Today, customer care leaders are feeling the pressure for a number of reasons – rising call volumes, employee churn, digital solutions are aren’t yet delivering on their full promise and business environment issues like decades high inflation and the murmurs of a depression. the post pandemic environment has added a new dimension to customer care.
over the past two years, leaders have had to quickly adapt systems and ways of working to accommodate the shift to working from home—up to 85 percent of their workforces, in some cases. while digital solutions and the shift to self-service channels will solve many of these challenges, they aren’t quite reaching the goal. for most organizations, the vast majority of digital customer contacts require assistance, and only 10 percent of newly built digital platforms are fully scaled or adopted by customers.
Not surprisingly, McKinsey’s 2022 State of Customer Care Survey has found that customer care is now a strategic focus for companies. respondents say their top three priorities over the next 12 to 24 months will be retaining and developing the best people, driving a simplified customer experience (CX) while reducing call volumes and costs, and building their digital care and advanced analytics ecosystems.
but customer care is also now a major opportunity for businesses. Done well—through a combination of tech and human touch—it is an area where companies can drive loyalty through a more personalized customer journey while unlocking greater productivity, increased revenue, improved job satisfaction, and real-time customer insights.
this article presents the key findings of the 2022 State of Customer Care Survey and how businesses are shifting priorities at this critical time.
Care Is at an Inflection Point
The survey findings indicate that customer care is at an inflection point. call volumes are higher and more complex than before, while companies find themselves struggling to find talent and train them to proficiency at pace.
As customer care increasingly moves online, the distinction between digital and live interactions has also begun to blur. organizations are looking for new capabilities that will enhance both the customer and employee experience in “moments that matter”—those interactions that may have previously happened face to face or have significant influence on overall CX.
Compared with results of the 2019 State of Customer Care Survey, customer care leaders are now more focused on improving CX, reducing contact volumes, deploying AI assistance, and increasing revenue generation on service calls.
The bottom line is that improving customer experience is the fastest -growing priority area for surveyed customer care leaders.
