Irrespective of any technological advancement, some business areas won’t change any time soon. If you are thinking about sales and marketing, you are not wrong. Marketing plays a vital role in improving a brand’s sales and image in a niche.
These departments have the power to create a buzz around the product and encourage people to purchase it.
This is how a brand entertains its prospects, helps them with buying decisions and provides support and help after the product has been sold.
For a business that is eyeing long-term success and a solid market reputation, a strong customer support department is vital.
If you think that customer support means talking to people and helping them with the goods, maybe you haven’t fully understood the power of customer support
The activity of customer support will ensure that consumers don’t feel lost; they should be attended at any cost. Customer support offers a great buying experience which will encourage your buyers to become your brand’s evangelists.
If your customer support is fabulous, the client will happily purchase more. Moreover, they will share their good experiences with their friends and family to try your products.
In this era where marketing and sales have so many options with too many proactive platforms, customer support becomes a vital ingredient.
Let’s discuss which customer support trend is going to thrive in 2020. Also, as a business owner, you should focus on these trends to provide valuable experience to your buyers.
1. Chatbot
A chatbot is the quickest way to get connected with the brand and get solutions. It is a platform for customers to chat with all sales representatives or a computer program and ask any questions regarding services and products.
In this internet world, chatting is the most comfortable way of communication for most people.
The chatbot enables your brand to get connected with your prospect instantly. In fact, according to HubSpot’s research, 42% of prospects want to connect with a business or a brand through live chat support.
Today there are so many options of chatbot applications and software that let you write auto-responses whenever someone asks the particular types of questions. This way, you can instantly entertain prospects by writing powerful messages through a chatbot.
2. Personalization
According to McKinsey, 70% of the customer’s journey is influenced by how they feel they are being treated. So, you can write a researched and personalized copy, testimonials, FAQs on your website to make prospects feel at home. With all methods, personalization plays a vital role in enhancing customer satisfaction. In today’s world, which is driven by technology and gadgets, customers expect personalized attention from brands.
In 2018, 1 out of 3 customers had abandoned a brand due to lack of personalization in customer support, reports Accenture. So, it is crucial for brands to educate sales representatives or enhance chatbots to make them respond with a personalized message whenever a buyer asks something.
A good way to start is to create a structure where a sales representative already knows the necessary details about the prospect who needs something. This way, the maximum initial personalization in the conversation can be done.
3. Social Media
In 2020, you cannot ignore the existence of social media and the impact it has on the companies’ sales today.
Social media has the power to dynamically project a company in front of their prospects and ensure maximum conversion rate for their online sales.
Microsoft did mention that 74% of millennials think good of a brand if that company listens and responds to people’s social media inquires.
Moreover, 57% of customers would love to contact a brand through social media or email instead of a voice-based communication channel.
Thanks to features like chatting and direct messaging on social media, users can interact with the brand by directly messaging them on social media platforms.
Hence, these social media messaging platforms can also be utilized as customer support channels where brands can stay in touch and answer their user’s questions instantly..
4. Voice Search
Well, it may sound too futuristic to be real, but voice search has its benefits and provides more freedom. Users just need to speak, and everything will be taken care of.
Brands can enable the voice search feature and let customers share voice messages with your brand to share their queries. This way, you can have a better understanding of the customers’ mindset and serve them effectively.
By using voice search, brands are able to save customers’ time. Now, they don’t have to use keyboards or touchscreens to type long messages, and 66% of buyers believe that saving time is the best customer support experience a brand can offer.
5. Telephonic Support
Even though technology has evolved a lot, the significance of connecting via telephone is still prevalent as far as customer support services are concerned.
For complex problems, 40% of customers still prefer to talk to customer support agents over a call. Through telephone, you can ensure a more personalized communication with your buyers and make them feel at home while they are talking to their representative.
Compared to live chat and email, connectivity over the phone is more transparent and customizable.
In addition, it lets users believe that their voice is being heard, and there is an actual human being who is talking and answering their questions instead of a bot. So, the brand’s trust factor is increased thanks to telephonic support.
6. Solve problems on customer’s behalf
For SaaS companies or software development companies, it’s important to address a scenario that customers may face while using their products.
Brands also improve the quality of the services by solving problems on the customer’s behalf by sharing a screen over the web.
Since they can share screens, the customer support representative will not have to explain everything to the customer and do the work on the customer’s behalf. This will save time and energy for both.
The users would feel at ease as they would know that a team is always there for their questions and provide reliable solutions.
7. Machine learning
Machine learning is a technology that can dramatically improve your understanding of your prospects.
It is an algorithm or a computer program that checks what customers have asked on different platforms and anticipate their mood and intent behind the communication.
This way, whenever a prospect is communicating through a social media chatbot or live chat support, machine learning will provide you with a deeper understanding by analyzing the conversation.
You can determine these conversations with the help of machine learning to identify loopholes in the system and optimize the overall product experience.
8. Omnichannel Support
Every leading industry is becoming competitive day by day. Thanks to the evolution of the digital landscape, any company can go online and sell its services, products, and make profits.
A company that provides the best possible solution and services to its prospects, must be available on all leading platforms to serve customers.
If your business is available on all the platforms, customers have the option to choose a convenient medium and get in touch with your brand.
So, a brand’s customer support staff should have access to all the leading consumer service channels like email, telephone, social media, live chat support, etc.
9. Quick Response
Almost half of the customers expect questions to be answered on social media platforms within 24 hours.
Giving fast replies is another behaviour that brands must follow to provide a memorable customer experience. Whenever a user connects with your business through a leading platform, they should get an immediate response from your team. You can either use social media tools to get in touch with the customers immediately or use some email marketing services.
It’s unprofessional for the client to wait for a week to get the answer.
Hence, it is a challenging yet profitable to build an environment where customers are quickly assisted and heard by the brand.
10. Overall Experience
Customer support as a whole is meant to provide impeccable consumer experience even after sales have been made. Companies and brands will have to ensure that they treat their consumers and the new prospects well and patiently hear and resolve their queries whenever possible.
Consumer experience is the ultimate factor that is going to determine the success of a brand.
11. Skilled representatives
While the customer support staff is talking to an existing customer, they should know all the necessary details and their probable questions.
For example, if the customer is talking through live chat or telephone, the sales representative should know the name, location, and products that they have purchased and mentioned them during the conversation.
Preferably, only the people with a sound technical background or equivalent commercial experience should talk to customers.
This will make the customer feel valued by the brand. This will leave the impression that the representative is resourceful and know what they are talking about.
Conclusion
The customer support trends will let you understand what is currently working and what could work in the future. Then, you can plan and strategize your customer support activities to provide the best customer support for your buyers. Please let us know in the comments about what you think of the trends discussed in this article.
Bio:
Kulwant Nagi is a professional blogger, affiliate marketer, and running a content writing agency in India. Kulwant started his blogging career in 2011, and has written more than 2000 articles on various niches. He travels the world and speaks at many conferences in India.
