What They Want: Reviewing Customer Expectations of Service
The customer may always be right, but meeting their expectations is a challenge without the right data to back you up.
Your customers are depending on you—not to just to meet their needs, but to predict their needs.
The job of customer service, after all, isn’t really “crisis management” as we’re all lead to believe; it’s relationship management. Your agents are the glue that holds the customer-to-business relationship together. As such, knowing the expectations of your callers is a critical part of maintaining a positive brand image.
A 2014 Global Market Research Survey by Avaya found that while 70 percent of customers expect unique and personalized service, 92 percent also expect brands to be proactive in their outreach. Proactive, unique, and personalized: this is a tall order for many businesses. However, the consumers surveyed also revealed the benefits of meeting these needs: 87 percent agreed that they’d spend more money with organizations that provided effortless experiences.
Regional Preferences
Customer expectations for service are constantly evolving, and each market evolves a little differently. Regional and location-based preferences for customer service can throw another wrench into your service outreach. Knowing which channels and habits are unique to your market will tell you the best way to meet these fickle expectations.
The 2015 Global State of Multichannel Customer Service Report from Parature had plenty to say about service preferences varied by region. Across four markets surveyed (United States, United Kingdom, Brazil, and Japan), one issue consistently topped the customer expectation chart: fast problem resolution. More surprisingly, the report also found that while telephone outreach is still the primary outreach option for the US market, a preference for email support over voice is present in the UK, Brazil, and Japan markets.
Parature’s report also demonstrated a stark contrast between perceived frustrations with customer service. While being passed between agents was the biggest problem for the US and UK markets, those surveyed in Brazil claimed that lack of issue resolution was their biggest complaint. Japan also bucked the trend and reported that being kept on hold for too long was the most frustrating service aspect.
Clearly, priorities between cultures and demographics vary, and consumer expectations for service will vary with them. Learn your market’s priorities to better understand how to decrease their effort and maximize their happiness across each customer touchpoint.
Service Channels
Of course, no analysis of customer expectations would be complete without addressing the evolving needs of the multichannel consumer. The push towards personal empowerment and fast resolution brings self-service to the forefront of customer expectations—Parature’s report found that 90 percent of consumers (across all geographic locations!) expect access to self-service options or an online FAQ resource to find answers themselves.
While consumers may be looking for more ways to help themselves, their expectations for their service agents are rising accordingly. Customers demand the type of outreach that is convenient to them when self-service options fail. As technology progresses and more outreach options become available, consumers expect more than just multichannel service—they want omnichannel service. Customers want a comprehensive experience that provides effortless problem resolution without the dreaded “handing off” to multiple agents or having to repeat information they’ve previously said. This becomes a necessary issue to address as more consumers begin to switch channels during their service experience—most commonly transitioning from online outreach to mobile apps and telephone support.
What your customers are really asking for (even if they don’t realize it) is for your centre to have optimized CRM systems across every service channel you offer. Contacting customer service can be frustrating, but it doesn’t have to be frustrating. Our trusty report by Parature found that for the US, UK, and Brazil markets, having to contact a brand more than once for an issue was a frustration on par with being handed off to other agents. Ensuring that your customer management systems are capable of tracking each consumer touchpoint and providing that information in real-time is one of the best ways to meet your customer’s service expectations and take the effort out of their interaction.
They’re Always Right
As the saying goes, “the customer is always right”—and nobody would agree with that more than your customers. With the booming advances in technology and global connectivity that have taken hold of the customer service world, service expectations are more complex than ever. Contact centres intending to meet these challenges must be aware of the specific regional needs of their market, provide outreach in the appropriate channels, and work towards a streamlined service experience that is easy and effortless. Curious about other trends in changing customer service expectations? Check out our free whitepaper!
