There is a push to automate everything, but is this the best way forward? The financial case for automation in customer service to lower your costs is clear but this shouldn’t be the only consideration. You also need to assess the impact that a service or helpdesk automation will have on your business, your employees and your customers. If done without putting the customer first, your automation in customer service might be perceived as impersonal.

Ah, the good old days! As a leader that benefits from technology, you remember the days of: Oh, wait! Good old days? What am I thinking? Those days were terrible! Then COVID19 hit and, miraculously, our IT department was regarded as heroes as they moved us online within a couple of weeks. Further, their interest in helping us utilize technology to improve the way we worked was outstanding, keeping us competitive, compliant and sustainable. What changed?

You’re at your desk when you overhear two fellow support agents debating the difference between customer service and customer experience. They ask you for your take, and your palms turn sweaty—you have no idea how they’re different. Many support agents use customer experience and customer service interchangeably, but the two terms do not mean the same thing. Understanding the difference between them is critical. Why?

Here are the newest integrations from Zendesk to help your team provide great experiences.

Imagine you open your computer one morning to find a deluge of emails and phone calls, but you have no system in place for fielding them all. You may feel overwhelmed or stressed, and you might even start to doubt your capabilities. For HR team members, this situation isn’t out of the ordinary. They receive dozens of requests—if not more—from company employees each day. An HR help desk is the solution for navigating these numerous requests.

Your customer service framework is like the instructions manual for building some flat-pack furniture. Without directions, you’re guessing how your new desk goes together. Likewise, your support team will improvise how best to respond to incoming customer queries if they don’t have a guiding framework – which can lead to long delays and inconsistent customer experiences. A framework is useful for clarifying how, when, and why you provide the type of service you do. It maps out.

There are significant, long-term implications for how IT is managed and supported. Providing a fully integrated view across end-points, cloud, networking and applications in a hybrid deployment model has become critical for the service desk and the companies they support. While there are myriad variables that need to be addressed, for purposes of brevity we are going to focus on three that are likely to be critical in moving the needle for enterprises adopting a hybrid model.

People love to gather in groups and discuss the topics they’re most interested in, whether it’s in person or online. That’s why so many consumers turn to community forums when they need information or support from their favorite brands. These online platforms are where users can come to ask questions, enter into debates, share knowledge, and discuss topics of common interest. In many cases, users can get information about how a product works or ask questions about specific features.

What customers want and what they get might not always align, but the stakes are getting higher for any business that falls short. 80 percent of customers say they’d switch to a competitor after more than one bad experience. And that’s a number that should have most companies paying attention. Why? Customer expectations have shifted considerably over the past year.

Jenny wakes up every morning at 8 am. While sipping her coffee, she opens up your company’s app to check the weather that day. Later, between work calls, Jenny checks your website on her laptop to see if it’s going to be windy in the afternoon – maybe it’s a good day for a bike ride? In the evening, while scrolling through Instagram, she sees your ad to subscribe to a new weather newsletter catered to cyclists.

To nobody’s surprise, sturdy success starts with good foundations. While the building materials have changed drastically and improved remarkably over time, the foundation of any good business is ultimately the satisfaction of its customers. Arguably, it’s easy to overlook the importance of customer satisfaction when the issues aren’t obvious. Just like the wiring of a house, you expect it to be there and working perfectly.

Your customer’s perception of you and your brand can be shaped in a single customer service interaction. So it pays to be careful with what you say and how you say it. One way to set the course of conversations in your favor is by using the right customer service phrases. Customer service phrases serve as ready-reckoners that you can use in your day-to-day interactions with customers.

Helpful, friendly customer service shouldn’t be seen as “optional” by your business. It has serious implications for whether customers will return to your company and spread the word about your products. According to a Qualtrics study, 95% of consumers who rate a company’s customer experience as “very good” are likely to recommend the company.

It’s impossible to provide great customer service without great customer data. You can’t give people the white-glove treatment if you don’t know anything about them. Especially in today’s data-driven world, companies need to leverage their customer data to make informed decisions and improve their business. Yet some organizations struggle with outdated or insufficient information. Other brands capture plenty of data but fail to connect it all.

The idea of a single view into the enterprise has existed for some time as a "holy grail" concept—not just for Customer Service teams, but for IT leaders, and managers looking for big-picture dashboards for better decision-making. The trouble with realizing this concept has historically been an unreasonable investment in time and treasure to tear-down and rebuild vast enterprise systems. Today's fast-paced mergers and acquisitions activities only compound the technical challenges.

You've heard them before. You might have even thought it yourself at one time. But be on the lookout for these 5 Customer Service fallacies ready to sink the unwary in 2021.

Not every quarantine trend has had a long shelf life—if you abandoned your sourdough starter eons ago, you’re not alone. But when it comes to customer service, some habits born out of the pandemic are here to stay. The Zendesk Customer Experience Trends Report 2021 found that 64 percent of customers started using a new support channel last year. Among them, 73 percent say they plan to continue using that channel this year and beyond.

Customer service apps are great. They help us communicate with customers very easily, and engage them effectively, all while staying under budget. Unfortunately, a customer service app will only be effective as long as it’s good for you, your company, and your customers. Here are over 15 customer service apps your CS team will love, their pros and cons, and the platforms they’re available for. Let’s get started.

About 82% of customers deeply value convenience, friendliness, and human touch when it comes to their ideal customer service experience. If you want customers to continue to return to your business, you need to treat them well, and successfully handle the customer service challenges that inhibit your support team. Customer service challenges are scenarios that get in the way of providing the customer with a favorable resolution.

The pandemic era showed us that consumers were going online in their search for better and safer ways to transact with businesses. This shift in behaviour means that customer service has become more important now than ever, and organisations must change the way they view the function going forward. Customer service needs to be a crucial part of every company’s growth strategy.

Social media isn’t just the tool of teens—over the past year, it has quickly become one of the fastest-growing channels for customer support, with tickets up 181 percent since the start of the pandemic. Now, more than ever, customers are looking to connect with brands on their favorite social media platforms. In addition to meeting customers where they are, social media is a great method for customer outreach whether or not you pay to promote content.