Five trends in online customer service in 2016
SERVICE When shopping online, customers expect ever-faster customer service. When consumers contact a company via email, they don’t want to wait more than 14 hours for a response. iAdvize* highlights five trends that companies should keep an eye on in 2016 to provide the best possible customer service. 1. presenceThe most important trend for companies that sell online can be summarized under the term "presence". Brands must be available to their customers everywhere, always and immediately - on all channels: Website, social media, desktop and mobile. The customer's experience with a brand will be omnipresent. Customers will no longer search for it, but the brand must communicate with the customer at the right touchpoint at the right time. To achieve this, companies not only need comprehensive monitoring, but also technical solutions that bundle customer inquiries from different platforms.2. social media platformsThe presence of brands on social media platforms will continue to expand, and for some smaller companies, social media will even replace their website. Simply posting marketing content will no longer be enough and will need to be replaced by genuine, one-to-one communication at eye level. For example, in recent months Facebook has created more and more opportunities for people and companies to send each other private messages and converse in real time. Online shoppers will appreciate and sooner or later expect personalized customer service on social media.3. personal customer service in real time Advancing digitalization has changed consumers' information behaviour. In 2016, they have high expectations of companies' customer service. Standard answers and long waiting times are no longer acceptable. Instead, personal customer service in real time must become the norm. Brands that do not adapt their digital strategy to this will be overtaken by the competition. The customer experience must be the central starting point for customer service. To achieve this, companies must not only be present on all channels, but also make their CRM systems more efficient and focus on new forms of customer service.
4. Peer-to-peer counseling and communityCustomers themselves will play an increasingly important role in the range of products and services offered by brands. Companies will increasingly recruit brand ambassadors from their customer base and build brand communities in order to supplement professional online customer service with call center agents. The brand ambassadors advise other customers online, for example giving tips on product use or suggestions for purchases. Community messaging is driven by three social trends: the progress of digitalization, the need of internet users for real-time communication and the community concept.5. machine learningMachine learning will become more important in online support. 2016 will see the first large-scale use of artificial intelligence in customer support and other areas. For example, intelligent software will be able to recognize the customer's request and write its own answers or, in the case of more complex issues, provide suggestions that can then be individualized by the customer advisor. It is important that the customer never has the feeling that they are communicating with a robot.*iAdvice is a platform for real-time customer engagement (via click to chat, click to call, click to video, community messaging and social networks).
4. Peer-to-peer counseling and communityCustomers themselves will play an increasingly important role in the range of products and services offered by brands. Companies will increasingly recruit brand ambassadors from their customer base and build brand communities in order to supplement professional online customer service with call center agents. The brand ambassadors advise other customers online, for example giving tips on product use or suggestions for purchases. Community messaging is driven by three social trends: the progress of digitalization, the need of internet users for real-time communication and the community concept.5. machine learningMachine learning will become more important in online support. 2016 will see the first large-scale use of artificial intelligence in customer support and other areas. For example, intelligent software will be able to recognize the customer's request and write its own answers or, in the case of more complex issues, provide suggestions that can then be individualized by the customer advisor. It is important that the customer never has the feeling that they are communicating with a robot.*iAdvice is a platform for real-time customer engagement (via click to chat, click to call, click to video, community messaging and social networks).
