Customer Service Techniques for 2022

No business can be successful in the long term without the support of its customers. But keeping up with expectations requires more than a static approach. Your company needs to implement the most relevant customer service techniques to maintain customer relationships and strengthen loyalty.

To help you stay engaged with your customers this year, we’ve put together a list of the top customer service strategies and techniques for 2022. Read the list and choose the ones that can help your business better connect with your buyers.

Customer Expectations in 2022

So what are customers looking for in the post-pandemic years?

They’re still interested in positive validation from other buyers. In fact, the impact of online reviews has gone up. About one-third of consumers read more reviews during the pandemic.

But people aren’t willing to trust a brand just because it has a lot of four or five-star reviews – 83 percent of consumers say reviews must be relevant and recent to be trustworthy.

With more people navigating purchases online with the work-from-home movement, there’s also a greater need for fast, convenient support. According to a 2022 McKinsey report, customer care is now a top strategic focus for companies, with many businesses looking at how they can build a better organizational culture and retain customer service staff.

And finally, customers are looking for a great experience both in person and online. According to a 2022 PwC customer loyalty survey, 51 percent of consumers said they would be less loyal if the online experience wasn’t as enjoyable as in person.

9 Customer Service Techniques You Should Be Using

Here are the customer service techniques that you can integrate into your customer service strategy to ensure you’re meeting today’s customer expectations.

1. Unite Self-Service and Live Channels

Customers expect a seamless experience when they reach out for help. While most people want self-service options like chatbots and website search options – a recent survey revealed that 81 percent of consumers want more self-service choices – the bulk of interactions still require a live agent. According to McKinsey, for most organizations, only 20 percent of digital contact are unassisted.

That’s why it’s important to use a platform that integrates customer data and communication tools. With unified communication and contact center software, support teams can meet customers where they are in the moment and offer personalized experiences.

2. Respond to Customer Reviews

When people write a review of your business, whether it’s positive or negative, your company should respond. Otherwise, you might lose customers, even if you have a lot of positive reviews. In a local consumer review survey, BrightLocal found that 22 percent of consumers aren’t likely to use a business that doesn’t respond to reviews at all.

3. Use AI to Improve Service Quality

With a need to ensure exceptional customer interactions, contact center supervisors have a lot on their plates. That’s why so many companies are turning to contact center solutions with built-in AI features to analyze interactions.

Artificial intelligence can help managers of customer-facing teams identify problem areas in customer interactions. They can use that information to improve processes, understand where there are skills gaps, and set goals for improving customer service.

4. Be Transparent About Data Security

With the rise in cyberattacks over the past few years, consumers are more concerned about data hacks and companies selling their data to third parties. To build trust with customers, partner with cloud providers that offer industry-leading security and be transparent about what your business does with their data.

5. Lean on Automation

To help your support teams better serve customers, use authentication for repetitive calls and actions. Your contact center solution should use an easy-to-customize IVR (interactive voice response) to help feed callers to the right agents and resolve basic inquiries.

6. Offer 24/7 Support

With today’s technology, organizations can operate an effective contact center using remote agents. This means your support staff can work from different time zones, allowing your company to provide support 24/7 instead of limiting help to normal business hours.

7. Improve First Call Resolutions

First call resolutions is one of the most important contact center metrics because it indicates how many of your customers are getting their needs met on their first contact.

By focusing on improving this metric, customers will have a better experience, and you’re less likely to leave people feeling frustrated. To work on first call resolution, train customer service agents so they know what to do to resolve issues quickly and what steps they can take to follow up with an email or call when there isn’t a resolution on the first call.

8. Humanize Customer Interactions

People want genuine interactions when they reach out to your business for help. Look at how you can improve the way your agents are talking to customers to make each contact more human-centered and caring. Another way to implement this customer service technique is to find ways to go above and beyond for customers, such as personalized after-contact follow-up emails and SMS messages.

9. Use Feedback to Inform Your Customer Service Strategy

Even with all of these techniques, you’re still going to have shortfalls. That’s why it’s important to listen to feedback from your customers and measure customer support with tools like the net promoter score.

As soon as customer satisfaction slips or if you start to receive more negative feedback, use all your customer service tools’ reporting systems and talk to your employees to find ways to address issues and improve customer experience.

Deliver a Better Experience with the Adaptable Technology

In 2022, your organization will need to be more focused on customer service to stay competitive. The good news: with the right customer service techniques, you’ll be able to impress customers, build trust, and increase loyalty.

But if you want to be able to keep improving customer service and meet evolving customer needs, you’ll need a contact center solution that’s scalable and can adapt to your needs.

Intermedia Contact Center is a cloud-based contact center solution with everything your customer-facing teams need, including omni-channel routing, IVR, quality assurance features, and AI-powered interaction analytics. Learn more about how it can help your company deliver exceptional experiences.

The Intermedia Team

Intermedia helps businesses of all sizes connect better – through voice, video conferencing, chat, contact center, business email and productivity, file sharing and backup, security, archiving, and more – from wherever, whenever. And, as a partner-first company, Intermedia goes to work for our channel partners to help them grow their revenue and maximize their success.