This article was originally published by Nicolas Apaire.
48% of companies consider providing an optimal customer experience to be a top priority and more than half measure customer satisfaction, according to Hubspot's annual report.
Users of customer relationship platforms are more demanding than ever and are making better and better use of the tools at their disposal to solve their problems, according to the annual report of HubSpot, a customer relationship software company.
Better informed (86% of customer service teams think that consumers have more knowledge than before (at 86%), more skeptical, consumers have more knowledge about how customer service works. This combination makes it more difficult to retain their loyalty. With the first bad experience, customers will quickly pick another option. The main concern of customer services is their company's vision of their own service: customer services consider that their company does not value them like they ought to. 31% of the teams think that their company sees customer service as an expense and not as an opportunity for the company's growth, a figure that is 2% higher than last year.
The HubSpot survey found a 4% increase in companies that provide customer satisfaction monitoring, and a similar increase in customer returns to their site. The NPS of companies is up 6%.
A general increase in customer service
Customer satisfaction monitoring is important to 61% of companies, compared to 57% in 2019. Monitoring of websites and posts on social media to track customer feedback is up by 4% from the previous year where it was barely 52%. The NPS (Net Promoter Score) monitoring shows the highest increase, from 17% to 23% in 2020.
Creating an optimal customer experience is the number one priority for customer services, according to 48% of customers. This priority is closely followed by customer loyalty, which is essential for 45% of customer services. Conversely, cost reduction and savings are the priority for 35% of the sector's services.
The FAQ is the second most emphasized tool, at 40%. CRM is cited by 32% of respondents, and tickets by 28%. CRM and live chat have increased by 36% this year, however the HubSpot study shows a decrease of 27% for CRM. CRM is considered as an efficient tool by 90% of respondents, but only 31% of customer services use it.
According to the results of the 2020 report, it is through customer satisfaction that the majority of after-sales services are evaluated. New sales represent only 33% of evaluations.
Finally, when asked "What job would you like to be doing in five years' time", 30% of respondents said that they would like to play a more important role in their organization, a figure that has remained stable since 2019 (30%). However, the survey also reveals a noticeable change: 26% of respondents want to join senior management or become a senior manager, compared to 19% the previous year. Only 10% of professionals in the sector no longer wish to work in a service company, compared to 15% in 2019. Finally, only 11% of employees in the sector want to change companies, down 1% (12%).