5 Customer Service Trends of 2019 You Don’t Want to Miss
By: Caylin White
It’s 2019 and VIPdesk is ready for the new customer service trends in 2019. Are you?
Customer service has taken a wild ride over the years, especially with the boom of social media and engagement. With every client, we are always trying to serve each with the highest regard and utmost support. That means we must stay up to date with customer service trends just like everyone else.
We have listened to our customers, our clients and our team here at VIPdesk and compiled a list of five customer service trends from an outsourcing solutions perspective.
1. Video Chat is Coming
Video chat will be expected throughout the customer journey.
Customer service has been influenced by live chat for a few years now. We know it is helpful, it is 24/7 and it is a reliable source to be there for our customers. We know it should be implemented across our outsourced customer solutions so each customer knows the brand will be there for them when they need it.
Video chat is the newest evolution of live chat that may be a very lucrative approach to customer service for brands everywhere. Regardless of the need for instant gratification, it is now more important to be personalized, more human.
The added bonus of seeing the customer visually can enhance the experience for them, especially for products or services that are being showcased. What a better way to share something than to see it for yourself.
Imagine not only getting your problem solved, however, having a very personalized chat representative smiling and carrying on a lovely conversation, showing you how customer service is meant to be done. It’s going above and beyond without even leaving the computer.
2. Personalize Live Chat Bots
Basic live chat isn’t good enough anymore.
Just having live chat is mandatory these days for customer service. Now the expectation for live chat has gone up exponentially. The idea that you can get instantaneous service is the way of customer service, however, the level of answers produced by the rep or the AI chatbot need to be intuitive, responsive and personalized.
AI chatbots are great for fielding responses and directing them to a live Brand Ambassador (customer service representative). AI chatbots in 2019 will become more personalized, more personable and more intuitive. Live chat will become a platform for growth as we see more and more interest in customer service there.
3. Company Representation Means More
Companies are expected to reflect the customer service rep, it’s more than just one person helping out.
Our Brand Ambassadors are amazing at what they do! They are also a representation of the company as a whole. This is much like judging a book by its cover, as we dive into the Brand Ambassador’s role.
The company’s culture matters when it comes to customer service as they are the core of what the product or service represents. The customer has the power to search, learn and absorb the information of their brands and if they feel the company doesn’t reflect the product, it could be detrimental to their sales.
Bottom line, a company’s culture has become extremely important to winning the trust of its customers.
4. Artificial Intelligence Integrations are Mandatory
AI will be seamlessly integrated into the entire experience and considered mandatory.
We chatted about the importance of live chat and being available, responsive and personalized for our customers. We talked about how it is mandatory now to be there for each request and to have the ability for intuitive answers on a 24/7 basis.
Artificial intelligence will be the next step to customer service success. As the software intelligence grows, so does its level of service. We want to bring in the human element into AI as best we can while seamlessly integrating a personalized approach for each customer.
Staying on top of solid partnerships with the right companies is the key to engaging your customers through smart AI.
5. 2019 Means Customer Success and Engagement
Customer success and engagement are the key to taking your solution to the next level.
The buzzwords of 2019 are customer success and engagement if you haven’t heard. What does this mean? It means that customer success now has positions built around it for keeping customers happy. It also means that there are levels of happiness during the customer’s journey that need special attention and organizations need to be ready for each stage.
Engagement is the key to turning a customer into an evangelist. We know how important engagement is during the sales process, it shouldn’t end when a lead becomes a customer. It should actually do the opposite! Engagement on various levels is now embedded throughout the customer success journey through surveys, live chats, Net Promoter Scores, and old-fashioned questions.
Engage the customer, watch the scores rise!
For more about customer service, outsourcing solutions, and VIPdesk, check out vipdeskconnect.com or reach out to Othmar at 844-874-3472.
##
Image Credit: