7 trends in customer service for 2024

In today’s fast-changing commercial landscape, customer relations remain a key concern for companies seeking to satisfy and retain their customers. With the advent of disruptive technologies and the emergence of new purchasing behaviours, the year 2024 is shaping up to be a pivotal period, when customer relationship trends take on a new dimension.

In this article, we will explore the major advances and transformations shaping the customer service landscape in 2024, offering an insight into the strategies and approaches needed to thrive in this field.

The factors shaping customer service in 2024

This year, the customer service landscape is being shaped by data, technology and increased customer demands.

The increase in data processed by customer services

There is an increase in the amount of data collected by companies, essentially due to the diversification of communication channels used by customers. What’s more, companies are seeking to better understand their customers’ behaviour and expectations, with the aim of offering them tailor-made solutions. This leads them to collect and exploit more and more data.

The rise of Artificial Intelligence

Customer relations in 2024 will be influenced by the rise of Artificial Intelligence. According to statistics provided by Gartner in 2023, 80% of customer services departments will be using AI by 2025, with the aim of improving operator productivity and optimising the customer experience. This is hardly surprising, at a time when AI is already making major breakthroughs into data analysis and the creation of customer profiles.

Increasing customer demands

When most customers contact a company, they are always looking for fast, relevant answers. A study published by Zoom in 2022 reveals that customers say they are ready to leave their usual brand and switch to the competition only after a few bad experiences in terms of customer relations. So, in the face of growing demands, managing customer calls is not always an easy task. Find out how to handle incoming calls effectively.

Agent well-being at work

In a context where the work from home culture is widespread, the question of well-being at work is a key issue. Many customer service departments are now focusing on the principle of symmetry of attention, with the aim of providing employees with a healthier working environment, conducive to performance.

The 7 trends in customer service to watch in 2024

Here are the 7 unavoidable trends in customer relations that await you in 2024.

1. Empowering your agents

In a business landscape increasingly focused on personalisation and rapid response, customers are looking for fluid, efficient interactions. Autonomy enables your call agents to make quick, appropriate decisions, without having to constantly consult their superiors, which speeds up the problem-solving process.

There are several ways to empower your customer representatives:

• Provide them with in-depth training: when they are well-trained, they are able to solve customer problems independently;
• Provide them with the right tools to facilitate their access to the information system and to quickly come up with solutions to problems;
• Delegate responsibility: give agents the freedom to make decisions and solve customer problems without the need for constant supervisory approval, by setting clear limits on the types of situations they are allowed to handle autonomously.

2. Involving customers in strategy

In 2024, customers need to be more involved in customer relations strategy. This requires an approach focused on active listening, personalization and continuous innovation. One way of doing this is to proactively collect customer feedback and suggestions through a variety of channels, including social media networks, online surveys and face-to-face interactions. Incorporating this feedback into the decision-making process allows offers to be personalised and products and services to be improved according to customers’ real needs. Companies can also create online communities where customers can interact with each other, share their experiences and contribute to product evolution.

3. Segmenting customers’ experience with your business

Improving the customer experience requires the segmentation of customer experience and this concerns all departments of the company that come into direct contact with consumers. Data on the customer’s profile, their geographical location, and even their previous interactions with the brand is collected.

This information is then used to better direct customers to specialised agents. By adopting such an approach, the company is able to offer appropriate responses to each customer, thus reinforcing customer satisfaction and commitment.

4. Proactivity for a successful customer experience

To stay ahead of the competition in 2024, your customer service must do more than just respond to issues on the ground. You can go even further by proactively seeking solutions to your customers’ concerns before they even arise. This involves exploiting data, which is useful for anticipating customer needs or potential problems they may encounter.

Sales and marketing staff are also more aware of any problems customers may encounter with the services or products on offer. To be more proactive, call agents need to work closely with these departments.

5. CSR

According to a study conducted by BearingPoint in 2023, 85% of customers believe that companies should operate in a responsible manner. This implies the need to include environmental, social, economic and ethical investment issues in its strategy. For customer service in particular, the company must commit to ethical and transparent use of customer data.

6. The advent of new KPIs

When it comes to customer relations, this year also sees the emergence of new KPIs alongside those already in existence. These include the deviation rate, which is the number of views on the customer FAQ divided by the total number of tickets, multiplied by one hundred.

There’s also the useful contact time, which corresponds to the length of contact required to resolve the customer’s problem. Some call centres take a more emotional approach to customer relations, using indicators linked to customer feelings and emotions. These tools are useful for gaining a better understanding of callers’ behaviours, so as to be able to offer them the right kind of communication.

7. Artificial intelligence, driving change in customer service

Artificial Intelligence (AI) will profoundly transform customer relations in 2024. Indeed, AI-powered chatbots and virtual assistants offer instant, personalised assistance 24/7, improving the accessibility and responsiveness of customer service. Predictive analytics and natural language processing enable companies to understand customer needs and preferences in greater depth, making it easier to personalise interactions.

What’s more, AI powers sophisticated recommendation systems, suggesting relevant products and services based on customers’ past behaviour. However, this raises concerns about data privacy and ethics in the use of customer information.

ProContact, your specialised customer service provider

Choose ProContact for customer service solutions in line with the latest trends. We are a service provider specialised in multi-channel customer relations and possessing the human, technical and material resources to handle your customer relations. Hand-picked and well-trained, our agents offer your clients a tailor-made service. We are always on top of the latest trends and we guarantee customer service that will help you gain a competitive edge, improve your brand awareness and boost your sales.

Reach out to us via our contact form or call us on (+33)1 84 76 24 03 to build your tailor-made offer.