Companies that digitized their customer support channels in wake of the Covid-19 pandemic are now faced with a major challenge: customers don’t believe support is genuinely interested in solving their problems.
According to a new report from customer experience orchestration firm Genesys, customer service representatives’ concern sounds “fake” to a third (32 percent) of consumers. Furthermore, another third (31 percent) are under the impression the quality of the service has worsened since the first lockdown.
A stellar user experience, according to the report’s respondents, involves businesses remembering the customer and anticipating why they are reaching out. Customers also respond positively when support staff make their empathy clear.
However, according to the report, more than a quarter (27 percent) of customer support representatives “aren’t personable”.
The UK is almost out of lockdown, the report further states, calling on all organizations to “radically rethink” how they use technology for customer support.
“Businesses must act quickly to scale empathetic experiences that build both a foundation of goodwill and long-lasting emotional bonds with the communities they serve via digital means,” said Genesys.
Digging deeper into how people interact with customer service providers, Genesys found that voice is still the number one channel (64 percent). Live webchat (46 percent) and chatbots (28 percent), however, are emerging as strong contenders.