Customer Service Managers Brace for Frigid Winter

The holidays are a time for businesses – especially in the retail sector – to rub their hands together as they expect to receive a big payday with the number of customers buying Christmas gifts. Well, the reality is, businesses could lose some of that holiday spirit this year.

Sixty percent of customer service managers predict “the toughest winter yet” as they worry about losing customers in the run up to the holidays. According to the “2022 Gig Customer Experience Report” by Limitless, which surveyed customer service leaders in the U.K. and U.S., many fear the industry has reached a “tipping point” amid recession fears.

Customer service managers expressed their worry because they saw customers’ willingness to buy, repeat purchases and retention rates all drop as a potential recession looms. Two-thirds of managers report that customers are more difficult to deal with because of higher expectations, making it even harder to satisfy and retain them.

Customers expect more personalized experiences with faster resolutions – positive ones, at that. Because businesses struggle to meet those expectations, nearly half of customer service managers feel that C-SAT scores were more difficult to maintain in the last three months, compared to pre-pandemic periods.

But, it’s not just customer expectations that are impacting C-SAT scores. Staff shortages play a factor as well. More work gets placed on fewer employees, who try to cope with the demand. As a result, they cannot provide the high level of customer support, losing customer loyalty.

“With customer loyalty and attrition now at its most fragile, leaders need to look for models that provide flexibility and empathic customer service,” said Megan Neale, CIO and co-founder at Limitless.

One model that Neale was referring to is the GigCX model that offers companies a flexible, scalable and more affordable model for customer experience. Organizations route their customer service enquiries securely from their own systems through the Limitless GigCX platform, which then distributes them to a crowd of gig experts who answer questions on behalf of the brands with which they are familiar.

The result is a more authentic, genuine experience for customers and improved customer satisfaction for brands creating a brighter period instead of a darker one that customer service managers originally predict. No, it doesn’t resolve all customer concerns, but it does mean that contact center agents have more of an opportunity to deal with urgent or more serious issues, while others get the answers they need from gig experts.

We already know the gig economy has been growing – even before the pandemic it was trending, so why shouldn’t brands leverage that on-demand workforce to solve some of their customer service challenges?

Edited by Erik Linask

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