In April 2019, Salesforce Research published the third edition of its State of Service Report. More than 3,500 professionals of customer service answered this survey. The results confirm that customer service organizations are facing big disruptions, challenged by the new expectations of customers.

1. Transforming the customer service is a strategic priority

The digital economy has changed the rules. Customer service is now a strategic part of the whole customer experience, and can no longer be neglected. Companies now urge their service organizations to adapt to this new world. According to Salesforce report, 82% of service decision makers think that transformation is key to preserve the competitiveness of their company. “Service organization must evolve to fulfill the new expectations of customers, who ask for more personalized relationships with the brands ,” says Yaki Azoulay, co-founder and CEO of Enventiva. “To support this new level of interaction, companies need to harness the data they collect into their CRM system.”

Today, the n°1 challenge for customer service organizations is “keeping up with changing customer expectations.” More than ever, customers want quick and accurate answers to their requests. In this context, “The ability to route quickly a request to the right interlocutor is essential,” outlines Elie Perez, co-founder and CTO of Enventiva. “With Einstein technology, Salesforce has made a tremendous work to help agents be more efficient in managing customers’ requests.”

2. Agents take on new roles and value-added tasks

In Salesforce survey, 71% of service agents declared that their role is more strategic today than it was two years ago. While the growing automation of the service processes free them from repetitive and ungrateful tasks, they can now focus on value-added missions. For 78% of the respondents, agents are customer advocates inside their company, and for 75%, they’re brand ambassadors. “The quality of the service now comes first, before the number of cases closed,” highlights Yaki Azoulay. “Delivering a smooth experience all along the interaction with a customer is key for building loyalty and engagement.”

3. Artificial intelligence adoption in customer service is growing fast

Currently, 56% of service organizations are investigating use cases for artificial intelligence (AI) , according to the report. AI adoption should accelerate in the next 18 months, with a projected growth rate of +143%. For the respondents, AI appears to be a time-saver: the technology will help them to gather simple information (81%), to automate the handling of routine issues (75%) and to classify cases quicker (74%). “ The growing place of AI inside service organizations will lead to a new repartition of tasks: agents will be more and more focused on complex issues, while simple requests are delegated to machines, such as chatbots,”says Elie Perez.

4. Customers have embraced digital channels

The number of channels on which customers interact with a company has never been so high: fifteen types are listed on Salesforce report, from the most widespread email to video support and emerging voice-activated assistants (like Amazon Alexa or Apple Siri). In average, a customer uses 10 of them. Interesting fact, for the next 18 months respondents expect positive growth rates for all of these channels. “Service organization must evolve to fulfill the new expectations of customers: the shift toward a true omnichannel customer service is a strategic priority,” comments Yaki Azoulay. This brings a clear need for highly integrated CRM solutions, able to deliver a consolidated view of all interactions with a customer, wherever they took place. “Customer service can’t operate as a standalone division. All the functions involved in the customer relationship have to share common goals and indicators,” adds Elie Perez. Sales, Marketing and Service must work side by side, and to do so, they need a common platform. “This is the vision behind Salesforce Customer 360: putting all the customer information in one single place, available to everyone, whenever they need it.”

5. Mobile workforce is expanding

The last emerging trend is the rising awareness of mobile workers strategic role in the service area. Currently, this mobile workforce is often underequipped. Nearly half of them (49%) still struggle today with multiple screens and apps to find the information they need. Helping them becoming more efficient through adequate tools is a priority, especially for companies with large field workforce. More specifically, this means giving them the ability to access customer information before an appointment, to alert customers if an appointment is delayed, to check existing warranties and so on.“Considering all these trends, it’s clear that customer services have to reinvent themselves,” concludes Yaki Azoulay. Enventiva can help your company to build a unique customer experience: contact us if you want to know more.