Top 5 customer support trends contact center leaders need to know

Customer support teams have the potential to create significant competitive advantages for organizations. For one, studies have shown that about 60% to 70%¹ of a company's revenue comes from existing customers rather than new sales. This revenue underscores how critical it is for organizations to support their customers throughout their entire lifecycle, ensuring they get the most value from their products. Further, a report by Salesforce found that if a company provides fast service, customers are 72%² more likely to remain loyal to them.

However, balancing customer needs with request volume can be challenging. Luckily, as customer needs and preferences constantly evolve and change, so has the support industry. Let's dive into the top five trends in customer support services that businesses need to know in 2024.

Top 5 customer support trends discussed:

1. AI and automation are revolutionizing response times
2. Customers expect personalization
3. Omnichannel support
4. Data to measure success and shortcomings
5. Contact center optimization partners - strategic advantage

1. AI and automation are revolutionizing response times.

Artificial intelligence (AI) has been a hot topic in technology for several years, and it’s no different for customer support. Typically, customers have been limited to speaking with live agents, potentially waiting hours for a response to simple requests, weighing down support teams, and negatively impacting their impression of a company’s ability to handle their needs. Enter contact center AI. Already implemented across numerous industries and organizations, AI tools can easily augment customer service teams in various ways, including virtual chatbots, sentiment analysis, machine learning, and automation.

Virtual chatbots

Agents can use chatbots to instantly respond to customer questions, even outside regular business hours³. This tool can help provide seamless customer service with minimal disruption to your support teams, teeing agents up for success before a conversation begins.

Sentiment analysis

AI can assist in routing queries using sentiment analysis, e.g., analyzing customer requests to predict the most helpful information. This data can also be used to determine areas for improvement by analyzing customer feedback.

Machine learning

As an AI tool is used, its knowledge of company processes and support will grow. With this expanded information, AI will improve the accuracy of its responses, ensuring customers receive the information they need more efficiently.

Automation

With machine learning and sentiment analysis working together, AI can provide self-service solutions for customers, such as directing them to a company’s knowledge base or FAQ page. These tools can also analyze a customer’s query to handle a simple request, such as a password reset or order status update.

2. Customers expect personalization.

Personalization has evolved beyond simply addressing a customer by their name. According to research by business consulting firm McKinsey, customers expect companies to understand their unique needs and preferences in each interaction. McKinsey reports that 71% of customers expect a personalized interaction from a company, 72% are “frustrated” when they don’t receive one, and 78% are more likely to purchase from a brand based on personalization. This includes personalized marketing (tailored ads and emails) and how they receive support⁴. 

Support agents can offer a unique opportunity to provide personalization by capturing customer data and interactions to better understand a customer’s needs. These needs include anything from their preferred communication methods or recommendations for new tools or solutions that support their continued loyalty to a brand.

3. Omnichannel support is critical.

While call centers are still key to a successful support plan, customers can now engage with companies via social media, email, chat, online reviews, or even text messages. While the volume can feel daunting for contact centers to address, it’s an opportunity to provide a seamless customer experience by offering support wherever your customers may be. Options for providing omnichannel support include integration, training, and partnering with a third-party company.

Integration

The key to a successful omnichannel support strategy is integration. This means all channels are connected to a central database, such as a CRM, to log each interaction. Whether it was a question posted on Facebook or an inquiry via a chatbot, capturing this information is critical to creating the context for a customer’s inquiries and providing the best experience while maintaining consistency in messaging across all touchpoints.

Training

While the channel might be different, the message is the same. The same professionalism that agents offer on the phone or email is also expected via social media, text, or video calls. Providing guidelines and training for employees on interacting with customers across mediums is key.

Partner with a third-party company

Managing an omnichannel strategy is critical to support operations. If you’re unsure of where to start or want to create fast time to value-based, leveraging the expertise of a third-party company like KellyConnect can be an ideal fit for fast-growing companies.

4. Data is needed to measure success (and shortcomings).

Contact center strategy is only complete with methods to measure success. In addition to providing insight into employee performance, this data can offer insights into areas of improvement for your team. The most used contact center key performance indicators (KPIs) are customer satisfaction scores (CSATs), customer retention, average handle time (AHT), typical service levels, and maximum abandon rate threshold.

Customer satisfaction scores (CSATs)

CSATs are the most impactful KPIs because they’re derived directly from customers. They’re usually an average score based on responses to a post-service survey and can be used to identify top performers or flag areas of improvement.

Revenue

Every employee's role is to maximize revenue for a business. While a customer support agent typically doesn’t have a sales goal, revenue can be tied directly to customer satisfaction because of how much revenue comes from existing customers (60 – 70%). If revenue is down, it’s every department’s responsibility to analyze how they can perform better.

Customer retention

Customer retention, or “churn,” indicates how effectively a company inspires customer loyalty. On average, this rate will vary amongst different industries (Forbes reports that insurance companies have a retention rate of 84% while education technology has a 4% rate)⁵. Still, the goal is to prevent customers from leaving for another product or service.

Average handle time (AHT)

These benchmarks will vary depending on the type of interaction and complexity of customer requests. Still, the average time it takes to handle a customer contact from beginning to resolution affects customer satisfaction and strongly indicates a support team's overall performance. Longer times could indicate that more resources are needed, such as training or tools. Review this metric along with CSAT to understand team performance and customer experience. 

Typical service levels

As their name suggests, typical service levels provide a performance measurement based on predefined criteria, such as availability, response time, reliability, and efficiency.

Maximum abandon rate threshold

When a customer waits to connect to an agent for assistance, there’s a chance that they may abandon the call, or disconnect the chat, altogether. While how long a customer waits is a personal decision, companies typically set an acceptable threshold for the percentage of abandon contacts. The actual threshold will vary depending on the business, but in general, a high percentage of abandoned contacts indicates that customers are waiting too long or failing to receive adequate support.

At the end of the day, these metrics should provide a baseline for operational health as a whole in addition to evaluating employee performance. Many modern customer service platforms offer insights into these metrics, automating the data curation and analysis process.

5. Contact center optimization partners provide strategic advantages.

All of the work and effort that goes into managing a contact center can be daunting for many companies. Hiring and retention, training, and maximizing operational efficiency is no small task, which is why more and more companies are choosing to outsource some or all of these responsibilities. As a strategic business partner, KellyConnect offers several advantages including efficeincy and scalability, custom options, and industry knowledge.

Efficiency and scalability

Finding the right customer support agents at the right time can be challenging. KellyConnect has access to a deep pool of talent and is backed by the parent company, Kelly, which has nearly 80 years of experience in recruiting.

Custom options

While some organizations may only need support during business hours, KellyConnect can advise on custom strategies, such as 24/7 customer support, AI tools, and omnichannel outreach, that best suit their customer base.

Industry knowledge

With their in-depth knowledge of call center best practices, KellyConnect can lend credibility to a company’s support efforts. These include rigorous certifications, such as the COPC Customer Experience Standard.

Stay ahead of the competition through customer experience

Customer support is at an exciting juncture, with new technology and tools augmenting the customer experience. While traditional call centers and email are still necessary, technology offers new avenues to ensure the satisfaction of customers and call center employees alike. Staying abreast of this fast-moving field creates a competitive advantage for organizations and increases efficiency through cutting-edge tools.

KellyConnect is a full-service customer experience company that provides custom solutions that empower contact centers to provide their customers with outstanding customer service. Learn more today!

Sources
¹https://blog.hubspot.com/service/customer-retention-metrics
²https://www.salesforce.com/resources/research-reports/state-of-the-connected-customer/
³https://blog.hubspot.com/service/customer-service-chatbots#chatbot-benefits
⁴https://www.mckinsey.com/featured-insights/mckinsey-explainers/what-is-personalization
⁵https://www.forbes.com/advisor/business/customer-retention-rate/