Coming out of a pandemic that rocked the retail world, this year’s NRF Converge event focused on dealing with change. The world’s largest retail trade association brought together industry experts who shared their stories and advice for meeting consumers where they are in the new normal. From embracing the role of ecommerce to finding new ways to connect with shoppers on a human level, retail leadership is focused on delivering great customer experiences.

Here are the newest integrations from Zendesk to help your team provide great experiences.

These are painful customer experiences we can all relate to and top indicators of poor customer service according to Zendesk’s 2021 Customer Experience Trends Report. With 75% of people willing to spend more money on a brand that provides a great customer experience, companies now know that customer loyalty depends on delivering exceptional customer service. However, brands often go about trying to improve customer experience in the wrong way, despite their best intentions.

You’re at a party nibbling on cheese when someone who looks vaguely familiar strikes up a conversation. You’re doing a good enough job faking your way through it, until your partner joins and asks for an introduction ... and you don’t know the person’s name. Sales and support conversations aren’t so different from chats at parties.

When a customer contacts a support team, two things are top of mind—how quickly they can solve their problem and how fast a company responds to them when they need help. In recent Zendesk research, 73 percent of customers say their number one priority is a fast resolution, while 59 percent say it’s a fast response that matters most. Either way, it’s reason enough for companies to pay attention.

In fact, according to Gartner, by 2022 70% of all customer interactions will involve emerging tools like chatbots, machine learning, and mobile messaging, up from 15% from 2018. Customer service automation has proven to reduce agent frustration and turnover, increase customer satisfaction and improve customer loyalty. Automation does not come without any challenges, however.

Agility was a buzzword even before 2020, particularly in fast-moving industries where changing trends and emerging technologies meant businesses had to constantly stay on their toes. But last year, businesses of all types were forced to restructure business plans and adapt to a changed world nearly overnight. Suddenly, the value of agility became more obvious than ever. But agility isn’t just something you need during extraordinary circumstances like a global pandemic.

It’s no secret that the workplace has changed quite a bit over the past year. And the reality is that the future of how teams collaborate, communicate, and connect is still very much in flux. As companies navigate the uncertainty around reopening and tackle big questions when it comes to how and where they want to work, there’s a lot on the table: The answers, likely still forming, will look different for every company.

Messaging apps have the highest customer satisfaction rating of any support channel and their usage has skyrocketed. In fact, the volume of support tickets over WhatsApp alone jumped 101 percent in 2020, according to our 2021 Customer Experience Trends Report. Customers want to interact with companies over the same channels they use with friends and family. And businesses are following suit: 53 percent of companies that launched a new channel in 2020 added messaging.

According to the Zendesk Customer Experience Trends Report 2021, ecommerce rose by 30 percent during the global pandemic, and 64 percent of customers said they used a new digital customer support channel in 2020. Clearly, the pandemic pushed more customers online, ramping up their engagement with companies over dozens of touchpoints.

Doing business with a company that misses the mark on providing a high-quality customer service experience goes a step further than leaving a bad impression; it can keep the customer from ever giving your business a second chance. According to recent research, roughly 73 percent of customers will stop patronizing a company after only three (or fewer) bad customer service experiences. What’s worse is that companies are losing revenue without a chance to find out why.

Instead of making your customers wander through the pages of Google, optimizing your knowledge base will help them find information fast – a huge advantage when it comes to meeting your customers’ needs. If your knowledge base isn't optimized for search engines, you’re losing a large number of potential new customers. Moreover, you’re missing out on the opportunity of enabling your existing customers to self-serve.

In the early 2000s, the thought of companies connecting with customers over instant messaging would have seemed ludicrous. But in 2021? That’s the norm. According to the Zendesk Customer Experience Trends Report 2021, messaging channels like WhatsApp and Facebook are becoming new consumer favorites. Nearly a third of customers said they messaged companies over communication apps for the first time in 2020.

When surveyed, more than half of customer service agents said they usually have to switch between different systems to solve a customer request. Here’s why: When a customer reaches out for support, an agent typically needs a bit of context to fully understand the customer’s situation or problem.

It was months into the pandemic, and we were all stuck inside. Wintertime in Wisconsin can be beautiful, with its snowy scenes and frozen lakes that seem to stretch on forever. But this winter was different. It felt cold, dark, and lonely without any chance of seeing friends and family. After several months of watching movies and baking cookies, I realized I needed a pastime. Something to keep my hands and my mind occupied.