The tectonic shift to digital-first experiences has burdened the customer support teams with expedited processes. Around 185 million online shoppers were recorded in 2021 across India, which is likely to reach 425 million by 2027. The burgeoning number of online shoppers and delayed customer resolution incidents are also rising that impact a company’s responsiveness, accountability and ultimately its identity.
To address the number of complexities that customer support agents face, Kapture CX – a renowned SaaS-based Customer Experience platform has recently conducted a survey with customer support managers, TLs and department heads from across retail, consumer durables, travel and other industries. The survey report reveals how critical incidents affect a customer’s satisfaction and why automation could be a game-changer for organizations in creating disruptive customer experiences.
The customer service industry is continuing to grow at an unprecedented pace. With this, customer service agents face several routine challenges. According to the survey, 22% of agents find limited availability of customer support agents during peak periods as the major challenge for their team, while 34% of them feel that their team has inadequate tools or staffing levels to efficiently manage the incoming support tickets.
A lack of adequate tools and standardized processes can severely impact the customer’s interest in the organization. On the contrary, having an automated ticket management system can help to efficiently manage ticket prioritization, and allocation in peak times. Even low-priority tickets can be redirected to self-service systems, while high-priority tickets can be routed to the skilled agents.
Commenting on the potential of tech integration, Sheshgiri Kamath, CEO & Co-founder of Kapture CX said, “Customer support service is no longer a backseat role. With the emergence of online media, customers have become too vocal about their experiences, ergo organizations have started taking customer services more seriously. As a result, shifting to tech-based mechanisms can prove to be more instrumental in delivering improved customer service and retaining them in the longer run.”
The survey report also reveals 47% of customer support agents have an initial response time of 15 minutes, exceeding which leads to longer queues and poor customer service. Against the backdrop of this, an omnichannel ticketing system that can unify the tickets coming from multiple sources and show them in a single inbox can reduce the response time to a large extent.
The findings of the survey also suggest an average resolution time for the eCommerce sector is 4-8 hours and the teams that resolve tickets in 1-2 hours are highly satisfied with their customer experience scores.
Moreover, the accelerated technology integration in eCommerce processes requires sound data analytics for better customer query handling. The survey identifies only 2% of respondents actively collect and analyze customer feedback while 40% of them collect customer feedback but lack systematic data analysis and 8% of them do not collect customer feedback.
“In today’s digitally driven world, having a feedback management system is crucial in understanding and measuring the customer’s happiness metrics like NPS and CSAT,” he added.
Besides this, Kapture’s survey report also suggests a centralized knowledge base can significantly improve the quality of resolutions across the team as 48% of the customer support teams do not have a centralized knowledge base, while 17% have a knowledge base but it is not centralized to reach out customers at different touchpoints.
In 2023, being customer-first is vital for businesses. It boosts satisfaction, loyalty, and retention, differentiates from competitors, and drives growth through positive referrals. With the customer support software market expected to reach $58.1 billion by 2030 (CAGR of 21.1%), businesses are investing heavily to address customer needs.
