Teams | Collaboration | Customer Service | Project Management

Here are the newest integrations from Zendesk to help your agents provide great customer experiences—and to help keep things spooky this October.

Chatbots are no longer a new technology in customer service. Customers are using them to get support across a variety of industries, whether they need help changing a hotel reservation, paying a bill, or finding the perfect lipstick color. Business use of chatbots and conversational AI is only going in one direction.

Knowledge is power, especially in the world of customer service. According to the 2020 CX Trends Report, companies that leverage the most data have 36% faster resolutions, 79% reduction in customer wait time, and four times as many solved customer requests. But to reap those benefits, you need a powerful business intelligence tool.

The most wonderful time of the year will look a bit different in 2020. The holidays are usually a time for parties with family and friends, wearing ugly sweaters, going to see The Nutcracker or taking beach vacations over the winter break. But with the pandemic still gripping the world, even Santa may have to practice social distancing. Traffic in brick-and-mortar stores is sure to be down, and economic uncertainty may mean reduced consumer spending.

The customer has changed and so have their expectations on what customer experience means to them. As these expectations change, so must the company and their approach to customer experience. There was a time when hyper-personalization and chatbots were the leading methods to engage with customers. Today, customers are looking for a very different approach that addresses two key attributes: Access to information and speed to resolution.

The new rules for customer service outsourcing in a changing world Customer service teams have seen an unprecedented level of disruption this year. Some have had surges in ticket volume, while others have seen business plummet. Agents have to do more with less, all while they’re adjusting to working from home. Regardless of your specific situation, you may be considering customer service outsourcing as a potential solution.

Stories of great customer experiences often go viral because they’re exceptional outliers. An airline saves the day by flying out a bridesmaid dress, or a support rep saves a life by realizing the caller was having a stroke. “We tend to think of customer experience as these big old moonshots, and going above and beyond, and just knocking socks off,” says Samantha Chandler, one of Zendesk’s customer success team managers.

Don’t bother choosing between speed and quality when it comes to customer experience, because businesses need both to be among the best. Speed plus effectiveness is the formula for CX success, according to findings by Enterprise Strategy Group (ESG) Research. Leading CX orgs are customer-centric to the hilt; they resolve customer issues more quickly, all while handling more customer requests overall and engaging with those customers on more channels.

A good customer service interaction can lift your entire day. It’s no surprise that an excellent front-line team has the power to elevate your entire customer experience operation—especially when that operation is on the small side.