In 2023, we expect to see leading organizations turn to automation to solve their most urgent customer service challenges—and turn a critical eye on who exactly is expected to manage customer service within an organization. Here are some things to keep in mind for improving customer service and experience in 2023:
1. Department budgets will impact resources
As the pandemic recovery continues and physical stores begin to reopen, some of the resources that were directed toward digital products and services may be redirected. This could result in smaller budgets for online service teams, making efficiency a key focus. Be very intentional with hiring. Explore opportunities of increasing your department's efficiency before increasing your headcount. Incorporate consumer trends in your hiring plan.
2. The customer onboarding experience will be more important than ever
The significant job cuts, especially in the tech industry, will have a significant impact on many companies in 2023. Service organizations may struggle to manage larger workloads with fewer staff members. Software support teams can expect to receive more queries from "new users" as their customers redistribute workloads to people who are unfamiliar with the software.
3. Forward-looking customer service
Artificial intelligence (AI) in software is evolving beyond a buzzword and becoming a useful tool in customer service. There is a shift from seeing AI as a replacement for human customer service teams to an enabler that helps increase the efficiency and effectiveness of the team. In 2023, look for an increase in the use of AI tools to assist with tasks such as:
* Analyzing and categorizing incoming customer feedback
* Automating the tagging, triaging, and routing of support conversations
* Providing the customer service team with relevant best practices
* Using sentiment and intention analysis to inform further automation and organization
* Simplifying the process of understanding customer data from multiple systems.
4. More predictability
The pandemic and the conflict in Ukraine have disrupted global supply chains, causing delays for businesses and leading to higher customer service demands and unhappy customers. However, there have been signs of improvement in the most recent quarter and analysts predict that this trend will continue into 2023. This recovery could ease the workload for customer service teams and may lead to a rise in e-commerce orders, particularly for international transactions.
5. The dreaded subscription models
In 2023, we anticipate a significant increase in businesses offering subscription models to their customers to create a more stable source of income. This highlights the importance for customer service teams to improve their retention skills. Poor service is a major contributor to customer churn, while excellent support can improve retention and drive revenue growth.
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