Businesses Must Stay Ahead of Customer Expectations or Risk Losing Them

The pandemic saw customers change their shopping habits. Now, more than ever, they demand shopping experiences that are simple and more convenient. The challenge with this is that today’s customers are digitally savvy and expect faster, more personalized and proactive service from the companies they do business with.

As a result, many businesses expect customer loyalty to decline. In fact, more than half of businesses feel that they will become increasingly likely to completely lose customers if they deliver a poor customer experience, according to new research by Pega.

Organizations want to stay a step ahead and will look to invest into pre-emptive customer service software to help meet the demands of less loyal and more digital savvy customers.

Proactive customer service technology is becoming a must-have for businesses committed to meeting the needs of their customers. Nearly two-thirds are anticipating customer needs and solving them before they feel the need to reach out is one of their primary goals over the next five years. However, 54% say their biggest customer service challenge is moving from reactive to proactive and pre-emptive customer service.

"The entire customer service landscape is changing," said James Dodkins, customer service evangelist, Pega. "Where once it might have been enough to react to customers and their concerns, tomorrow's successful businesses know that they will need to pre-empt them and take action before they become an issue."

Advanced software such as AI will be key to help organizations overcome customer service barriers. AI and automation will boost service quality and speed of service, reduce costs, and grow revenues. Real-time, AI-powered decisioning, predictive analytics, and machine learning will automate more work and enable more self-service resolutions.

“The willingness to rapidly invest and adopt technologies like AI, intelligent automation, real-time decisioning and predictive analytics could be the difference between success and failure for organizations in the years to come," said Dodkins.

There is no all-encompassing solution when it comes to the future of customer service. Tactics vary across industries. It will come down to each sector to hone their strategy to meet the needs of their specific customer demographics. Real-time data, predictive analytics and AI will help with this transformation.

Edited by Erik Linask

SHARE THIS ARTICLE