This article is more than 8 years old.
Tweet This
These and many other insights are from the 2015 State of Service Report (free, no opt-in) published today by Salesforce Research. Interviews were conducted in early 2015, generating responses from 1,912 full-time global service leaders from the U.S., Canada, Brazil, U.K., France, Germany, Japan, Australia, and New Zealand. Respondents included customers and contacts who had opted in as well as third-party panelists.
Key take-aways include the following:
- High performing customer services teams are 5X more likely to be using mobile apps than underperformers. 36% of high performing customer service teams are using mobile apps today, creating more personalized and efficient customer experiences that lead to higher customer satisfaction. Conversely 17% of moderate performers are using mobile apps today, and only 7% of under performing teams are. Of the three groups, moderate performers are the most ambitious regarding integrating mobile apps into their customer service strategies. 39% plan to add mobile app support in the next two years.
- Mobile and social networks are predicted to be the fastest growing customer service channels for the next 12 – 18 months. Mobile apps customer service channel activity is forecast to grow 38%, mobile chat 12%, and social networks, 24%. Customer portals and desktop chat are each expected to grow 19%. Service leaders predict landline phone inquiries will decrease approximately 9% over the next 12–18 months. High performing customer service teams are anticipating this shift today, investing heavily in mobile app integration across all existing and planned service channels.
- Mobile service app adoption by high performance customer service teams will grow 67% in two years. As of today 36% of high performance customer service teams are using mobile apps, and 24% are planning to in the next two years. Moderate performers are predicted to increase their adoption of mobile service apps 223% in the next two years. The following graphic provides an overview of mobile service app adoption by performance level of customer service teams.
- Always-on service (54%), personalized service (53%), and faster service (50%) are the top three service priorities across all respondents. Average handle time (47%), number of cases handled (38%), and customer satisfaction (CSAT) (32%) are the top three service success metrics. Net Promoter Score (NPS) is ranked 23rd in importance by high performing customer service teams, while under-performers rate it 4th most important.
- High performing customer service teams at 3X more likely to be outstanding at using analytics to provide excellent customer service. The study also found they’re also 3.9X more likely to be outstanding at customizing dashboards to track Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), aligning performance metrics across the organization from executives to frontline support agents. High performance customer service teams are also 4.8X more likely to excel at integrating analytics and insights into customer service strategies than under-performing teams.
- 55% of high performing customer service teams are able to predict customers' needs before they arise 80% or more of the time, based on data, experience, and analysis. High performing customer service teams are also 3X more likely than under-performers to predict customer service needs before they arise 80% or more of the time. Salesforce Research found that only 23% of all customer service team levels in aggregate are able to predict customer service needs before they arise 80% or more of the time, based on data, experience, and analysis. High performance customer service teams are exceptional in their ability to anticipate customer needs using predictive analytics.
- High performing customer service teams are 5.1X more likely to use mostly cloud solutions. High performing services teams are projected to increase their spending on cloud solutions by 66% over the next two years. Salesforce Research predicts that under-performers are going to spend heavily on cloud technologies in an attempt to close the performance gap. The following graphic compares performer segments and the anticipated cloud-based application anticipated growth rate.
- Investing in customer & partner collaboration, discussion forums and ongoing efforts to create consistent, contextually-aware omnichannel interactions are the three highest priorities of high performance service teams. The following comparison of 13 different customer service capabilities provides insights into just how different high performers are from moderate and under-performers.
- High performance customer service teams prioritize always-on, personalized, and faster service to create excellent customer experiences. The following trend analysis shows service priorities by team performance levels.
- 65% of high-performing customer service teams empower their agents to take action and make customers happy. High performance service teams equip their agents with real-time access to customer records and intelligence, giving them the power to quickly resolve problems. Compared to underperformers, high performance service teams are 3.4X more likely to completely empower service agents from a leadership, process and system standpoint.
Please click on the “following” button to get every new blog post as soon as its goes live.
