5 Customer Engagement Trends You Need To Pay Attention To in 2020
When your B2C company wants to grow, where is the first place you turn?
Your current customers, right?
This answer seems to be an easy one, but when 54% of customers say that companies need to transform how they engage with them, it’s clear that not every company thinks this way.
We always believe that the customer comes first, which is why we’re so excited about customer engagement trends and how your company can make the experience better for them.
Real-Time Communication
In this instant-satisfaction age, immediate assistance is becoming more expected than a “nice to have.” 71% of customers expect companies to communicate with them in real time—from text messaging to chat services.
We spoke about the benefits of live chat, but ultimately when customers have their questioned answer in the middle of the buying process, sales conversions naturally increase.
Related Post: Top 3 KPIs for Inbound Contact Centers
Customer Service Concierge Services
While customer do love speaking to a customer service representative in real-time, most don’t want to wait for simple answers that they could find themselves. Therefore, a customer service help portal is key. You can start by filling it with frequently asked questions, then as more questions come in, you can add them to the service portal.
More Customer Service Reps Will Work From Home
According to Forbes, happy employees lead to happy customers. And as technology advances, allowing employees to work remotely, if that benefits them the most, is something that the contact center industry will likely see more of in 2020. Meeting your employees in the middle and working with them to build the best work environment for them will ultimately create happy employees and therefore improve their conversations with customers.
AI will Automate Simple Tasks
In 2020, artificial intelligence will be a game-changer in terms of customer service. While people may be concerned about implementing AI in fear of taking away human interactions, it actually can have the opposite effect. Because technology is continuously improving with consumer devices,
AI can help customer service reps automate simple tasks, which will make them more efficient with their time. This will ultimately help more customers in a timely manner, reducing the amount of time a customer is on hold.
Not sure if incorporating AI is the right move for your customers? Well, 53% of US customers said they’re open to AI if it’ll improve their experience with a business!
Social media messaging
Brand alignment is going to be even more important than ever in 2020. Customers want to feel like they are engaging with a company, not specific departments within a company. Therefore, how a brand presents itself on social media needs to correspond with the website and how customer service representatives interact with customers.
In 2020, we’re fully expecting that customers will begin to use social media messaging platforms to engage with brands. This means that more customer service requests or complaints will come in through these platforms. It’ll be more important than ever for your social media management team to understand customer service and how your company generally handles various complaints.
We’re always listening and following customer engagement trends and can’t wait to see what else 2020 has in store for us!
NOT SURE IF IN-HOUSE SUPPORT OR OUTSOURCING CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE IS RIGHT FOR YOU?
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So you know you need a call center for your business' customer support, but do you know what type will be most beneficial to you? In this ultimate guide, we'll teach you:
Where in-house and outsourced customer support partners differ and what each can do.
Pros and cons of both in-house and outsourced customer support centers.
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