As we enter into 2020, looking back into 2019, let’s delve into a report from SDI to know about the expectations of service desk professionals for the coming months. The report provides specific data about the service desk – the benefits and struggles with ITSM tools, also outlining key trends, pain areas, and the priorities for 2020 for professionals. One of the key trends seems to be the uptake in AI and chatbot technologies.

Think of an example of poor customer service you have received recently. You may have shared the experience with a friend or colleague as a warning or funny story, who may have passed this on to another in turn. This “Chinese Whispers” effect is dangerous, as word-of-mouth marketing remains a cornerstone of lead generation for many organisations.

Reducing the time it takes to resolve a customer issue makes everyone happier. Getting there, especially if you’re aiming to shave minutes off your average service time, requires a smart and laser-like focus in helping customer support reps to be more productive.

A quality customer experience requires a dedicated sales team and support team. Sales reps start conversations with leads, and support reps continue those conversations once those leads become customers. But considering the way in which the former group passes the torch to the latter, it’s worth asking: Why aren’t more sales reps and support agents having conversations with one another?

As you embark on a new decade, you might want to take some of these apps along in your quest to wow your customers. These apps will not only ease your workflow to let you focus on what matters the most — customer experience — but also help you get more efficient at your job.

Mailchimp is an end to end marketing platform that started as an email marketing tool alternative to the expensive email software in the early 2000s. The goal was to provide small businesses access to technological resources and tools to grow like their larger counterparts. Today, it has evolved into a robust customer relationship management system that understands patterns in customer data and uses that insight to target the appropriate audience.

There is no shortage of software positioned as being staples for the everyday business professional. From accounting to procurement to reporting, businesses need a variety of software to keep themselves running. Not only is it difficult sourcing all of the tools needed to cover all aspects of their operations due to the sheer number of options, but it is also difficult getting all of these pieces working together seamlessly.

Every growing support team needs a standardized customer service process. Without proper guidelines in place, your agents would be left in the dark, not knowing how to approach an issue – leading to duplication in effort and a delayed response time for customers. While using a ticketing system can help automate certain actions, it is unlikely to solve your team’s productivity unless your agents follow a documented customer service process as well.