Customer Service
The 2021 holiday season brought with it several trends and surprising changes to consumer habits that were unexpected across the retail industry. After nearly two years of sporadic lockdowns and social distancing, itโs unsurprising to many that, for the first time in history, brands experienced a year-over-year decline in online sales during Black Friday andโฆ
In order to delight customers in a post-pandemic world, retailers must optimize an increasingly delicate balance between technology and a human touch. The bar for personalized experiences continues to rise, with 95 percent of shoppers adamant that they don't want to talk to a robot, and 84 percent say being โtreated like a person andโฆ
Gartner recently published its annual list of strategic technology trends that will shape the year ahead for businesses around the world. Itโs no surprise that included among the 2022 list are cloud-native platforms, artificial intelligence (AI) engineering, and total experiences. At the intersection of these we can find conversational AI solutions. Conversational AI is theโฆ
A year when shifting consumer behaviors and heightened expectations made the jobs of customer service (CS) teams a whole lot more difficult, 2021 illuminated the rising value of great CS for brands looking to pave a path towards success post-pandemic. Navigating a historic increase in customer query volumes, dramatic operational reconfigurations, and intensifying pressure toโฆ
In 2022, the retail industry will have to significantly improve its customer service and customer experience (CX), which were severely impacted by the pandemic. Customer service is often the frontline for a companyโs brand and reputation, and a third of consumers say that itโs worse now than prior to the pandemic. Weโve all been impactedโฆ
If weโve learned one thing over the last two years, itโs that predicting the future is nearly impossible. After all, few of us could have anticipated a need to stock up on face masks and basics such as toilet paper before March 2020. While the specifics are difficult to foretell, there are trends that weโฆ
A recent Clickatell survey showed that the typical customer spends 13 hours a year on hold โ hours they would rather be relaxing (58 percent), doing chores (46 percent) or spending with family (36 percent). Additionally, one-third of those respondents said spending even five minutes to nine minutes on hold can lead to negative feelings towards a brand. Even withโฆ
Around half of customers would switch to a competitor after just one bad customer service experience. Just one. Thatโs not a lot of room for error. To compete in todayโs e-commerce world, retailers must invest in robust and talented customer service teams. Unfortunately, a rapid increase in online shopping plus a decrease in the laborโฆ
Creating an exceptional customer experience is the mandate for todayโs brands. Time and time again, consumers have made it clear that they expect personalized, fast and frictionless service at every step of the customer journey. Recent Kustomer research found that 85 percent of U.S. consumers expect contacting customer service to be faster, and 67 percentโฆ
There were a host of difficulties plaguing retailers this past holiday season, including inventory shortages, production issues and shipping constraints, to name a few. The most notable shortage, however, was on the labor front. As of July 2021, the number of retail job openings peaked at 1.2 million, compared to 876,000 during the same periodโฆ