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In an age where customers are more connected and informed — and where their expectations are higher than ever before — customer service is quickly becoming the key differentiator among brands.
Every company, regardless of size or industry, must prioritize the customer experience. That's why, for our latest installment of the 12 (Business) Days of Salesforce, we've chosen to outline eight key ingredients of amazing customer service. Without further ado, here they are:
The best customer service operations anticipate their customers' needs and desires, sometimes even before the customer has articulated them. Take Sprig, a food delivery service that tracks the time taken to deliver each customer's order — and then takes initiative to make up for it when service times are longer than usual.
According to recent research by CEB, customers are more interested in having a quick, easy experience than in being amazed or delighted. In other words, they just want to resolve their issue and move on with their lives — an important thing for companies to keep in mind when setting service goals.
Your customers are more mobile and more connected than they've ever been — so it goes without saying that your service needs to meet them where they are. This doesn't mean a disjointed collection of mobile, desktop, and call center options, though; it also means linking these channels together to provide a single, unified service experience for each customer.
Amazing customer service is fast. This can mean issues are resolved quickly and effectively, or that consumers can find the information they need easily, without help.
Modern customer service isn't just about making things easy for the customer — it's also about building a unified, effortless experience for your service agents. The ideal service infrastructure will surface relevant cases and experts, along with information about the customer's case history and personal preferences, in a single, user-friendly feed.
Research has shown that consumers are willing to volunteer personal information — their preferences, contact information, health data, and so on — in return for a personalized consumer experience. This means that if you're collecting that data, it's important to deliver on the implicit promise of personalizing your service approach.
The collaborative economy is a rising force — think sharing-economy powerhouses like Lyft, Uber, and Airbnb — and it has important implications for customer service. By leveraging communities to crowdsource knowledge, encourage participation, and facilitate issue resolution, companies can deliver a customer experience that is unified and effortless.
Customer service can take a page from the content marketing playbook: when solving a customer's problem or following up after an issue is resolved, take the opportunity to add value in other ways, too. By creating and sharing content that helps your customers solve their business problems, you can find new ways to cultivate loyalty.
Missed our 12 Business Days of Salesforce series? Find all 12 days here.
Do you know the 20 best practices for customer service? Visit salesforce.com or download the free e-book to find out!
