5 Trends That Will Shape the Future of Customer Service

Business owners can make every customer interaction meaningful and memorable by taking advantage of emerging technologies.

Customer experience (CX) is a top concern among leading organizations. Enterprises that know-how to deliver a remarkable CX boost buyer loyalty and earn coveted word-of-mouth recommendations.

Resultantly, today’s businesses compete by attempting to provide the best customer experience. Savvy enterprises use technology to figure out what customers want at the moment and provide it.

You can outdo the competition by using technology to learn granular details about your customers while providing phenomenal customer service. The following are five customer service trends that will help you do just that.

1. Omnichannel Engagement

Today, consumers engage with brands using a variety of mechanisms.  Forward-thinking enterprises complement brick-and-mortar service with apps, online chat, call center support and other technological tools. Now, however, it’s increasingly important to provide a seamless experience across these multiple channels.

2. Face-to-Face Customer Service

Cutting edge, high-definition video conferencing platforms enable you to make clients and shoppers feel like their meeting with your customer service representatives (CSRs) in person. Once consumers have exhausted all automated self-service resources, videoconferencing is a way to provide meaningful, face-to-face interaction for existing or potential buyers. You can deploy videoconferencing for customer service through your website, mobile app, social media channels or strategically placed kiosks.

3. AI-Powered Chat Bots

Now, customer service chatbots incorporate innovations such as artificial intelligence (AI), natural language processing (NPL), sentiment analysis and predictive analytics to resolve customer issues. When all else fails, they can route consumers to live CSRs quickly. More importantly, however, chatbots collect a wealth of data that businesses can use to learn intimate details about their customers.

4. Personalized Experiences

Consumers now demand brand experiences that are made just for them. Furthermore, they’re willing to spend more money with companies that do it right. As 71% of consumers express frustration with impersonal brand engagement, personalization represents a substantial opportunity for business growth.

5. Augmented Reality

Virtual reality, augmented reality and mixed reality have created new possibilities for customer engagement. For example, one eyeglass retailer is using augmented reality to enable customers to try glasses on using their smartphone. Meanwhile, Rolex lets potential customers try on watches virtually by doing the same.

Technology creates many new possibilities for enterprises, especially now that prices are becoming more accessible. Today, businesses of all sizes can take advantage of innovations such as artificial intelligence to learn remarkable facts about consumer behavior.

At the same time, consumers crave a human connection in a world that’s becoming increasingly digital. As a result, business technology firms are creating a growing number of technological innovations that mimic human behavior for all but the most complex interactions.

The best thing about technology is that it’s generating an abundance of data that you can use to learn more about your ideal consumers. The business leaders who make the wise decision to invest in technology are the ones who will survive and thrive in an increasingly competitive marketplace.