Customer service has traditionally been a dirty word (words?) both within businesses and outside of them. That’s started to change somewhat in recent years as more organizations begin to understand that customer service can in fact be a differentiator and customer hook, rather than just a cost center.
Indeed, Salesforce research says that 85 percent of executives with service oversight believe customer experience is a key competitive differentiator. And 80 percent of these executives believe customer service is the primary vehicle for improving the customer experience.
Yet, despite all we’re hearing about the value of the customer experience in attracting, retaining, and upselling prospects and customers, just 14 percent of those recently surveyed rate their performance vs. the competition and overall related to service as excellent. Meanwhile, about half (54 percent) say they have achieved moderate performance in these areas. And nearly a third (32 percent) consider themselves underperformers in these realms.
This is all according to Salesforce in its new State of Service report. The report is based on a survey of 2,600 global customer service professionals.
These individuals come from Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Japan, the Netherlands, New Zealand, the U.K./Ireland, and the U.S. Salesforce surveyed them in September of 2016.
The report also provides tips on how organizations can elevate the customer experiences they deliver.
Providing a unified customer experience among different channels is important, Salesforce notes.
The CRM company also suggests that empowering customer service agents with the technology and tools they need can go a long way in improving the customer experience. That includes things like CRM and workforce optimization tools, and integrated dashboards. “Seventy-nine percent of service teams agree that a shared, single view of the customer empowers agents to provide consistency and continuity in every customer interaction,” according to the Salesforce report.
Salesforce also notes that leveraging technologies like predictive intelligence to deliver more personalized experiences can help businesses better meet evolving customer expectations.
Edited by Maurice Nagle