Customer support has come a long way, (especially if you are using an easy to use CRM software to assist you in the process), over the last few years and we all are sure that it will continue to evolve.
Innovations in all best small business CRM software platforms will drive in new technology, which will allow organizations to cater better support and thereby continually improve the customer experience of their consumers.
80% of modern customers across all industries always attempt to resolve their problems themselves, before contacting customer support.- HBR Click To TweetSince the inception of call centers for delivering customer support in the 1960s, to the modern day introduction of AI (Artificial Intelligence) and chat-bots to lend a hand to the support teams, the face of customer support has changed drastically.
Therefore, looking back we are sure that as Best small business CRM software technologies continue to advance in the future days, small businesses and startups can expect to view even more dramatic changes to how brands manage to deliver impeccable customer support.
Hence, most successful business organizations of the future days will be only those that embraces these new technologies, and as consumer’s expectations are also evolving in the modern times, understand this shifting consumer’s needs. Since, those businesses, which are not anticipating and preparing for these emerging trends in 2019, will be for sure left behind.
As one of the pioneering vendors of CRM for small business, here are 5 trends from us that will define the upcoming opportunities in customer support in 2019 and beyond, which will help your business to understand and prepare yourself to remain competitive in the future times to come:
According to a report published by HBR (Harvard Business Review) it has been found that more than 80% of modern customers across all industries always attempt to resolve their problems themselves, before contacting customer support.
It is no wonder; customers can always save their precious time, if they can easily find a resolution to their issues without having to open a help desk ticket or contact a live customer support rep online.
Therefore, as modern customers in this digital age prefer self-service, we anticipate to see more small business organizations and startups will adopt and implement technologies that will help in providing the desired outcome.
Creating a robust knowledge base on your business website is an effective means for providing self-service support for your customers. Using a small business CRM software like ConvergeHub, you can easily assimilate all the frequently asked questions by your customers. As easy to use CRM is a software application that helps in storing all your customer facing communications and interactions in its CRM database.
Furthermore, going one step forward, you can also consider developing ‘how-to’ videos and guides and make them accessible to your customers.
Providing easily reachable ways for the consumers to solve their own issues with your products and services not only saves time for the consumers of your brand, but it also means one less support ticket for your team to handle in their busy lives.
As Millennial(s) overtake the Baby-Boomer(s) as the largest consumer demography in 2019 and beyond, social media usage will for sure continue to be on rise.
Nearly all of us these days carry some kind of a mobile device, wherever we go be it near or far.
Therefore, if in case any consumer encounters a bad experience with your organization, they do not have to wait until they find a computer or get back home for registering the issue. Rather, they can visit your social media and share their experience publicly.
But how does this affect customer support?
Well, when a negative remark gets posted on the social media website, it spreads like wildfire. Therefore, using social media monitoring and listening tools, your customer support teams can easily receive any alerts when anyone mentions about your brand on these websites. Using a small business CRM software that allows the support teams to keep an eye on all social behaviors of your customers and react to any kind of negative comments before they become viral, can help in restoring the reputation of your brand.
Moreover, it has been noticed that there has also been a rise in asking customer support questions about their brands via direct messaging on social media platforms.
Hence, it shows that customer expectations for resolving their problems using social media is growing and will continue substantially as we move forward in the years to come.
By community-based support, we are referring to customers forming a community among themselves and aiding each other to solve issues.
When customers interact among themselves in this manner, it increases engagement with your products and services.
Therefore, in 2019 and beyond, there will be several businesses that will create forums, which can be only accessible with login credential by the customers through their business websites, where customers can get involved and answer questions and make their community grow in the days to come.
Customer support reps can also monitor their respective forums using an easy to use CRM software platform and chime in if any question remains unanswered for a day or two and thereby form a working relationship with their peers and consumers along the way.
Customer support chat-bots have already arrived, as we all must have seen them by now on several websites, and they are continuing to pop-up everywhere.
With the rise in competition in nearly every industry, it is easier for your customers to leave your brand for a competition.
Therefore, with the rise of AI (Artificial Intelligence) as chat-bots are becoming more adroit at resolving customer issues, you can now connect them to your knowledge base in the CRM database, so that they can answer basic questions asked about your products and services by the users of your offerings.
If you are using an all-in-one small business CRM software, which provides marketing, sales and help-desk functionalities, chat-bots are generally integrated in your easy to use CRM, so that bots can retrieve the information stored in the CRM and smartly solve customer support issues.
Using chat-bots does not necessarily mean that this technology will put back your support staffs, rather it implies that bots will enhance your support desk’s ability by freeing up your support rep’s time spent in handling common support related questions, which will help them focus on advanced support tickets and resolve those cases that essentially requires a human touch.
If you are a user of a Best CRM for small business like ConvergeHub, your easy to use CRM software can register and track all support cases, and even customer behaviors towards your brand like visiting web pages, opening emails, downloading contents and others.
Now, if you are using third-party integrations such as social media app, accounting app, and others, with your small business CRM software, the trail of this information mentioned above, expands further in the CRM database.
Therefore, using the information stored in the CRM database, your support teams can easily form an elaborate picture of the consumers and their customer journey, which includes who the customers have spoken to, products or services that they have purchased, or issues they have faced with your brand in the past.
In the days to come in 2019 and beyond as easy to use CRM technology expands, customer support executives will increasingly use this data to personalize their support they provide to the customers during their support interactions.
Hence, as customer expectations will continue to grow, catering personalized support will become the norm. Since, in the near future, personalizing the support efforts will empower support reps to deliver more pertinent replies that resonate with the exclusive needs of each customer and make the customers feel delightfully surprised.
Takeaway
According to a report published by a reputed marketed research organization it is found that more than 72% of organizations are recognizing the importance of delivering excellent customer support to their consumers as not delivering higher-quality support will result in greater levels of customer churn.
According to Walker Information, Inc. (a customer experience consulting firm, based in Indianapolis USA) it has been reported that by 2020 the customer experience will overtake product and price as it will become the main recognizing factor behind the consumer’s purchasing decisions across all industries.
Therefore, the bottom line remains, your business must maintain a reputation as an organization that can deliver world-class customer support, by using a easy to use CRM software for your business, else in 2019 and beyond if the customer loyalty for your business declines, it will directly impact the reputation and growth of your brand.
Are you a business leader poised to take your company to the next level, and looking for a software platform that can help you do that?
If so, ConvergeHub is for you!
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