2 min

A new report by Zendesk indicates that customers are generally dissatisfied with companies’ customer service. Organizations need to offer exceptional customer service in to meet expectations. Zendesk suggests a balance between human contact and automation.

The report indicates that expectations of customer service are increasing faster than companies can keep up. More than 60 percent of customers are less patient than before. For many companies, the imbalance directly affects performance.

Zendesk advises companies to optimize their customer contact (CX) environments and develop future-proof strategies. According to the organization, improving the operational efficiency of both customers and service staff allows companies to cut costs while realizing more value. The latter can prove essential for long-term competition.

Balancing human contact and automation

Zendesk notes that strategies must consist of a balance between human interaction, customer service automation and data integration. According to Zendesk, chatbots and AI solutions are a perfect fit.

To maintain the balance between automation and human contact, companies need to gain more insight into customer behavior, Zendesk says. Automation is most effective when deployed based on this behavior.

Customer behavior can be determined by integrating large amounts of data across all customer contact solutions. With the help of automation applications, companies can support their service staff where it matters most.

Zendesk concludes that combining automation solutions like chatbots with human contact through agents provides the best opportunities for improving customer service.

Training and tooling

The study further indicates that companies need to invest in tooling and training to optimize customer service. According to Zendesk, employee workloads need to be distributed more efficiently to achieve the best results.

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