14 Ways Technology Will Affect the Future of Customer Service
There's a lot of excitement about new technology in customer service, support, and success. The progress of video, real-time messaging, chatbots and artificial intelligence (AI), cryptocurrencies, self-service, and even customer success itself, all present the potential for big changes in the day-to-day workings of customer success practitioners.
But with new technology come challenges, too. There's a steep learning curve when it comes to learning to use and adapt to new technologies, they can be costly for businesses to implement, and there's the looming concern we all feel about some new tech: Will it steal our jobs?
The short answer is no. Most new technologies will only serve to help customer-facing professionals to do their jobs more efficiently. These technologies might change your job, however, and that's where these predictions come in.
Read this blog post to get my thoughts on the future of service technology — and how it will change your day-to-day work, as well as the trajectory of your career.
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But, before you jump to my predictions, let's quickly recap what service technology is.
Service Technology
Service technology is software that assists customer service teams in achieving customer success. These tools improve workflow efficiency and make it easier for companies to provide effective solutions to their customers. Adopting service technology helps companies manage the increasing demand for outstanding customer service.
Now that we have that out of the way, let's take a look at how service technology will influence customer service over the next decade.
How Customer Service Technology Will Change the Future of Customer Service
1. Face-to-face video communication will increase.
Eye contact is powerful, and customers, more and more, will look at non-video, real-time voice conversation as a thing of the past. Companies using video — asynchronously, as "video voicemail" (e.g. Loom) or synchronously, as "video conference" (e.g. Zoom with video) — are a generation ahead.
We know that eye contact improves relationships and facilitates openness (whether that's in business or in your personal life), so video is not just a growing expectation of consumers, but a viable business-improving tool for vendors. You should start using video voicemails now, and scheduled meetings with customers should involve a face-to-face meeting whenever possible.
2. Customers will expect an omni-channel service experience.
Your brick-and-mortar stores aren't the only places where customers interact with your business. With social media, ecommerce, and third-party review sites, customers can engage your company through a variety of digital mediums.
This increased accessibility will drive the need for omni-channel experiences. Omni-channel support is distinctively different from multichannel support as omni-channel syncs your communication channels together so both your team and your customers can work seamlessly between them.
For example, rather than customers having to navigate away from your social media page, your service team can respond to them wherever they're engaging your business. Then, if the problem can't be solved on one communication channel, your reps can easily transfer the case to another medium where they can better support the customer.
This reduces friction in the service experience because customers don't have to log off one interface just to log into another one to continue working on the same problem.
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