Customer Service Evolution: 7 Key Points

⏱ Reading Time: 5 minutes

Mistakes happen in all interpersonal relations. That’s a fact. No matter how hard you try to deliver the best possible service to your customers, you’ll face complaints and you’ll have to deal with them. This is the breaking point, where your business will pass or fail the test of being trustworthy.

When you’re wondering how you should provide effective support for your customers, it’s a good idea to look at the customer service evolution pattern. 

🚀Read Customer Service: A Guide for Successful Business Growth 🚀

Let’s see how business support systems have evolved. Is your brand stuck where things started, or did it make some progress? Are you leading the pack with the most modernized support system?

7 Key Points of Customer Service Evolution

1. From Single Channel to Omnichannel Support

Do you remember the days when the only way to contact a business was to show up in a store or call the employees by phone? You’d be taken from one department to another, and you had to be patient to see the issue solved. 

We’ve come a long way since then – to customer service evolution. Today, most businesses implement an omnichannel support model. The customers have options to contact agents by phone, email, live chat, and social media. Before they get to the point of needing support, they go through the omnichannel journey. They see an ad on a mobile device, use their computer to access the store’s official website, read the FAQ or contact an agent with questions, get email messages, and finally get the product in-store or through an online order. 

Picture 1. Omnichannel support

2. From Humans to Chatbots

Businesses can save a lot of money by investing in a chatbot. They will hire fewer customer service agents and train them to solve more advanced issues. The chatbot will attend website visitors, as well as those who try to contact support via social media. Simply, a chatbot is intelligent enough to answer questions and solve basic issues. If a complex issue arises, the bot connects the customer with the relevant department. 

Picture 2. Humans to chatbots

Richard Evans, head of the customer support department for a company holding status as the best assignment help service, says:

“Although all information is available at the website, most visitors want instant answers since they don’t have the time to browse through our pages. They usually have questions about prices, deadlines, and types of products. The chatbots can easily take care of those queries, so the customer support agents don’t get stuck with basic queries. They can focus on more complex issues and solve them ASAP.”

3. From Business-Centric to Customer-Centric Approach

This is an important prediction from IBM’s 2019 Marketing Trends report: “By 2022, companies focused on customer experiences are predicted to generate 50 percent of their revenue through contextual discovery.”

Contextual discovery is a user-centered technique that requires interviewing users to see how they use the products/services and what issues they face in the context of their work. With this, the business gets valuable insights that they can implement in their product development process.  

Picture 3. Customer-centricity

Read: Building a Customer-Centric Company Strategy – Guide & Tips.

4. From Private Matter to Online Discussions

When someone used to have a problem with a particular business, they would call the support and handle the issue in complete privacy. Before the era of the Internet, the general audience was rarely aware of the most common issues with a product. 

The customer service evolution led to public discussions between the customers and the support system. Most brands are available on social media. Consumers leave feedback on their pages, ask questions, and get their answers. 

Dedicated reviewing platforms are also available. If someone wants to hire an essay service, they will face many options. By reading College-Paper.org reviews, they will evaluate a particular agency to see if it’s the right choice for them. 

Amazon is another great example of public reviews. Other people’s experiences are enough to convince someone to get a product or stay away from it. 

 5. The Customer Chooses the Time and Place of Interaction

The customer is in control of the entire process. They choose when and how they want to contact the support center. They will rarely get instructions like: “Please call tomorrow so we can discuss this issue further.” 

Today, all you need to do is tag a brand on Twitter, write on its Facebook page or send an Instagram DM. Whenever you want to do it. This brings us to the next customer service evolution point.

6. From 9-to-5 to 24/7

Users don’t face problems only during working hours. When they have an issue, they want to contact the brand’s support without delays. 

Facebook publicly features the response time of a particular page. That’s the average time it takes for a user to get an answer to their message. If the response time is short, the page instantly gains credibility in the customer’s eyes. 

Chatbots contribute to this point in customer service evolution. Even if an agent is not available at the moment, a chatbot can answer some of the questions and transfer the issue to the right department if that’s necessary.

Picture 4. 24/7 support

7. The Knowledge Base Is Part of the Customer Support Process

Knowledge bases are especially useful for tech products. Microsoft is famous for its extensive knowledge base that solves all kinds of issues, from simple to complex ones. The user can use keywords to identify their issue within the base and find an instant solution. If they don’t find a solution, they can ask a question on the forum or privately connect with a customer support agent. 

You’ll find these knowledge bases on Upwork, Payoneer, and many other online platforms that simplify the customer support process by answering questions before someone asks them.  

The Bottom Line: You Have to Deserve the Trust of Your Users

The customer support center is the highlight of your attitude towards users. Misunderstandings will occur and you should expect them. When you face criticism or requirements for urgent assistance, how will you act? The customer service evolution pattern is clear: you no longer act like you don’t care. You have to face all issues with patience, grace, and empathy.

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Justin Osborne is a marketing specialist and blogger from Leicester, UK. When not working and rooting for Leicester FC, he likes to discuss new trends in digital marketing and share his own ideas with readers on different blogs and forums. Currently, he is working as a content marketer at essay reviewer, do my assignment and assignment writing service.