For busy customer service teams, every minute counts. So being able to save over 240 hours a month would count for a lot. And that’s exactly how much time customer service teams handling 20,000 support requests a month can save by using chatbots, according to Zendesk’s user data.
Last year, meeting up with friends looked a lot different. With everyone stuck at home during the pandemic, people were looking for a way to connect safely to do things together, and Discord’s popularity exploded. Originally built for people who wanted to communicate with friends around the world while they played video games, Discord has gained traction with a much wider community.
Companies have put customer service at the top of their priority lists for 2021, and with good reason. 77% of customers say they're more loyal to businesses that offer top-notch service. But what does great customer service look like these days? Have customer expectations changed?
After a year of uncertainty caused by a global pandemic, people are craving the comforting embrace of familiarity—and they’re looking for it in all sorts of places. A 2020 study showed that customers only wanted to buy from the companies that knew them best. Seventy percent said they would do their holiday shopping exclusively with brands that personally understand them. Clearly, there’s a big reward to be had in personalizing customer experiences.
Let’s start with a brief reminder on what mass email marketing is and what it aims to achieve. Also known as bulk email marketing, mass email marketing is a promotion technique where advertisers send out a single email to a large audience in hopes to convert prospects into closed sales.
Self-service options aren’t just nice-to-haves for customers. They’re critical for creating the smooth, fast support experience today’s customers expect. Our Customer Experience Trends Report 2020 found that high-performing businesses were 76 percent more likely to provide self-service options—but only one-third of companies were offering any sort of self-service. That disconnect represented a missed opportunity for a majority of businesses.
Customer experience (CX) has always been integral to a company’s success, but its significance has grown considerably in the midst of the COVID-19 outbreak. According to the Zendesk Customer Experience Trends Report 2021, half of all customers say that CX is more important to them now than it was a year ago.
The world is changing and so is the way we shop. A few years ago, consumers made it clear that it’s no longer just about which tee is the softest. They wanted to know if the tee was made in a sustainable way, without using forced or underpaid labor. Now, coming out of the COVID-19 pandemic and social uprisings of 2020, shoppers also want—and expect—brands to speak up for social justice.
Everyone knows customer service is important. Or at least everyone should know. Because we are all customers. And customer service is everywhere. Some customer experiences are obvious. You’re probably thinking about them now. For example, the way the clerk treats you in a store, or a company’s generous return policy.
“Do you want to make that a meal?” It’s the most common offer at a drive-through window, and one most of us say yes to. It’s also a great example of cross-selling hard at work. Next comes the inevitable follow-up: “Would you like to make that a large for a dollar more?” Of course you would. Bam. You’ve just been hit with the upsell.
