It might be time to sign up your customer service reps for that mind-reading class at the community college. That’s where customer expectations are headed, according to this survey.
Nearly 20% of the people in a recent Angel survey named “mind reading” as their second most preferred way to connect with customer service. Perhaps it was a bit of a tongue-in-cheek response, but it should be considered a real sign of where expectations are moving in the near future.
New direction
The survey reflects a shift in how customers want you to communicate with them and how they prefer to be in touch with you.
Moving forward in customer communication, these key takeaways from the research will help:
- Do read their minds. No one needs to attend a mind-reading class (and yes, they do exist in self-training forms!). But you can anticipate needs by relying on the data you already collect. Dig through account histories and buying patterns to identify trends — what customers like, respond to, dislike and ignore. Then you can put customer service resources in the places.
- Personalize experiences. Identify the touch points where customers interact most with your organization throughout the sales cycle. Then make those touch points more customer friendly.
- Be everywhere. As technology gets faster and cheaper, customers will want you available at every turn. The phone is still the most important contact channel to customers. In fact, nearly a quarter of the customers said they expect they’ll use their mobile device as their favorite customer service channel in the next five years. And more than 40% have already downloaded a mobile application to better connect with customer service at a favorite organization, researchers found. Bottom line: Customers increasingly want mobile apps, online chat and text message capabilities. Survey your customers regularly and add and refine channels as much as you can.
