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Personalised, polite and predictive: The future of customer care

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  • Article

Companies whose customer service exceeds expectations will be ahead of the curve post-COVID-19. And data analytics can help deliver a best-in-class experience.

Trying to bag a grocery delivery slot, chasing travel refunds … Consumers have spent a lot of time online during the pandemic, and it’s often tested their patience. It’s also coloured their attitude to companies. Research by customer service platform Stella Connect revealed that two thirds of consumers in their survey had less tolerance for disappointing service and a third had switched brands as a result.1

Growth businesses are already taking a more customer-centric approach and investing in improved service quality

It’s hardly surprising, then, that customer service has risen up the business agenda. One major UK retailer added customer experience (CX) to its list of principal risks in its latest annual report. Highlighting so explicitly the dangers of not providing excellent customer service is unusual when it comes to financial reporting, where economic, geopolitical, legal and regulatory risks tend to be the order of the day.

Our 2020 Navigator survey revealed that growth businesses are already taking a more customer-centric approach and investing in improved service quality.

Two thirds of consumers have less tolerance for disappointing service

So, what are the most important characteristics of a successful CX proposition today?

Consistency counts

As consumers increasingly switch between physical and digital channels, having a consistent experience is crucial. A buyer might research a product on a laptop, use a smartphone app to complete a click-and-collect purchase and head in-store to pick it up. Post-sale they might interact with a company via a phone call, web chat, or social media. Making sure each touchpoint is fit-for-purpose, and works seamlessly with others, will go a long way to delivering a great overall customer experience.

While technology is responsible for the omnichannel nature of 21st century business operations, it is increasingly behind companies’ understanding of the customers they serve too. Traditionally, predicting and measuring customer behaviour has been carried out using a variety of surveys. But as McKinsey notes in Prediction: The Future of CX, this method often falls short in meeting current customers’ complex needs.2

Man in wheelchair making a call from his home office

Harnessing the power of tech

In their place, predictive analytics systems promise more accurate, measurable, and timely information. Customer data is sourced and algorithms are developed to predict individual customer satisfaction and value outcomes such as revenue, loyalty, and cost to serve. In turn, relevant insights are fed to front-line employees to act upon and deliver a more personalised and responsive service.

Getting the most out of data

For data analytics systems to deliver the best results, however, the quality of your data crucial. It needs to be organised and provide an end-to-end snapshot of the customer journey. Only then can the system look beyond what your customers are looking for now, to what they might want next.


Good CX and the ‘trysumer’

Korean company Lotte Rental has tapped into the growing ‘trysumer’ market, where customers try out products, rather than owning them outright. It provides a wide range of products, from cars to smartphones to home gyms, that can be rented from two days to two weeks. Products can even be delivered regularly on pre-defined dates. By analysing customer information in real time, it can offer highly curated, contextualised and targeted offers.


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