Every business leader agrees that the stakes have never been higher when it comes to building trust, loyalty and customer retention. 90% of those interested claim that the way a company behaves during a crisis determines its credibility. Customer service has taken the lead as companies build trust to gain customer loyalty as quickly as possible and maintain it for years to come. Taking care of the customer and meeting customer service expectations while balancing a dispersed workforce and new business models means professionals must completely redefine customer approach and problem resolution.

This includes key responses to petitioners, ways to help employees adapt to a more strategic role, and to keep each party safe and comfortable. Based on the insights obtained from over 7,000 specialists from around the world, a report on the status of services was prepared, which will help in the preparation of the stage in customer service.

So what can we find interesting in this document? Here are some important aspects…

1. Exceed customer expectations because customers expect greater agility and listening skills. How to meet these expectations regarding effective service, e.g. through Salesforce.
2. You need to find empathy. 70% of consumers agree that companies that showed empathy and understanding during the pandemic deserved full loyalty. It is therefore important that the workforce is trained in the practices of emotional intelligence. To achieve this, role-playing exercises on the part of the client and the organization should be carried out. Teach staff to use positive phrases and instead of saying “it’s against our policy”, let’s say “here’s how we handle it”
3. Provide your employees with a full view of the service platform, e.g. Service Cloud, it will definitely improve work organization. A well-matched tool allows employees to use their time efficiently. As customers choose phone calls in the second place (they prefer e-mail), equipping employees with a cloud phone service allows you to focus on the customer, because calls are automatically transcribed in real time, and at the same time employees have access to full customer information needed for personalized services. Servis Cloud enables simultaneous management of multiple conversations with customers, which results in faster service and greater efficiency.

4. Offer flexibility. 83% of service professionals say they have changed the rules to better suit the needs and expectations of their customers, especially during a pandemic. The key to success is regular information about updates, so it is worth investing in training employees in the field of new processes by configuring the appropriate online model. You should also check your knowledge base frequently to make sure all information is up to date. 67% of customers expect information consistency between departments, and as many as 53% believe that sales, marketing and services do not share information. Therefore, gather a team to focus it around the client, set common goals, encourage continuous cooperation and communication.
5. Collaborate with the IT department. It’s very important, as currently customer service is usually online. 80% of service decision-makers call IT a strategic partner, so let technology choice and strategy have a common denominator.
6. Get a full view as nearly half of agents say they can find everything they need on one screen, so to ensure high-quality service, employees must have access to transaction history, completed activities, and future interactions and preferences. Therefore, Salesforce Customer 360 will be perfect as it collects all data in one place, so that each agent has full insight into customer data, what they expect. One of the largest electricity distribution companies (Philippines) moved its sales and service channel to Salesforce, and then its employees no longer had to use multiple screens and tabs to help stakeholders (they reduced the number of tabs from 15 to 1!) And this led to a fivefold improvement in productivity.
7. Use your data to link it efficiently, you can try a tool like Mulesoft which provides integration software to link data to application programming interfaces (APIs) which will give you a complete picture of how the service works.

Start building relationships, trust and loyalty today. Customers appreciate when companies meet their needs and show flexibility, especially in today’s world. Thanks to this approach to the contractor, you can provide more professional solutions and a higher level of customer service.