How can you prepare for the future of customer service? Task complete?

Understanding your customers will play a great role in the future of service as customer behavior changes rapidly. We have to be proactive, anticipate their needs. We have to move closer to tailored services, and having more details about your customers integrated into your current platform, will play a bigger role in the nearest future. I totally agree on opening up more channels, not just any kind of channel, but channels that give your customers faster access to you.

I completely agree with this and I always believe putting ourselves into the customer's shoes will really help us understand their issue much clear and if that's something within our radar we should not hesitate to do our best to bring smile on their face, after all, that's what Customer Service is.

Reference to my experience as head of customer service department at Biomedic Healthcare company, I agree with this. Since one of the most important steps to success for good customer service is to listen to the customers, handle complaints, monitor negative and positive comments and understand the level of satisfaction that customers have for our business in order to assist them in the best way possible and therefore meet their expectations.

When it comes to handling customer needs, listening, adapting, pivoting, and customizing are key. By actively listening to our customers, we can truly understand their unique requirements. This allows us to adapt our approach and pivot our strategies to meet their changing demands. Customizing our solutions ensures that we provide personalized experiences that resonate with each customer. It's all about being flexible, responsive, and proactive in delivering exceptional service that exceeds expectations. Let's continue to prioritize these aspects to create meaningful connections with our customers!

Understanding customers should be based on VOC, VOE and VOP. There are many organization build CS strategy and future plans based on management opinion instead of real data.

Many fear the Customer Service Sector may become obsolete, due to the technological advances of AI. I tend to disagree, and believe as humans, we will always crave and seek assistance from our human folk to provide a level of conscious understanding, compassion and empathy unmatched from our AI counterparts. Rather, AI is a powerful tool which we, as Customer Service agents can harness to enhance our customer’s experiences via our own expertise, to exceed and heighten customer satisfaction. It is therefore our job to stay abreast of all the latest AI tools that are ever-evolving, to be able to aptly apply the best applications and approaches for our customer’s individual needs. It’s up to us human agents to decipher those needs.

From my experience, in this tech-savvy age, customer service training has evolved. It's all about learning by doing! Hands-on experiences, simulations, and role-playing exercises help develop practical skills. Embracing technology, like virtual reality and AI-powered simulations, enhances the learning process. By immersing ourselves in realistic scenarios, we can sharpen our problem-solving abilities, think on our feet quickly and adapt to different customer interactions, and gain confidence So, let's embrace the power of experiential learning to deliver top-notch customer service!

Your agents are your face to the Customer. Empower them, keep them happy and trained and give them the possibility to grow and develop. And keep in mind to get your change management right. There are changes happening constantly and there is always inertia against change. Many people are not taking change easily and they need attention and support. Take care of your people, as you want them to take care of your Customers.

Omnichannel is here and there are always people, who prefer to self-resolve and other ones who want to call and let somebody else resolve issues for them. With omnichannel I would like to emphasize, that different channels are not only good for different type of people, but also different type of problems. Some problems are much easier to solve by email, some need a call, so when you are building your support system, it is good to guide specific type of support drivers/issues, to specific channels, to shorten the Customers' support journey. It is very frustrating to be asked to call the support line only after having exchanged 5 emails over two weeks before that about an issue.

In my roles I always feel as customer service agents, it's crucial to see ourselves as customer advocates. By prioritizing their needs and going the extra mile to assist them, we create a positive experience. Customers can truly feel the difference when we genuinely support them instead of just "doing our job." It's all about building trust and fostering a strong customer-agent relationship.

I agree with Barbara Jones. Customer Support people are customer advocates. I like to the think about Customer Support in terms of Customer Care. As support persons, we need to take care of the Customer, provide support, fix their issue, and fix them or their relationship with the service or product or the company. The Customers feel it and they appreciate it and they are willing to pay a bit more for the service/product to have the careing support there.