PHEW! What a wild ride 2020 was, right? With all the pivoting we’ve been doing this year, we thought it would be interesting (and potentially funny) to review the CX predictions we made last year for 2020. It’s safe to say that at the end of last year, and even the first couple months of this year, we could not have predicted the roller coaster that 2020 was.

At the end of every year, we always take a look back at what went well and what we can change moving forward to keep improving.

CX Prediction: REAL-TIME COMMUNICATION

Prediction: “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.”

Review: It’s clear that the real-time communication preference has not gone away since the beginning of 2020, and has even increased due to the COVID-19 pandemic and lockdowns. According to the NY Times, phone calls throughout the day have increased due to more people being home and not able to speak with people in person. The increase in phone calls doesn’t only happen for personal calls, though. When people are experiencing an issue with an order or service, it’s no surprise they want to hear a voice on the other end of the line during these times.

CUSTOMER SERVICE CONCIERGE SERVICES

Prediction: “While customers 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.”

Review: According to research done by BusinessWire, about 40% of people have increased their usage of online and self service options throughout the 2020 pandemic. Looking back on the year, it’s exciting to see the strides Incept, along with other companies have made in such a short time frame to keep improving CX.

MORE CUSTOMER SERVICE REPS WILL WORK FROM HOME

Prediction: “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.”

Review: WOW - Can we say spot on? The COVID-19 pandemic really pushed this one forward quickly, likely significantly more quickly than what businesses had in their original 2020 plans. Here at Incept, we ramped up in less than a month in March to have the capabilities for all of our customer service agents to work safely and effectively from home. With stay at home orders throughout the country, and even the world, many companies have put in the same effort to remain in business while keeping their employees safe.

AI WILL AUTOMATE SIMPLE TASKS

Prediction: “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!”

Review: Just like the work from home prediction, the COVID-19 pandemic seems to only have accelerated artificial intelligence and its use to improve customer experience. Because AI has proven to only help customer service agents provide better CX with less time and effort, it doesn’t look like it’s going away after 2020 either. In fact, many are predicting that if your company isn’t utilizing CX you could risk being passed up by your competitors.

SOCIAL MEDIA MESSAGING

Prediction: “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.”

Review: It’s not clear whether the increase in social media messaging occurred as a result of improved branding or due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but we know for sure that there was an increase across industries. Countless retailers and service providers set up auto-replies to chat and messages stating they were receiving a higher than normal volume and were behind on messages. Luckily, a few months into the pandemic and lockdowns, these companies were able develop a plan to handle the influx of messages along with phone calls.

Conclusion

While we can easily say we weren’t expecting all that 2020 threw our way, we firmly believe we came out on the other end better for it. There have been so many learnings and improvements made due to working virtually and increasing efforts to help our clients during the pandemic. If you’re looking for a partnering agency rather than simply outsourcing, we’re here to help share our learning to help you improve too!