What do customers expect from customer service?

With consumer behavior changing rapidly, businesses must understand and stay on top of customer expectations. But what do customers expect from customer service?

Decades ago, customers expected the proprietor of their local store to help them choose the right product or assist them with a purchase. As the landscape has changed, so have customers’ expectations.

Here we’re discussing what customers expect from customer service in this day and age.

What is customer service and customer care?

Customer service and customer care are two terms that are often used interchangeably, but they don’t mean the same thing. Customer service is about providing advice and assistance to your customers. Customer care is about how well your customers are taken care of by the company.

Customer service is linked to customer satisfaction and can be provided in a number of ways. For example, it could be advising a customer on the most suitable product or service for their needs or assisting them if the product doesn’t work as expected.

What do customers expect from customer service?

1. Several contact options

Allowing customers to contact you via their preferred method is a critical first step in communicating effectively with customers and meeting their expectations.

2. Fast Response Times

Customers don’t like waiting to hear back from your company’s customer support team. That’s why your first response time (FRT), the time elapsed between a customer raising a concern and a customer support agent responding, should be as short as possible.

Your average FRT is directly correlated to customer satisfaction (CSAT). This will vary from one contact channel to another. For example, 53% of customers expect to receive a reply to a tweet within one hour. If the content of the tweet is a complaint, this number jumps to 72% of customers.

Generally speaking, your response times should be in line with benchmarks established for each contact channel as follows:

  • 24 hours for emails and support tickets
  • Six hours or less on Facebook
  • One hour or less on Twitter
  • Two minutes or less for live chat support
  • Three minutes or less for phone support

3. Ease of access

What do customers expect from customer service? In addition to multiple contact options and fast response times, customers want to speak with an agent easily. Self-help menus can be confusing to navigate if set up incorrectly, and most of the time, customers want to speak with and receive assistance from a real person.

That being said, it’s best to keep the options on a self-help menu to a minimum to avoid creating confusion. Accessing a customer support agent should be easy and straightforward without unnecessary steps or subroutes that only frustrate your customers.

Time to step up your customer service game

Businesses must focus on providing service that meets customers' expectations. That’s why you should consider whether you should implement a customer engagement center versus a contact center. Using the right contact center solution can help your company provide a more comprehensive experience to customers while helping agents collaborate and work more effectively.

Find out how 8x8's cloud contact center can help you deliver enhanced omnichannel customer service, eliminate app confusion and support productivity.