- Customer service is a top priority for many companies as they view it as a competitive differentiator. However, delivering good customer service is challenging as customer service leaders must balance customer and business needs. - There are many trends in customer service that companies should be aware of, such as customers expecting effortless service across multiple channels like mobile. Companies need to take a mobile-first approach and use tools like BPM to standardize service. - Customer service should strive to be pain-free, proactive, personalized, and productive. This involves things like using predictive analytics to power personalized offers and routing customers to the right agents. Companies should also solicit customer feedback to improve service.

1. Making Leaders Successful
Every Day

2. Customer Service In The Age Of
The Customer – A Forrester
Perspective
Kate Leggett
Principal Analyst, Forrester Research
@kateleggett
kleggett@forrester.com

3. Companies
view customer
experience as
one of their top
priorities
Use customer
experiences as
a competitive
differentiator
The State Of Customer Experience, Management, 2013

4. © 2012 Forrester Research, Inc. Reproduction Prohibited
Source: Forrsights Software Survey, Q4 2013,
Base: 2,074 IT executives and technology decision-makers
4%
7%
13%
14%
16%
18%
21%
22%
25%
25%
25%
32%
38%
Other
Office of the CEO and…
Human resources
Supply chain
Procurement
Manufacturing
Order fufillment
Field service
Research and…
Marketing
Finance
Customer service
Sales
Sales and Customer
Service are the top
departments for software
strategy and investments
in 2014
In 2014, Investments in customer-facing technologies
top the list

5. Forrester’s Customer Experience Index

6. © 2013 Forrester Research, Inc. Reproduction Prohibited 6
Source: January 121, 2014, “The Customer Experience Index, 2014” Forrester report
Few companies deliver an outstanding experience
53%

7. Good customer experiences are good for business
March 2012 “The Business Impact Of Customer Experience, 2012”

8. Customer service managers agree that customer
experience is important

9. Cost
Customer
satisfaction and
loyalty
Revenue
Compliance
It is increasingly difficult to deliver good customer
service as the customer service leader must balance
customer needs with business needs

10. www.astutesolutions.com
Most companies are a mess of siloed applications
38%
44%

11. © 2012 Forrester Research, Inc. Reproduction Prohibited
Knowledge is everywhere
Email

12. © 2012 Forrester Research, Inc. Reproduction Prohibited
The volume of social inquiries and comments
overwhelm companies

13. © 2012 Forrester Research, Inc. Reproduction Prohibited
Companies offer more customer touchpoints than ever
before, with inconsistent content and experiences

14. Poor service is costly
Your customers switch to more expensive channels when the online
interactions lets them down
August 2012 “Websites That Don’t Support Customers Waste Millions”

15. Customers complain about poor service
41% say that complaints
about customer service
from other consumers on
social sites like Twitter or
Facebook strongly
influence my image of a
company.

16. © 2012 Forrester Research, Inc. Reproduction Prohibited
What are the top trends in customer service that I should
pay attention to?
“I know how I want to deliver good
customer but I don’t know where to
start.”
Service Manager
Customers

17. © 2012 Forrester Research, Inc. Reproduction Prohibited
PAIN FREE PROACTIVE
PERSONALIZED PRODUCTIVE
Customer service should be……

18. © 2012 Forrester Research, Inc. Reproduction Prohibited
PAIN FREE PROACTIVE
PERSONALIZED PRODUCTIVE
Customer service should be……

19. © 2012 Forrester Research, Inc. Reproduction Prohibited
Understand that your customers expect effortless
service
Customer Experience Online Survey, 2013
52% will abandon
online purchases if
they can’t find a
quick answer
For 71%, valuing
their time is the
most important
thing a company
can do to provide
good service

20. ..That they want to interact over a range of communication
channels

21. …And they want to use multiple communication
channels in a single interaction

22. Omnichannel is reality..

23. © 2012 Forrester Research, Inc. Reproduction Prohibited
Realize that your customers are deeply mobile enabled
October 2013 “Digital Customer Experience Teams In The Post-PC Era”

24. © 2012 Forrester Research, Inc. Reproduction Prohibited
That time on mobile devices has overtaken time on
others…
24

25. And that customer service organizations must adopt a
mobile-first mindset
Accenture Global Pulse Survey

26. Look to using BPM tools to standardize service delivery

27. © 2012 Forrester Research, Inc. Reproduction Prohibited
PAIN FREE PROACTIVE
PERSONALIZED PRODUCTIVE

28. February 2012 “Update 2012: Proactive Outbound Notification Saves Money”
Rely on outbound communications to keep your
customers in the loop

29. • November 2013 “Anticipate Your Customer’s Next Move With Proactive Experiences”
Invest in proactive engagement

30. © 2012 Forrester Research, Inc. Reproduction ProhibitedNovember 2013 “Anticipate Your Customer’s Next Move With Proactive Experiences”

31. © 2012 Forrester Research, Inc. Reproduction Prohibited
Google Now uses machine learning to proactively
deliver relevant information
November 2013 “Anticipate Your Customer’s Next Move With Proactive Experiences”

32. Deliver consistent knowledge across all touchpoints

33. © 2012 Forrester Research, Inc. Reproduction Prohibited
PAIN FREE PROACTIVE
PERSONALIZED PRODUCTIVE

35. © 2012 Forrester Research, Inc. Reproduction Prohibited
Use decisioning to power offers, actions and
connections
Predictive
Customer
Service
Understand
Customers
and their
behavior
Choose the
right upsell
or cross-
sell
Get the
work to the
right
person
system
Guide the
Service
Experience
Connect
the
customer to
the right
agent

36. email
Forums
phone
web
social
Customers
& Agents
Work
virtual bookmarks
Linked In
activity
Forum Posts
Service Manager
Derive Insights
ANALYZECOLLECT
Listen to your customers and act on their insights
IMPROVE
Behavioral
Data
Interaction
Data
Content
Utilization
People
Performance
Experience
Effectiveness

37. New York City Solicited Citizen Input For Bike
Rental Station Placement
April 2012 “Governments Embrace New Modes Of Constituent Engagement”

38. © 2012 Forrester Research, Inc. Reproduction Prohibited
PAIN FREE PROACTIVE
PERSONALIZED PRODUCTIVE

39. © 2014 Forrester Research, Inc. Reproduction Prohibited
Many Customer Service Organizations Focus On
Increasing Efficiency
February 2014 “Navigate The Future Of Customer Service In 2014”

40. © 2012 Forrester Research, Inc. Reproduction Prohibited
Realize that an improved agent experience leads to
better customer satisfaction outcomes
“Complete the following statement in the way that best describes your ability to correlate an
improved agent experience to better customer satisfaction:
We can correlate a good agent experience to good customer satisfaction ratings...”
Source: A commissioned study conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of salesforce.com, July 2012; shared with permission
Base: 196 United States Customer Service decision-makers

41. Cloud deployments are increasing

42. 28%
33%
35%
38%
37%
33%
34%
31%
42%
38%
40%
38%
39%
21%
21%
22%
21%
23%
29%
29%
36%
26%
31%
29%
34%
36%
Lack of in-house IT staff to maintain a traditional software solution
Ability to substitute upfront costs with regular monthly payments
Having access to a wide ecosystem of solutions around the core SaaS
application
Iterative deployment model supports a higher level of innovation within
the business
Gaining a feature or functionality that is not available in a traditional,
licensed software package
To support a large number of mobile and remote users
Improve collaboration with business partners
Lower overall costs
Support business innovation with new capabilities
Allows us to focus resources on more important projects
Faster delivery of new features and functions from SaaS/as-a-service
providers
Speed of implementation and deployment
Improved business agility
Very important factorImportant factor
(rating of 4)
Cloud deployments deliver increased business agility
Source: Forrsights Software Survey, Q4 2013,
Base: 1,417 IT executives and technology decision-makers

43. © 2012 Forrester Research, Inc. Reproduction Prohibited
Focus on people, process and technology to move the
needle on online customer service experiences

44. Thank you
Kate Leggett
Principal Analyst
Thank you