Customer service

What are liquid customer service expectations?

Long gone are the days when “Great Expectations” was just a Charles Dickens novel.

In the past, competition in business was primarily defined by companies selling products or services directly comparable to yours. However, the landscape is changing. Now, it’s about how well businesses are meeting or exceeding customer service expectations, shaped significantly by their interactions across various sectors.

Today’s customer service expectations are influenced not just by direct competitors, but also by experiences with companies from entirely different industries. Tech giants like Apple, Airbnb, Uber, and others have redefined what an excellent customer experience looks like. They’ve set a new standard not just within their own industries but across all business sectors, introducing us to the concept of experiential competitors. By raising the bar for customer service expectations, these companies have forced businesses everywhere to adapt and innovate.

Let’s delve into the liquid customer expectations definition: This concept implies that customers’ expectations are fluid and extend beyond industry boundaries.

For example, a guest may expect the check-in process at a local hotel to be as seamless as their experience at a major airport like LAX. If a business fails to deliver an efficient, hassle-free experience, customers may associate that negative experience with the brand, impacting their perception and loyalty.

In essence, businesses today are competing in a field where exceeding customer expectations is vital, irrespective of the industry.

The definition of customer service expectations has broadened, encompassing the best experiences customers have had anywhere. For any company looking to stay competitive, it’s crucial to understand this shift and strive to create customer experiences that are not just good for the industry—but are outstanding on a global standard.

Mastering Liquid Expectations: A Guide to Exceeding Customer Expectations

Self-service and AI-assisted support:

Meeting and even exceeding customer expectations often starts with self-service and AI-assisted support. Customers generally believe that finding solutions themselves is quicker than contacting customer service. However, this can lead to frustration if self-service options are not up to par. According to a Nuance study, 58% of customers cannot resolve their issues through self-service.

Investing in agent expertise:

When it comes to customer service expectations, the competence of your agents is a key factor. If self-service tools don’t cut it, customers expect your agents to effectively step in. The ability of agents to resolve issues efficiently plays a huge role in exceeding customer expectations. Training your agents well is not just an operational expense; it’s an investment in meeting customer service expectations.

Human-to-human connection:

Despite the advancements in AI and automation, they can’t fully replicate the impact of a genuine human interaction. In many cases, customer expectations include the desire for empathy and understanding that only human agents can provide. This human-to-human connection is vital in building trust.

Responsiveness:

A Stella Connect survey shows that response time matters most when it comes to customer service. Consider investing in agent tools and training that resolve customer issues quickly and efficiently and keep customer effort scores low.

Adopt an omnichannel customer experience:

Omnichannel support provides a seamless journey and offers a unified experience to each customer. Every customer service channel is linked, data is centralized, responses are streamlined, and customer effort is reduced.

Takeaway

At the end of the day, your customer is comparing the experience you deliver with all other service organizations they interact with, not just your industry competitors. Investing in your agents and technology is your best step toward meeting customers’ liquid expectations. How do you compare with today’s tech pioneers?

FrontLogix provides intelligent, trained, and equipped representatives alongside automation solutions to pick up the conversation at any point. We’ll also help provide an in-depth analysis of your customer’s decision-making process. Together, we’ll understand their choices and suggest ways to optimize and improve to meet their needs better. Get in touch.

[Closing the customer engagement capacity gap]

The truth is – Millennials and Generation Z are constantly bombarded with marketing messages. They have more options than ever before, and slowly but steadily, traditional marketing methods are dying off.

Brand loyalty, defined by how customers value their interactions and experience with a brand, trumps brand marketing.

This calls for a shift in how the customer journey is perceived. The key here is to look at the digital strategy through the lens of customer experience. Customers expect businesses to understand their individual tastes and preferences and interact with them as individuals. A personalized customer experience delivers tailored offers, products, and messages to each individual. Companies should focus their efforts on end-to-end customer journeys that are powered digitally but driven personally.

The reshaped future starts with a shift to digital-first, customer-centered engagement while reimagining the roles of customer care agents.

When it comes to digitalization, AI has proven its worth throughout the customer journey, enabling proactive self-service in the form of chatbots, voice assistants, extended reality, etc. AI tools are also essential for gathering data, analyzing sentiment, and identifying patterns and trends in how customers interact with a company.

But, don’t fully digitalize the customer service just yet.

While AI-enhanced self-service can handle simple, repetitive tasks, human agents are still essential for more complex issues. Human agents understand compassion and can show empathy in resolving problems and handling complaints. According to a PwC study, 59 % of all consumers believe businesses have lost touch with the human element of Customer Experience.

In addition to modernizing tools, organizations can successfully humanize engagement by demonstrating flexibility and understanding. We are witnessing a reshaping of customer service practices in companies with high customer satisfaction rates. They are adopting a more adaptable approach in the way they assist their customers. According to Salesforce, 83% of agents at these high-performing companies have received training on how to be empathetic with customers, tossing aside the dated, unengaging, scripted approach. 88% say they have clear guidelines for changing their approach with customers, and 86% say management encourages them to be flexible  – numbers nearly double that of agents from underperforming companies.

Although customer satisfaction is still THE most important KPI tracked by leading companies, a relatively new success metric — customer effort — is now climbing the list. It measures the amount of time and number of steps customers take to find an answer or solution.

Reduced customer effort leads to higher customer satisfaction. According to statistics, measuring the ease of use of a business’s product or service is a better criterion for measuring customer loyalty than directly measuring the Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT).

As discussed in the Next-Gen Customer Service blog post , modern contact centers support a variety of digital channels. Yet, most of them lack the ability to provide a non-siloed, seamless journey over multiple digital touchpoints. A unified omnichannel experience reduces customer effort, increasing customer satisfaction, and loyalty.

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Reshape next-gen CX by providing a truly omnichannel experience. Offer AI-enhanced self-service combined with human agents’ flexibility and empathy can reduce customer effort and lead to higher customer satisfaction and loyalty. FrontLogix is committed to being a thought leader in this space and delivering relevant, personalized solutions so our clients can implement the next-gen customer experience they deserve. Get in touch.