Now that customers are becoming more vocal and are engaging in discussions with you and with each other through more and more channels, your customer service cannot stand still. Because standing still is going backwards in this competitive society. Smart managers like you therefore keep a close eye on trends and, where possible, anticipate them. In this article, we look at developments that experts believe will influence customer service.

Keep writing

The trend of content marketing will continue strongly for the rest of this year. To distinguish yourself from the competition, you offer valuable information, a look behind the scenes and other articles that your customers will gladly come back for. The Belfabriek blog is a good example of content marketing.

Remember that quality is more important than quantity; you are better off sharing a great tutorial once a month than posting an uninspired piece of text every week. Google is getting smarter and rewards quality information with higher rankings. Don’t be afraid that an article will be too long; readers (and therefore also the search engine) prefer longer articles of higher quality. Articles with a length of 2 to 3000 words are no longer an exception.

Be social

Customers choose for themselves which channel they use to contact you. That could just be your Twitter account. How attentive are you to these messages? The difference with an incoming phone call or an email is that other users can see the question or complaint. They also see how you react to it. This may sound more serious than it is, but instead of a threat, it is an opportunity. If you act quickly and adequately, you will score points with the other (potential) customers who are reading along.

There are rumors that Twitter and Google+ will take off. We dare not say for sure, but we are already represented on these social networks. And what about your organization?

Go mobile

Smartphone use is exploding, but few companies have responded to this with a mobile version of their website. This is to the frustration of customers, who have to scroll and zoom a lot to find the desired information. Smart organizations therefore have mobile applications made, in which customers can find the most important information and perform actions. A new trend is to build in support buttons, with which users can ask a question via a chat, or where customers are called by customer service within a few minutes.

Act proactively

In addition to the above trends, a change in the attitude of organizations can also be observed. Instead of waiting for customers to come up with questions or problems, they work preventively. A proactive phone call from customer service can prevent problems and leaves an excellent impression on customers. This is not a wasted effort, by the way: behind every complaint there are 26 customers who keep quiet, according to research by Lee Resources. By acting proactively, you retain more customers.

Ask your customers

An extension of a proactive approach is crowdsourcing. Here you enter into a dialogue with your customers and ask them for ideas for improving your service. This can be done perfectly via social media, but also by telephone – both inbound and outbound. Two-way traffic in content, such as on blogs, is now the most normal thing in the world.

Record conversations

Multinationals and large organizations have been doing it for a long time, but finally the option to record telephone conversations is also affordable for small businesses. Thanks to its large-scale approach, Belfabriek can offer this option at a fixed low price. With the Call-recording function, you have a backup of important information and you can hear whether conversations meet the desired quality level. In short: an indispensable tool for improving your customer service.

Are customers spoiled? We don’t think so. However, companies are constantly raising the bar by offering new services and features. Therefore, make sure you remain aware of new developments and anticipate them where possible. On this blog you can read about the most important trends that can influence your customer service. Subscribe to receive our articles automatically in your mailbox.