Customers Are More Demanding – How Can You Meet Their Expectations?
Customers are smarter and better informed than in the past. As such, they can no longer settle for poor quality customer service from their favorite brands. They expect immediate service, personalized experience, empathetic conversations, and multiple support channels. In this article, we’ll discuss some ways in which brands can meet these customer demands and expectations in 2024.
Don’t keep customers waiting.
About 90% of customers want an immediate response to their customer service questions (ten minutes or less). A prospect or customer doesn't want to spend time waiting for your employees to respond to their questions. Whether it's marketing, sales, or customer service, you can use an AI chatbot or live chat software to reply to customers quickly.
You can offer self-service support so customers can find solutions to their problems at anytime. They don't have to submit a support ticket or speak to an agent everytime. It’s better to empower them with a knowledge base, AI and messenger bots, community forum, FAQ pages, etc. This also frees agents up so they can resolve complex issues.
Know your customer
According to a CX trends report, 59% of customers want businesses to use their collected data to personalize their experiences. You need to provide overall experiences that are tailored to their individual needs and preferences. This allows you to satisfy customers and boost retention rates.
You can offer personalized services by analyzing customer interaction data and determining what they would prefer. For example, you can communicate using their preferred channel, upselling or cross-selling relevant products, and occasionally sharing tips to help with their product journey.
Personalization is only possible when you collect data on your customers. This often includes contact information, purchase history, previous interactions, etc. You can use data from valuable sources like customer surveys, CRM data and social media to learn more about customers.
Meet your customers where they are.
The average retention rate for companies with strong omnichannel engagement strategies is 89% while those with weak omnichannel strateges only have about 33%.
Omnichannel support ensures that customers can contact you or submit tickets using various communication apps.
You should provide multiple channels such as AI chatbots, live chat, social media, website contact forms, email, SMS, and phone calls. It's quite common that email and phone calls are the most popular support channels. But others like social media and chat support are also in demand.
Omnichannel support also helps to unify support channels and allow for more flexibility. For example, a customer can start a conversation on one channel and continue on a different channel without starting over. Any support agent can access the support history and proceed from there.
Reduce friction.
Customers no longer want to spend their time and energy when trying to resolve product or service issues. They are more likely to switch brands if they need to put additional effort before their problems can be resolved. Such efforts include: repeating themselves to different agents, having to ask for updates on issues and getting generic services.
You need to ensure that customers only contact you about a certain issue once. Customer data and past interactions can help to understand the customer and resolve queries quickly. You can also use customer support software to route tickets and integrate useful software such as CRM. It helps to improve response times and increase efficiency.
Provide proactive customer support.
The customer support function in many companies is often reactive since agents would receive calls, chats or tickets before responding and trying to resolve the problems. You can switch to proactive support by anticipating issues and preventing them or contacting the customer in advance.
You should use a customer service platform that contains AI and automation tools for easy communication. It allows you to draft messages quickly and automatically send them to customers. For example, you can send regular tips and best practices, alerts before downtime occurs, and also inform them about delays or potential problems.
Build relationships with your customers.
64% of customers want brands to connect with them either through social media, community forums, blog posts, and email newsletters. They want to engage with the people behind your brand and consume content from them. They also want your brand to connect them to other customers.
You should offer a sense of connection with the company’s leaders and some employees. Customers are interested in knowing the work ethic and values of their favorite brands. They want to feel connected to a trustworthy brand that aligns with their values and also understands their needs.
Customer service expectations are more complex than before. You need to invest in customer support software and employ skilled customer service representatives. It’s also important to have a well-defined strategy of how you can meet these growing demands and expectations easily.
