Customer service trends of 2023: What can we learn for the future?

Personalised customer experience

We are seeing an increasingly personalised approach to customer contact. Where we used to deal with a generic approach to customer groups, we see an increasingly tailored approach. For the future, that will only increase.

Chatbots and Virtual Assistants

We had a blog written about. Chatbots are indispensable in customer service for most companies. However, users are often less enthusiastic about them. It seems to be mainly a cost consideration to have customers spoken to first by a chatbot. We expect that this will only be more the case in the future. Particularly as chatbots get better and the technology becomes more accessible, putting it within reach of smaller companies too.

Integration of new Social Media

Social media is not new, but the shift of contact moments to social media platforms is growing. Young people in particular use applications that are difficult to integrate into customer service, for now. Tiktok, snapchat are widely used but are not yet real channels in customer service. We expect them to be in the future. Like facebook, Instagram before that. We have previously had a blog written about channel choice.

Omnichannel increasingly important

Also nothing new really that we all use all kinds of channels interchangeably. Yet we see the use of different channels increasing. Not only from customers but also from companies. Emails in response to a phone call, chatting in response to a letter. It is all becoming more and more normal. For the future, this will not diminish. The challenge lies mainly in managing the channels and the systems it entails.

Proactive Customer Service:

We see a clear development in the degree of proactivity of customer service organisations. Where customer service organisations used to function mainly reactively, we see that they are now increasingly taking the initiative. Customers are proactively informed about delays or breakdowns, for example. This has a positive effect on the customer experience. We hope this trend continues, it is just more pleasant for the customers but also certainly for the customer service staff.

AI

Artificial intelligence and then otherwise as a chatbot but as a tool for in-depth analysis. AI can easily and quickly analyse large amounts of data and then draw conclusions from it. For customer service, this means that data is analysed better and faster. So this allows you to properly identify where things are going wrong and how improvements can be made. In the future, AI's role in this will only increase.

Technology dropouts:

We are dealing with a large group of people who cannot always keep up with technological developments. These groups are all too often forgotten in a customer contact strategy. Some 2.5 million Dutch people have difficulty using telephones and/or computers. These so-called low-literates are increasingly dropping out. We also see in customer service that this group is increasingly forgotten. We fear that this group will drop out more and more in the future as many companies prefer to send customers to self-service channels.

Sustainability, inclusiveness and Social Responsibility:

You have to consider more and more what your target audience wants from you if you want to stand out as a brand. Themes like sustainability, inclusiveness and social responsibility are again not new but are playing a bigger role. For customer service, we also see these themes returning. Communication styles are being adapted and we see the message that these themes are taken seriously being conveyed more and more often. Again, this will not change in the future.

Data Privacy and Security:

With increasing data security concerns, companies will work to ensure the privacy of customer data. Implementing robust security measures and adhering to strict compliance standards becomes crucial to maintain customer trust. We hear daily of cyber attacks or theft of customer data. This will not diminish and requires customer service organisations to pay attention to it. We have therefore introduced our PCI certification passed!