect with their most valuable employees, customers and partners in ways never before possible. We’re advocates of better customer service in the digital age because, by definition, someone who has done something to “earn” a reward is entitled to better customer service. Here are 6 rising expectations of customer service in the digital age:
- Mobile first: Customers are now spending a significant amount of time online via smart mobile devices – and they expect businesses to interact with them over these touch points. The need to be reachable anytime, from anywhere will continue to grow.
- Omni-channel is here: As the numbers of customer touch-points continue to grow, so does the importance of managing each interaction consistently, as part of end-to-end customer journeys. Bringing together existing information about the customer and their relationship history with a brand can help to determine the context at every customer touch-point.
- Social grows up: The reach and influence that social media has on consumers’ day-to-day lives and the reputation of brands is astonishing. For service organizations, it’s impossible to ignore. It’s essential that the social channel is integrated with the existing service offering and approached as a different skill or contact type, rather than as a channel.
- User experience brings art and science to service: Over the past decade, we have often seen digital technologies bolted on to existing operations, achieving only a fraction of their potential due to a lack of usability and design. As digital touch-points increase their influence on how customer service is delivered, they demand greater attention.
- User adoption – the missing link: Adoption is a challenge faced by many organizations, under constant pressure to maximize operational benefits and cost savings. It’s important to remember that building digital services doesn’t mean customers will automatically use them. The key is to build services that add value and then market them appropriately.
- Analytics – removing the guess work: In this always-on, tech-savvy world, customers come armed with an internet full of information. Their attitudes and behaviors change continuously. As a result, most companies are facing significant customer service challenges because they do not know and are not able to predict what will happen next or respond to real-time complaints or feedback. Only organizations that do customer analytics well are able to exploit all channels and data sources, so as to make better-informed decisions about the service they provide.
All of the expectations underscore that access and immediacy is more critical than ever. Our platform meets these rising expectations. Regardless of how you access, we allow consumers to select their preferred form of customer service – live, chat or email. Do these rising expectations change your views on customer service?