Customer expectations and Customer Service trends continue to evolve. As such, Customer Service teams need to keep up with changes. And most importantly know how to adapt accordingly. If your company isn’t meeting your customers’ expectations, you can guarantee that one of your competitors will. So, to help you deliver a great Customer Service experience that will empower better customer relationships and keep your customers coming back for more, let’s take a look at The Top 10 Customer Service Excellence Trends For 2022.
1. CS v CX
It will all come down to Customer Service versus the Customer Experience. The pandemic has pushed a whole lot of businesses into providing online access to their services. Additionally, with more companies providing faster access to similar services and products, often at similar prices, customers will be swayed by reliable, proven Customer Service. And with that ties in Customer Experience. That is, Customer Service and Customer Experience are no longer two separate entities. Rather, they are now a symbiotic process of your business, with a focus on two core Customer-centric areas:
- How to Understand Your Customer to Better Shape Your Service
- How Your Service Makes a Better Customer Experience with ROI
2. CUSTOMERS CHURN
With so much “choice” on offer digitally, customers now have an easier time finding a replacement provider if the quality of product or experience is not high enough. Successful businesses will be those that build a reputation for trustworthiness and consistent quality to prevent customer churn. When considering your Customer Service and Experience Plan, consider these Crucial Retention Strategies:
- What Is Customer Retention?
- What Retention Strategies Do You Have in Place?
- How Do You Improve Customer Retention?
- How Does the Customer Experience Increase Retention?
- Retention and Your Competition
3. MORE MOBILE
Many of those who moved out of office spaces will be working from multiple locations using mobile equipment. Mobile devices are outstripping PCs. Moreover, across many industries, more customers are interacting with contact centers from a mobile phone than from a landline. Surprisingly, the usage of smartphones for customer service is even more prolific in our homes.
- How well does your website work on a phone or tablet?
- Are your Customer Service options effective for mobile users?
- Does your Customer Service team understand mobile commerce?
Contact HBB Group today to book your team’s Customer Service Excellence Workshop
4. FLEXIBILITY INTERNALLY AND EXTERNALLY
Digitisation has changed the consumer landscape forever. If customers want to get their work done at 5am or midnight because those times suit them best, they will expect a degree of support in those hours.
And the same applies to your employees. Those who have tasted a different working style may not go back to strict office hours. With so many of us going through varied lifestyle changes, consider offering greater flexibility to your customers while at the same time offering more productive options to your employees.
5. MANAGING THE NORM OF SUPPLY CHAIN DISRUPTIONS
Problems with product and part availability has created much angst for consumers as well as businesses. Even once the worst of the pandemic passes, the knock-on effects will continue for a while yet.
- What Supply Chain Management Plan does your business have in place?
- How does your Customer Service team handle customer frustrations?
- What is the Art of Objection Handling?
6. CUSTOMER SERVICE BURNOUT IS A HIGH RISK
In a time where almost every customer is at a higher level of stress than normal, Customer Service work is even more difficult. Uncertainty and higher volumes add additional problems into the mix, making Customer Service burnout more likely to occur. Make sure your organisation is on top of their Customer Service Care Plan by knowing how to:
- Recognise Customer Service Burnout
- Repair Customer Service Burnout
- Reduce Customer Service Burnout
7. HOLDING ONTO CUSTOMER SERVICE STAFF WILL BE HARDER
The enormous growth in remote work and a hot job market means that your best employees have a wider range of options to choose from. Add to that the increased risk of burnout, and it’s clear that deliberate effort will be needed to retain staff. Make sure you keep your team engaged:
Contact HBB Group today to book your team’s Customer Service Excellence Workshop
8. VIDEO KILLED THE RADIO STAR BUT THE PANDEMIC BROUGHT IT BACK
How many people in the last year have learned how to “jump on a Zoom”? People who are comfortable with the technology and have the right setup at home will be more interested in screen sharing and generally getting help over video.
- Have you identified where video support makes the most sense for your company?
- Does your team know How to Have a Virtual Customer Service Chat?
9. EMBRACE SELF SERVICE PEOPLE
One major reason customers don’t use a knowledge base and instead prefer a phone call is a lack of confidence with online tools. While those people will still exist, some of them will have built enough confidence through pandemic-related experiences to keep serving themselves online. Now it is up to you to make sure they have a good experience! Learn how to create a better self-service experience! Learn Customer Self Service: Benefits, Tips, and Tools.
10. MASTER REMOTE WORK
For companies who started out in offices and have had to scramble to work remotely during the pandemic, there will be even more effort required to adapt to a permanent Work From Home, or at the very least, Hybrid setup.
As leaders of Customer Service professionals, we should expect ongoing challenges with internal communication, unclear processes, and disengaged employees as we work through changes. But what we must keep at the forefront of our thinking, is that these changes will inevitably effect the way we engage with both our teams and customers. So how do we navigate through it? We need to learn how to:
- Build an Effective Remote Team
- Manage Remotely
- Build And Trust a Remote Team
- Manage a HYBRID Customer Service Team Post the Pandemic
As this covid transition ends, the technical and structural aspects of the shift we are in will become standard practice. Companies now need to work out (and compete) how they offer services and approaches in a hybrid environment. Your Customer Service team needs to adopt a Customer-centred approach, based on a deeper understanding of the needs of both customers and customer-facing staff. With this knowledge and training in place, your organisation will be able to stay ahead of the competition in 2022 and beyond!
Contact HBB Group today to book your team’s Customer Service Excellence Workshop
All your training is tailored to your team and can be delivered virtually or F2F Onsite.
Gather your team and we will take care of the rest – learning and laughs included.
Contact Us anytime or via email info@hbbausgroup.com.au
or call 1300 833 574 for a confidential chat.
We are here and happy to help 
