It’s hard to believe 2017 is already coming to a close. As I’m looking back on the past year, and looking forward to the year ahead, it’s got me thinking about where support has been and more importantly, where it’s going. If Vegas were to put out lines for the world of customer support, here’s where I’d place my bets for 2018, which follow the themes of creating a frictionless customer experience, increasing mobility, leveraging the latest technology, and providing self-service support options.
#1. Customers Will Expect Frictionless Experiences
More than ever, customers are beginning to not only expect but demand support be simple, fast, and most of all, painless. With more technologies moving to web-based platforms, support teams will soon require lightweight tools that are both easy to use and will allow them to quickly see what is going on, without needing to install heavy software or have multiple applications running on a customer’s device.
#2. Organizations Must Increase Their Ability to Address Mobile Devices
The world between desktop operating systems and mobile devices is starting to blur together. Customers now assume that what you can do on one device, you can do across all devices. This mindset also applies to the support they receive for every device they use. To keep up, organizations must find a way to simplify and make support uniform across platforms and devices.
#3. Support Teams Need to Become Smarter
Today’s issue isn’t a lack of data, it’s that the data is hard to find, sort, and use. To deliver the level of support customers expect, agents need to first understand the customers they serve. Support teams should know what device a customer has, if they’ve had issues with the device in the past (and what the issues were), if they’ve tried to resolve the problem on their own (and what methods they’ve tried), so that an agent doesn’t increase a customer’s frustration repeating the same steps the customer has already performed.
#4. Support Should Start with Self-Service
Deflection to self-service was once seen as a cost-saving mechanism but support organizations are now seeing self-service become the desired channel for problem resolution. It’s safe to assume that once a customer finally contacts the help desk, they’ve already spent time trying to solve the problem on their own. Organizations will be challenged to maintain an up-to-date, useful, intuitive help center. To aid in these efforts, we will see more AI technology come into the support space to guide users on where to turn for the fastest resolution to their problem. Organizations that adopt AI technologies effectively will realize greater cost-savings and deliver faster solutions to customers’ requests.
If you want to increase your chances of winning in Customer Support, consider how you can streamline your customer experience in 2018. As you move toward more simplified interactions, seamless support across devices and platforms, integrate communication channels, and implement self-service technologies, you will not only meet your customers' expectations but turn your customer service into a key business differentiator.
To learn more about different ways organizations can turn support into a competitive advantage, download LogMeIn’s latest research paper.