Customer Support: Can You Keep Up?

As we’ve wrapped up 2016, and look forward to the year ahead, I’m reminded of the popular Bob Dylan lyrics, “the times they are a-changin”. The same is true in the world of support. Customer needs and wants are continuing to evolve by the day and support teams are challenged to keep up. These constant changes are impacting companies in all sectors and industries- both in B2C and B2B.

In a recent webinar we held with the Technology Services Industry Association (TSIA), we referred to this change as the “Consumerization of B2B Support”. As consumers have higher expectations of the products and services they use personally, they’re beginning to set the same expectations for the products and services they use professionally. The biggest drivers of change identified by TSIA within remote support are:

Mobility – With the proliferation of smartphones and tablets, customers and employees are always on the go. To keep up, organizations need to invest in support technology that enables mobile and omni-channel support so they can service employees wherever they are, whenever they need.

Evolving Channel Preferences & Emphasis on Self-Service – As customers become more mobile, their channel preferences are shifting. Nearly 90% of customers try to solve problems on their own, turning to Google to search for self-service tips or online customer forums. Customers want to be in control of the support conversation. If they can’t find a solution on their own, they look to live chat for immediate problem resolution but on their own terms (time, place, convenience). To keep up, organizations need to offer seamless transitions from unassisted to assisted support.

Remote Workers – Companies are hard-pressed to reduce operating expenditures especially as it relates to employee and customer support. In efforts to reduce overhead, more and more support teams are beginning to work remotely. To keep up, and continue to deliver effective and efficient remote support, organizations need to employ tools that allow for collaboration and knowledge sharing across their support teams.

As we continue to address these top trends, we are confident that LogMeIn solutions are purpose-built to support customers’ changing needs. LogMeIn Rescue makes it easy to provide omni-channel support with rich mobile and in-app capabilities. If you don’t currently have a chat solution, check out BoldChat. And for remote collaboration and knowledge sharing, we rely on join.me.

To get the full list of 2017 trends identified by TSIA watch our on-demand webinar.