What is the future of customer service and how can you become the best at it?

What sets a company apart from being the best at customer service and how can you achieve the best results? Together with Kantar and Customer Trends, we have asked all the winners of this year’s KSindeks prizes about this topic.

Culture is key

In another survey Kantar and Customer Trends interviewed some of the best service centers in Norway and asked what the common denominator of excellent customer service was. Why are some better than others? Everyone had one common answer; culture is key! The winners of this year’s KSindeks answered this and believes that the employees are the reason for good customer service. If everyone in the company has the same good vision on customer service, then that’s what they will achieve in the end.

However, the culture of a business comprises many factors. Some of the winners say that exceptional culture comes from above in the company. The leaders need to be excellent role models for the employees and be in dialogue with them regularly. In addition, all employees should know the company’s core vision, which is something the CEO needs to communicate to everyone.

“We are perceived as a common sum of what we do” – Sverre Helno CEO of Møller Bil (Winner of KSindeks Corona Prize)

Read more about the KSindeks here.

Know your customers’ history

Another answer that came up among the winners is knowing the history of every customer. The customer does not want to be treated as just another number in the line, nor be waiting for an available agent. IF Forsikring is one company that puts in a lot of training on this.

“Every customer is unique and has their own history, their own problems and dreams.”- Tove Skarsheim head of IF Forsikring Service Center.

IF Forsikring resets themselves to each customer and invests time in learning how to do this in the most efficient way. According to their results, this shows to have a great value among their customers.

Read more about this topic here.

How to uphold efficiency and available agents

Earlier LeadDesk hosted a webinar in Norway about customer service in connection to the launch of our omnichannel interface. In this webinar our CEO Olli Nokso-Koivisto had the same answer. The customer expects the agent to know not only the history of the company, but handle the customer personally with their own history. They don’t want to be just another number in the aisle of customer calls. Efficiency and having no line is one key factor to maintain this.

To achieve this in the easiest way, one should have a good system to collect all the data and in an organized view. LeadDesk Omni is based on this and puts the customer in focus. It combines all the characteristics one needs to offer the best omnichannel customer service, kept in one place.

Want to learn more about efficient ways of integrating data into one easy-to-use system? Check out our blogpost on omnichannel contact center software.

What will change in customer service in the next few years?

We asked all the winners of the KSindeks about their thoughts on the future of customer service and what they thought would change in the next few years. There were three key factors that came up. First, that the machines will take over at least the easiest part of the work and routine things. This will lead to the agents having more time on the more complex tasks.

“The more complex tasks are going to have an increase and the easiest part of work will be automated,”- Olli Nokso-Koivisto CEO of LeadDesk.

Altibox thinks there is reason to believe that customer service will be increasingly characterized by machine learning and AI. This will provide a data-driven customer service that is even more accessible and easier to use for the customer.

“This takes care of the “simple” challenges customers have, which means that customer advisors of the human race can spend their time on more complicated problems,” – Mabel Moya Head of branding and customer management at Altibox AS.

Higher expectations

Second, most of the winners believed the customer will have higher expectations for the service in the future.

“The customers will expect a quick response, personalization, high resolution, seamless experience, expertise, and honesty / trust,” – Irene Fauskanger Customer Service Director at Fjordkraft

Nokso-Koivisto Also brought this to attention in the Norwegian Omnichannel webinar. Studies say that expectations are growing, and the customer is more likely to spend money where the customer service is exceptional.

Watch Olli Nokso-Koivisto’s presentation here.

Greater focus on omnichannel

Lastly, some of the winners believed there will be a greater focus on omnichannel and that there will be higher demands to create a seamless experience for the customer.

“there will continue to be a strong focus on adapting to the customer’s wishes, as well as which channels the customer wants to use when they contact us. What is certain is that everything will be more digital than before,” – Ann-Renée Degnes Service Manager at Ving Customer Center.

This is also something we can tie to what Nokso-Koivisto said on how to offer the best omnichannel experience. The solution makes the day easier for both the customer and agent, which then again results in great customer service and customer value.