9 Customer Service “Gurus” on the Future of Customer Support
“If you ask me about the future of customer support, I’ll say it belongs to the companies who view customer support as a competitive advantage rather than a cost center,” writes Scott Tran, organizer of Support Driven, a community dedicated to customer support as a career. He polled 9 experts on customer service for their thoughts on where customer support is heading: Jay Baer (owner, Convince & Convert), Nick Francis (CEO, Help Scout), Camille Acey (VP of customer success, Clubhouse), Micah Solomon (consultant), Shep Hyken (speaker, author), Kristin Aardsma (head of customer support, Basecamp), Jamie Edwards(co-founder, Kayako), Nancy Shenker (CEO, theONswitch), and Jeff Gardner (director of customer support and success, Intercom). Some teasers:
- “In the future, I see service people working hand-in-hand with machines. When an issue comes up that is not easily solved by the bot, it will immediately transfer to the intelligent human who can jump in without the customer waiting.” (Nancy Shenker)
- “The only customer service trend you need to be worried about is this: Consciously or unconsciously, customers continue to expect better and better customer service — in every industry, every niche, at every price point.” (Micah Solomon)
- “Customer service is no longer what we view as traditional support. It’s part of sales, marketing, and the entire culture of an organization. It’s a competitive differentiator.” (Shep Hyken)
For more on their thoughts and predictions, click here.
