Landing new customers is a hell of a lot of work for B2B (business-to-business) software companies. Even the easy deals require extensive brand awareness efforts, targeted marketing, testimonials, sales conversations, proposals, and so much more. If there’s so much effort put in to acquiring a customer, then why do so many businesses stop caring once the deal is signed?

Machine learning in customer service is used to provide a higher level of convenience for customers and efficiency for support agents. Support-focused tools enabled with machine learning are growing in popularity thanks to their increasing ease-of-use and successful applications across a variety of industries. Gartner predicts that by 2021, 15 percent of customer service interactions will be handled completely by artificial intelligence.

An active user community within a help center is a great way for users to connect with one another, share ideas, and get answers to questions. Communities like these are helpful for companies scaling their support operations, because they allow users to get help from the people who most deeply understand their needs—their peers. Here’s how the Zendesk Community works and why it’s valuable in improving and enhancing the customer experience.

Consider all the different ways humans have come to rely on machines to expand their abilities. From calculators to cell phones, industrialization to robotics, humans have been able to achieve more than they ever have before, due to adopting machines. Machine learning is the next frontier in using machines to work more efficiently. And it’s particularly helpful in optimizing customer support. What is machine learning?

Social media is growing in popularity as a support channel. Customers love it because it allows them to get help right where they’re already spending time, and all companies should love it because it’s an excellent way to gain insights about your customers and cultivate brand loyalty. Paying attention to your customers on social media, also known as “social listening”, allows you to do a few key things that can help build lasting relationships with your customers.

Most customer service systems keep customer data siloed within each channel, i.e., in chat, phone, or email. A customer’s information and history with your company could be locked up in their chat history, but now that same customer is trying to solve their problem over the phone.