With jam-packed offerings across every industry, it doesn’t surprise that consumer behavior, in general, tends to be highly arbitrary. The external environment, intrinsic characteristics, primary and incidental requirements, etc. — all influence it big time.
A 2021 study published in the Journal of Marketing Analytics testified to the above by defining a direct relationship between consumer expectations and the imposition of worldwide lockdown during the COVID-19 pandemic. Re-assertion of freedom, changed perceptions towards marketing messages, and altered expectations of the brand’s communication on social media were some of the significant themes that elaborated on this relationship.
Hence, volatile solutions won’t cut it. You need to have an end-to-end system that compensates for the vagueness in expectations and, at the same time, remains granular in its approach to cater to each one of them.
Enter ServiceNow Customer Service Management (CSM).
The idea of connecting the front, middle, and back offices makes ServiceNow CSM a go-to solution for lessening the resolution time, cutting the case volume, automating the help desk, empowering the human agents, monitoring workloads, and driving innovation — all while remaining in close contact with the customers throughout their journey.
Naturally, the expectations are met. Here’s a more profound exposition of the key expectations that customers have and how ServiceNow CSM suffices them.
1. Customers want ease of communication
“Ease of communication” is a broad yet straightforward concept. It serves as an indicator of:
- How much mental effort is required from the customer?
- How easy is it to access a communication channel and start a conversation?
- How willing is the customer to proceed with the discussion?
- What value is being derived relative to the complexity (time, channel, solution) of the interaction?
A recent study unveils that seamless social interaction is a major contributor to “consumers’ willingness to share personal information.” Indeed, the premise of ease of communication opens multiple avenues for the brand to leverage and develop close-knit relationships.
ServiceNow CSM drives ease of communication by automating the response to common requests, putting forth the responses in a highly conversational format even when they’re coming from virtual agents, and discovering the best directions for the agents to take when working towards a resolution.
The real-time visibility into the purchased products/services and the case progress/timeline, combined with a rich and intuitive interface, makes for a highly collaborative experience for both the customer service agents and the customers.
2. Customers want to interact with knowledgeable and helpful customer service agents
The year 2019 stood out in terms of live chat usage, with companies operating across the retail, transportation, and technology sectors recording more than a 90% customer satisfaction rate. The pandemic has only boosted this market, with projections pointing at a valuation of $1.28 billion by 2027.
It’s no surprise that customers want to chat with knowledgeable customer service agents, especially for critical issues. On the back of their knowledge, experience, and empathetic delivery, these agents can help prevent issues from becoming serial /chronic and lower the probability of customer churn.
ServiceNow CSM empowers agents by expediting an agent workspace where they can see all the case details in a single dashboard, receive AI-assisted recommendations, receive notifications about the latest updates, and take on from virtual agents seamlessly upon routing of the case.
3. Customers want to interact with brands on channels of their choice
Google’s analysis illustrates that companies adopting and investing in omnichannel strategies relish a relatively “80% higher rate of incremental store visits.” In other words, customers love it when they can choose to interact with their favorite brands on channels of their choice.
With ServiceNow CSM, companies can deploy a single platform and extend their reach across channels: voice, email, chat, and web. This approach not only helps reduce churn but also advances the development of a loyal customer base while simultaneously encouraging more sales.
The ability to select the channel of interaction and provide a support path tailored to the customer and their preferences gives the customers and agents an added resource to engage and adjust the conversation. The goal for agents is to capture the customer’s interest as early as possible in order to achieve a quick resolution and avoid escalating cases that can often become costly to handle.
4. Customers want self-service options for their most common questions
For years now, organizations have been endeavoring to build a robust self-service channel because, well, customers prefer it. Deloitte mentions it as a “Tier 0” service option since it could very well assist with issues that are basic and questions that are common. But, the gap between customers hoping for self-service options and brands actually implementing such a pipeline remains massive.
ServiceNow CSM bridges this gap by providing customers with a knowledge base and service catalogs. A customer can access these directly or via chatbots. The knowledge base aims to ensure that all the customer’s questions are answered, while the service catalogs provide a user-friendly interface to easily find the right service on the right channel.
5. Customers want their requests to be resolved quickly – without having to interact with multiple departments
SuperOffice recently conducted a survey and found that more than 46% of the total respondents (n: 3,200) customarily expect customer support to respond within 4 hours. 10-12 minutes is an average response time, whereas 1 minute is regarded as the “fastest response time.”
The theory of “response times” is critical to understanding the facilitation of quick resolutions. The quicker an issue is resolved, the less chance it has to snowball into a chronic problem and, ultimately, a customer churn.
ServiceNow CSM has been built keeping in mind the urgency of an issue from the customer’s perspective as well as the company’s responsibility to keep its customer base happy. The combination of the agent workspace, omnichannel support, and case management resources enables the support to move swiftly.
To Sum Up
With ServiceNow CSM, companies have the resources to:
- Communicate effectively with customers (thus, establishing empathy)
- Take the customer on the most seamless and effective support path (thus, reducing churn)
- Keep their agents knowledgeable (thus, reducing costly call avoidance), and
- Keep customers satisfied by providing a self-service channel that is comprehensive and accessible (thus, boosting brand loyalty).
Interested in exploring ServiceNow CSM? Check it out here.
