[et_pb_section fb_built="1" _builder_version="4.0.9"][et_pb_row _builder_version="4.0.9"][et_pb_column type="4_4" _builder_version="4.0.9"][et_pb_text _builder_version="4.0.9"]<h1 style="text-align: center;"><strong><a href="https://www.millerpublicadjusters.com/free-property-insurance-claim-advice-blog/understanding-the-importance-of-homeowners-insurance"><span id="hs_cos_wrapper_name" class="hs_cos_wrapper hs_cos_wrapper_meta_field hs_cos_wrapper_type_text" data-hs-cos-general-type="meta_field" data-hs-cos-type="text">Understanding the Importance of Homeowners Insurance</span></a></strong></h1>[/et_pb_text][/et_pb_column][/et_pb_row][et_pb_row _builder_version="4.0.9"][et_pb_column type="4_4" _builder_version="4.0.9"][et_pb_text _builder_version="4.0.9" hover_enabled="0"]<div align="center">
<p style="text-align: left;">Customer service isn’t static. Phones replaced house calls. Email edged out phones. To keep existing customers and attract new ones, you need cutting-edge customer service. Consumers are four times as likely to buy from a competitor after a service issue than they are after a product one, according to<span> </span><a href="https://www.bain.com/insights/topics/loyalty" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">research by Bain &amp; Company</a>. Still, customer-service overhauls aren’t cheap. Invest wisely by considering these five predicted trends that will shape customer service over the next five years.</p>
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<h2 style="text-align: left;"><b>1. Social media will become default channels.</b></h2>
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<p style="text-align: left;">Just<span> </span><a href="http://info.microsoft.com/rs/157-GQE-382/images/EN-CNTNT-Report-DynService-2017-global-state-customer-service-en-au.pdf" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">13 percent</a> of consumers over the age of 55 have used social media for customer-service purposes, a Microsoft study showed; on the other hand, 55 percent of those aged 18-34 have. As millennials and Gen Zers make up a larger and larger share of your market, social-media outreach is likely to make up more than half of your customer-service requests. </p>
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<p style="text-align: left;">Soon, putting a social-media intern in charge of your Twitter account will no longer cut it. Those running your social accounts need to understand your product or service like veteran members of your customer-service staff. Use chatbots to field common questions, freeing up time for your human service people to tackle more complex ones. </p>
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<h2 style="text-align: left;"><b>2. Automation will get the human touch. </b></h2>
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<p style="text-align: left;">Automation and AI are hot topics in every sector, and customer service is no exception, but when customers hear “customer-service automation,” they think of automated menus and spammy robocalls. From the user’s perspective, that sort of automation is worse than none at all.</p>
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<p style="text-align: left;">Used well, customer-service software can lighten an agent's load without erasing the human touch. Contact center software provider Five9 suggests agents use real-time transcription services, which can achieve<span> </span><a href="https://www.five9.com/blog/at-five9-were-excited-about-agent-assistance" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">95 percent accuracy</a><span> </span>with custom tuning, so they can focus more on the customer and less on transcription errors. Automation will be a must, but it’s best used to augment human workers. </p>
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<h2 style="text-align: left;"><b>3. Customer reps will give more product demos.</b></h2>
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<p style="text-align: left;">As more services become strictly online, your customer-service capabilities need to keep up. Customer-service platform Acquire points out that<span> </span><a href="https://acquire.io/blog/co-browsing-best-practice/" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">nearly half</a><span> </span>of users will leave a website if they can’t find what they’re looking for. Customer-service people need to meet them there, regardless of what the product problem is. </p>
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<p style="text-align: left;">Lean on co-browsing tools, which let customer-service agents share their screens with clients in real time. If a customer still isn’t getting it, video-conferencing solutions can improve communication via nonverbal cues. Repeated videoconferencing or screen sharing around the same issue could indicate a user-interface problem. </p>
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<h2 style="text-align: left;"><b>4. Customer-service teams will develop disaster plans. </b></h2>
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<p style="text-align: left;">Whether due to technological complexity, natural disasters or bad actors, service outages seem to be happening more frequently. Cyberattacks are a particular problem. <a href="https://www.securitymagazine.com/articles/90483-cybersecurity-firms-see-increase-in-cyber-attacks" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Three-fifths</a><span> </span>of firms experienced one last year, up by double digits from the year prior. One way or another, your customer-service staffers will eventually face a catastrophe. If they can’t field calls or use the internet for days, you can bet some customers will take their business elsewhere. The Small Business Administration offers<span> </span><a href="https://www.sba.gov/business-guide/manage-your-business/prepare-emergencies" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">checklists</a><span> </span>and safety tips specific to each type of disaster. Fill out the ones relevant to you, and share them with your team before a disaster strikes. </p>
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<h2 style="text-align: left;"><b>5. Customer-service training will be companywide.</b></h2>
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<p style="text-align: left;">Employees like engineers and marketers may not interact directly with customers, but they need customer-service skills all the same. The reason is the rising importance of your UX. To deliver a better experience, everyone needs to know common customer pain points and solutions. Encourage people to think beyond their immediate role and subject area. Marketing software firm HubSpot<span> </span><a href="https://blog.hubspot.com/service/customer-service-support-training" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">trained</a><span> </span>its content team not just on marketing or writing, but also on how to represent the company online. Ensure everyone knows how to refer to your product and brand. Develop a “top 10” list explaining how to address common customer questions.</p>
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<p><span>If you’re going to grow and maintain your customer base through the 2020s, you’ll need to innovate. Technology will be key, but it needs to support -- rather than sideline -- your customer-service staff. Before the new decade begins, be sure your team knows the difference.</span></div>
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<div align="center" style="text-align: left;"><span>To read the full article, <a href="https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/343367?stat=316722&amp;socialnet=linkedin">click here</a>.</span></div>
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