If you’re wondering how to say no to a customer without causing a stir, you’re not alone. Saying no is a lot more fraught than it used to be. In the past, when you couldn’t meet a customer’s demands, you might face anger or irritation and feel stressed out. Facing verbally or physically abusive customers was rare. Things have changed.

According to Statista, 88% of customers expect companies to offer an online self-service portal. Creating a great knowledge base article is the first step to promoting self-service. But how do you create a great knowledge base article? How do you choose which questions need to be answered in your knowledge base? And how do you measure if your knowledge base is successfully helping customers get quick answers, while unburdening your support team?

When you are writing emails day in and day out to customers, it’s only natural for some support emails to miss the mark. Maybe you sent the wrong link to someone or addressed someone by the wrong name. Tiny errors like this could lead to a poor customer experience. However, you can fix these issues with a simple support email checklist. After all, writing a good email depends a lot on getting the basics right.

When you want to find out how your customers feel about your brand, metrics such as customer satisfaction score, customer effort score, and net promoter score are indicators that always come to mind. But, have you considered measuring customer value? Customer value is a metric that holds the answer to understanding the value your customers derive from your business and, therefore, their likelihood of being your long-term customer.

The year ahead will see more and more brands leverage certain technology tools for deepening customer relationships and improving CSAT scores. Here are three key trends likely to help agents and keep customers delighted: 1. 2022 will be the ‘return to human’ as we hit the chatbot ceiling. As the pandemic pushed business online overnight, companies quickly scaled automation and self-service technology like chatbots and FAQs to deflect and resolve customer issues.

Companies are increasingly prioritizing the collection of customer data. According to the Zendesk Customer Experience Trends Report, business leaders increased their investment in customer data management by a whopping 92 percent amid the COVID-19 crisis. But capturing customer data alone isn’t enough. The information you gather must be relevant. You also need to interpret that data to form insights and take action. This is where customer analytics comes into play.

When it comes to angry customers, you can never put in too much heart. But sometimes it can seem that the more care you put in, the outcome doesn’t change at all – the customer is just as angry. In customer care cases, it’s important to be professional yet empathetic, and always remember the purpose of customer support, uplifting your customers and driving retention.