Customer service has a lot of growing up to do.

In the 1960's, customer service reps solved problems exclusively by phone. Since then, customer service has permeated a wide variety of channels, such as email, social media, and apps. Now the latest evolvement in customer service is messaging.

Every day, individuals around the world send 80 billion messages to their friends and family. This instant communication has permeated the service department — customers are demanding the same level of instant, intelligent conversation from your service team.

Think about the last time you messaged a friend. You can scroll back and see the history of the conversation — weeks, months, even years back. When service departments leverage conversational messaging, they can use that contextual history to deliver service that is more intelligent and personalized.

So, what's the hold up?

Going back to when customer service was established, it was created to be purely transactional. I would call in with a problem, the agent would create a case, solve the problem, and then close the case. But this transactional nature is no longer enough to provide the type of personalized experience that customers are looking for. In the earlier days of customer service, if I called back with the same problem and spoke to a different agent, they would have no idea of my history with the company, or that the problems I am experiencing with a product are repeated.

To win loyalty in the Age of the Customer, service departments must be prepared to deliver a 1:1 experience with every customer interaction across all channels. That relies on making the most of customer data.

Modern companies have a litany of data at their fingertips, but aren't able to leverage that data to keep up with customer expectations. What's more, agents and managers are bogged down with tedious tasks instead of leveraging technology to automate, leaving them to solve cases faster. Finally, often the customer service department is siloed from other departments. Without the right insights from sales and marketing, customer service teams don't have the 360-degree view of the customer that the team needs to deliver the right kind of personalization.

To transform customer service for a more intelligent experience, there are four pillars:

1. Offer customers personalized service at every step
2. Empower your agents to solve customer issues fast
3. Predict customer's needs with intelligence and AI
4. Connect your service agents to the rest of the business so everyone has a complete view of the customer

To learn more about how to nail each of these 4 pillars, download the new free e-book from Salesforce, How to Make Customer Service Conversations More Intelligent.