The Future Of Customer Service Doesn’t Involve Phone Calls
This is part of LinkedIn's new Newsletter Series. For weekly customer experience content hit the "subscribe" button above.
Today, when most people think of customer service, they think of calling a contact center, waiting on hold and having their issue resolved—eventually.
But the traditional method of customer service phone calls is inefficient for companies, and customers don’t like it. The majority (59%) of modern customers avoid calling customer service as much as possible and would rather go through additional channels to contact customer service than have to use the phone. They are tired of the red tape, phone trees and wait times it takes to actually have their question answered.
And although the phone is still used in nearly half (48%) of customer service queries, over three-quarters of consumers are less than satisfied after their experience with any company’s customer service department.
Clearly, customer service phone calls aren’t working. That’s why the future of customer service doesn’t involve any phone calls at all.
________________
I’m excited to be joining one of Pegasystems’ series of virtual events under the banner of Pega Discover. I’ll be sharing insights during the customer service event. We’ll be looking at how modern brands handle massive volume with speed and grace, all while keeping their customers cared for and keep costs low. Join us at the virtual event on October 14 (in a time zone that suits you!).
Click here to register: https://pe.ga/3lqUBAU
________________
Phone-Free Customer Service
It may seem outlandish to suggest that customer service calls won’t be required in the future. But the goal of every company should be to create a product or service that is so good and that is constantly improving so that there is no need for customers to ever call a contact center.
To start, contact centers are notoriously expensive and inefficient. They used to be standard practice for customers to talk to human representatives, but new technology has opened a number of other ways for customers to connect with brands, such as through chatbots or self-service platforms. These methods are not only more cost-effective, they also allow customers to quickly get information on their own schedules instead of having to wait on hold or only call between certain hours.
The average cost of a customer call answered by a human is $35-$50, compared to just $8-$10 for a text-enabled chatbot. More important to customers than personalized interaction with an agent is having problems resolved quickly, which means customers often don’t care if they are talking to a human or a bot as long as the service is convenient and effective. Why then are companies wasting money on a system that customers don’t even like? There’s a much better solution to customer service.
A New Approach To Customer Service
Instead of relying on phone calls to troubleshoot or answer customer questions, the new approach to customer service is integrated into the entire company with continual feedback between customer support teams and engineering and product design.
Instead of creating systems for customers to call about their issues with the products, companies need to be constantly improving their products so that customers don’t have a need to call in. That process starts with feedback and regular communication.
Research has found that 74% of customer experience professionals say they are able to generate new product ideas from customer feedback. That feedback—in the form of surveys, data customer service calls and more—has the potential to greatly improve existing products and create new, bug-proof products customers actually want.
Too many companies fall into the trap of defensive customer service. It may seem easier to just troubleshoot the same problems over and over, but in the long run, it is costing the company valuable time and resources and hurting the customer experience.
Instead, companies need to funnel customer feedback to their engineering and product design teams to make updates to the products. When the customer experience team notices multiple calls or feedback about the same issue, they know it is something that needs to be addressed. It could be a glitch with the product itself or simply a lack of clear communication. But taking care of the root of the problem prevents future issues from arising.
The goal isn’t just to solve customer problems—it’s to prevent them from happening in the future. Instead of addressing the issue over and over with each customer that calls, companies should update and improve their products so that customers don’t have to call in the first place. Truly customer-centric companies aim to improve their customers lives, which starts by creating products and services that don’t require customer service.
Looping customer feedback to the engineering and product design teams helps products continually improve. Don’t separate customer service from engineering and product design. The two areas of the company should be in constant communication to improve and eventually eliminate the need for customers to call the company.
The future of customer service doesn’t require the phone. Customers should never—ever—have to call customer service. Listening to feedback and using it to improve products and services helps customers and companies and builds strong relationships.
The future of customer service is coming, and it doesn’t require phone calls.
*This article is sponsored by Pega.
________________
Blake Morgan is a customer experience futurist, keynote speaker and the author of the bestselling book The Customer Of The Future.
Did you enjoy this article? To get regular updates on upcoming content, be sure to do the following:
? Sign up for the weekly newsletter here to get updates on customer experience, digital transformation, and more.
? Join the new Be Your Own Boss (BYOB) Podcast newsletter here to learn the tools, tips, and strategies in setting out on your own—? and winning big —?as an entrepreneur.
? Follow Blake on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook and YouTube.
Senior Vice President | Managing Digital Goods Business (B2C & B2B Sales, Marketing, Ops) - CX - O2O ("Mitra Tokopedia App") at Tokopedia | Top 150+ Global CX Thought Leaders '20 | ex Indosat - XL Axiata - Ernst & Young
4 年Thanks for this article, it’s validating that me and team is on the right track, we’re the only e-commerce in Indonesia (the biggest in Indonesia, with more than 90Mn Monthly Active Users) with no inbound hotline channel, team is working in a good collab with all engineering and product team to ensure all feedback becoming something that never been repeated.., or improve our experience, so far it works best (the metrics shows that) - we still compliment that digital interactions with an outbound call if cust in emergency. Still, questions from cust why a big company like Tokopedia doesn’t have the hotline is still keep coming - it’s bold move to take this route, we’ll take that a positive feedback that we still need to improve our product and service experience including our automated/self service capability to really deliver the solutions (customer is asking for solution, not the channel right). Another factor is just a culture parts which talking is still more preferred than typing.., which i believe not the case for the incoming big wave of new breed digital customers - the millennials. Again, thanks for this insightful article, as always Blake Morgan !
SEO Content Marketer @ JCP Wellness Copy | Copywriting
4 年Most companies could benefit from listening to their customers and including valuable information that solves questions and problems before they happen. I don't know that calls will completely go away, but I have seen a huge reduction in them over the past 10 years in the e-commerce business that I'm involved with. That said, our specific customer service response has a much higher success rate than the average quoted. Why? We have a specialist that proactively shares solutions in a monthly newsletter that is also posted on our blog. We do follow the philosophy if it's a repeated question, it needs to be addressed.
?? VidCalls are the Future ??Auto Hub Show Host ?? Ai Enthusiast ?? Fundraiser ??Trainer ?? Automotive Influencer ?? Car Nut ?? Speaker ??Go To Market Stategist ?? People Connector
4 年Interesting take as always. Phone calls will always be part of the process.....#thanks