Anticipating, innovating, advising: the three trends shaping the future of customer relations
France has been seeing a genuine renaissance in the world of work over the last few years, with consequent disruption of practices and usages. In an ever tighter market remodelled by universalisation of telework, our relationship with work has changed: hybridity, flexibility and empowerment have all become priorities in most sectors – and the customer relations sector is no exception.
Although the customer experience is still the central focus, the employee experience has become a major concern: customers’ satisfaction is more than ever dependent on the satisfaction of the teams that assist them. Hence, the quality they produce, mainly as the result of their ability to follow procedures, has taken second place to the new star indicator: the quality perceived by the end customer. Such developments are symptomatic of a change in the overall mindset, which now assigns greater importance to experience “with a big X” and human aspects.
How do you adapt to these developments while reconciling business goals and optimisation of the employee experience?
To answer this question, Franck Berthier takes a closer look at three major trends that customer relations specialists will have to go along with in 2023 – and beyond.
- First and foremost, the employee experience
To begin with, we should be mindful of the fact that we’re right in the middle of transition years which, in some cases, have led to structural changes that would’ve been inconceivable a couple of years ago. Companies can no longer sideline the acceleration of hybrid work, the search for the right work-life balance or employees’ quest for meaning in their jobs.
Any idea of what the sector will look like in the future therefore depends on the answer to a key question: what format will need to be implemented in order to achieve the company’s and its partners’ goals while taking these new priorities into full account? More than ever before, all stakeholders will have to buckle down and adapt in concrete fashion: how can you develop hybrid work further? Integrate HR solutions in order to help develop skills? Create more human-sized entities? The time for action is now.
Optimisation of the employee experience will also have to involve re-examination of managerial procedures, front-line management in particular, in order to better meet new expectations. It will be a question here of transitioning from reactive to proactive, by anticipating requests, bringing meaning and conviction to activities, and establishing motivating, attainable objectives – always with the ultimate goal of aligning focuses: in order to have a satisfied customer, you must first of all work on your employees’ satisfaction.
- Technology at the service of the “augmented advisor”
Over the course of the last few years, customer relations have become a strategic factor in companies’ success and development. This evolution has given a boost to integration of solutions, activities and technologies that help meet quantity and quality requirements alike.
Account managers will therefore have to be better trained and more versatile if they are to respond to more complex contact patterns on a variety of channels. Although a number of digital solutions are now very well integrated, actors in customer relations must be constantly innovating and advising in order to provide tools that will give their customers real comparative advantages. In addition to their business contributions, such tools are also essential to advisors’ wellbeing at work, as they help facilitate and support customer interactions.
A close eye will therefore be kept on the development of AI in the years to come, along with data analysis and needs anticipation tools. According to a recent study by the SP2C, technological development, including digital technology, already accounts for 43.9% of turnover connected with diversification activities. These technological tools will be able to meet increasing quantitative requirements and the needs of new digital “pure players », while enabling the “augmented advisor” to focus more on the advice, empathy and emotion that are key to a relational experience’s quality.
- The advice function’s rise to power
The era of pure execution at the service of a customer is over. What with advice on development, integration of technologies, business strategy, communication and marketing, customer relations specialists must now possess a whole range of relevant, active skills in order to assist companies of all sizes.
Consequently, advisory aspects have come to the fore: it is now a matter of providing a strategic vision, optimising contacts, and having an analytical vision of the way customers operate. We can be certain that these characteristics will only become further entrenched in the future, as being a provider of advice naturally fosters personalisation of interactions and gives end customers the feeling that you have their requests well in hand.
As regards business strategies, such expert advice also enables development of more rounded partnerships and use of the customer relations ecosystem as a driver of growth. The ongoing development of the startup and scaleup market will continue to provide excellent opportunities for helping companies to reach their full potential, while giving advisors a chance to play a part in their projects.
