5 Winning Customer Service Improvement Strategies for 2022

Does your customer service team have big plans for 2022? With the turbulence of the pandemic now settling down, there’s no excuse not to begin implementing strategies to improve your customer service and support operations. But where to begin? Where should you focus your attention and budget? And what changes will really move the dial? 

In this blog we’ll look at the top customer service improvement strategies for 2022, and show you how you can bring your team one step closer to digital CX excellence. 

1. Bots that are up to the task 

If you’re starting off with automation and bots, a good place to begin is with Task Bots. Sitting within the live chat solution, Task Bots are simple but effective bots that can be used to answer common and time-consuming queries, and automate routine tasks. By guiding customers through a series of questions and answers, Task Bots can:  

• Answer common questions  
• Direct visitors to helpful resources  
• Perform lead generation actions such as signups, bookings, and meetings  
• Perform self-serve troubleshooting  
• Route chats to the most appropriate agent  

They are very easy to build, with no technical expertise or coding needed – users can pick from a selection of pre-built templates or create their own with a simple to use drag-and-drop bot builder. With a large portion of queries handled by your army of Task Bots, agents have more time to focus on questions that need a human touch such as: 

• Higher value queries when you want your best agent on the job to close the deal  
• Sensitive topics that will need the human touch of an agent  
• Complex issues that will often require a level of problem-solving that you need an agent on.  

Read more: An Introductory Guide to Task Bots – Automate Routine Tasks & Offer 24/7 Support  

2. Be everywhere your customers need you with omnichannel 

With younger generations spending most of their time online, it’s become the norm for brands to support these customers on their platforms of choice. In fact, over 20% of Gen Zers say that they prefer engaging with brands on social media over any other channel. With many organizations now raising the bar for digital support, achieving digital CX excellence in 2022 means supporting a variety of digital channels. 

If you’re not already supporting your customers across a variety of digital platforms, that should be your starting point for customer service improvement. Most customers will now expect support across: 

• Your website via live chat and chatbots 
• Social media and messaging services 
• Email 
• And even SMS 

However, simply offering these channels isn’t enough to provide outstanding CX – they must all be connected. If your channels aren’t connected, this means the information and knowledge within them isn’t either. As a result, you handicap your agents because they can’t easily access information about the customer, especially previous conversation history. This often forces the agent to ask the customer to repeat themselves. Research shows that 33% of customers are most frustrated by repeating themselves to multiple support reps. 

The key to connecting your digital support channels is with a digital omnichannel customer engagement platform. An omnichannel platform connects every channel within a unified console so that customer profiles and history are shared across channels. This empowers agents to work more efficiently while customers receive improved service. With your agents handling chats from every channel, customers can reach out however they want and receive the same great service. 

Read more: 4 Reasons Why Omnichannel is Now Key to Customer Support 

3. Bridge the gap between CRM and customer service 

An omnichannel platform empowers your agents by bringing together information from across channels, but connecting your CRM to this completes the picture. With CRM details at their fingertips during customer interactions, agents can easily access (and edit) a wealth of information including purchasing history, geographical information, conversation histories, and more. 

With additional customer detail available during interactions, agents can more thoroughly understand customer needs and so offer more helpful support. Agents can also edit this information from within the agent console, ensuring up-to-date and accurate data that can be shared across teams and departments. 

4. Get serious about agent experience 

Great service begins with your agents. Because your agents are the voice of your brand, the support they provide can determine a customer’s overall experience with your organization. If your agents have a poor experience at work and don’t believe they have the tools necessary for success, it is highly likely to have a negative impact on CX. 

In our annual analysis of millions of live chats passing through the Comm100 platform, throughout the pandemic we’ve witnessed a shift in organizations towards agent experience (AX). While overall chat volume is increasing (due to consumer popularity), chats per agent have slightly dipped. This indicates that organizations are reducing overall workload as they recognize the need to improve agent well-being. As well as managing workload, managers must also ensure agents have the best tools for the job that support them in delivering great CX. After all, happy employees make happy customers.

Read more: Live Chat Benchmark Report 2022 

5. Introduce chatbots to work smarter, not harder 

While Task Bots are a good place to start for automation-beginners, the next step is to add AI into the mix. With an AI chatbot at hand, a whole range of queries can be resolved without any human intervention. For a well-built bot, up to 80% of customer inquiries can be resolved without agent support. 

With repetitive tasks handled by a bot, customers can see immediate responses to the kinds of requests that don’t require a human touch. That includes routine queries like password resets or order status updates. With these simple tasks out of the way, your customer service agents are freed up to spend more time on complex requests that need the understanding of a human agent. 

The other major benefit of introducing AI to your service operations is the ability to provide 24/7 support that customers now expect – all at a fraction of the cost normally required for traditional phone support. 

Wrap up 

If you want to take your next step on the journey to digital CX excellence and need support on any of these customer service improvement strategies, book a personalized demo with Comm100 today!