Trends in Customer Service

I wrote earlier regarding trends in the POS industry. Most of these trends were with the technology of the product we provide. This is only one aspect of my industry.

Our business would be nothing without our customers. This influences how we develop our products and services. And when something goes wrong, our customers need technical and customer support help.

Customer service seems basic on the surface. It’s an expectation we have as consumers. Having worked in customer facing roles most of my life, I can say it is more of an art form and there are in fact evolutions in the trade due to changing technologies and customer expectations.

Technology is a huge driver to trends in customer service. Many companies now offer more than just phone and email support. Chat, text, and even social media support are growing quickly. To keep up, traditional call centres need to look for tools to adapt. Most of these come in the form of Contact Centre solutions. I am currently evaluating vendor options for my company—this experience has been incredible. Voice analytics that can be used to determine an angry customer or text scanning to identify urgent emails are just some of the unbelievable features available in some solutions.

I’ve recently noticed a high quantity of marketing emails from companies I follow regarding longer than usual wait times. This reminded me of some other trends:

8 Mega Customer Service Trends for 2016

In this article there are two trends that could possible impact customer wait times if you are caught unprepared with the right tools. There is an inherent conflict between the customers wanting faster support and a more personalized experience. Personalization can take time—it takes time to learn about a customer and build a rapport. In the typical support environment this can lead to longer calls, which then can lead to longer wait times if you do not have the resources to accommodate. Tools can also help this personalization trend—modern contact centre programs can pull up detailed information about a caller, allowing agents to quickly learn about the caller. If you do not have these tools, it will become increasingly difficult to keep up with these new demands in customer trends.

What does this mean for learning and development?

While many of these tools are more intuitive for the users, the introduction of new tools introduces new training needs and skills. Experience with these products will start to become an asset for recruiters. Training facilitators will need to keep up to date on these technological changes and product familiarity to help optimize business needs as they change.

The change in customer demands will also create a need for more soft skills training in relationship building, customer experience, and conflict management. This could also mean adopting new training techniques—coaching, role playing, and reflective practices—as traditional lecture and test methodology may not be effective for the soft skills.

Trends in the Point of Sale Industry

The first thing that came to mind when I read this week’s topic was “where do I start?”

First off, maybe a little background is necessary as Point of Sale (POS) may not be intuitive for some. A Point of Sale is basically a computer for retail or restaurants. While it does many things and often interacts with other technologies, at it’s basic it’s the thing employees in restaurant or retail enter in what you want to buy and tracks or processes the payment.

As it is a technical field, changes are frequent. Computer models change, operating systems get released or retired–there’s a constant stream of technological changes.

But this post cannot go on for day, so I will focus on two major developing areas: Mobile Technology and Payment Industry Security Standards.

Mobile Technologies

I’m sure you’ve been to a restaurant and been pleasantly surprised when you do not have to escort the server to some debit terminal connected to the wall by an old school phone cable. Or maybe you’re experience is opposite! Either way, there is a shift going on in the POS industry where businesses are demanding more mobile technology.

The above is just one example. Some businesses are moving away from standalone terminal solutions to tablets where servers can enter orders without going back to a station. These solutions often utilize wifi or 3g technology to communicate orders to the kitchen and process payment.

Another example of mobile technologies is mobile ordering. This type of technology allows customers to enter in orders, set a pick up time, pay for the item and beat the line when they go to pick it up. Here’s a video demonstrating this technology (the video is a few years old, but the technology is still alive and well!).

Similar to mobile ordering is the newest trend Kiosk ordering. While this technology is not exactly mobile, it allow customers to remotely order items from a different location and either pick it up or have it delivered to a particular table. Many business are looking to this technology to reduce labour costs, as the kiosk can do most of what a cashier does. Here’s another video demonstrating this technology:

 

Payment Card Industry Security Standards

One of the most pressing trends in the POS industry is Payment Card Industry Security Standards. Remember a few years ago when everyone needed to start using debit and credit cards that have a chip? That is the result of Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards (PCIDSS). These standards determine what practices–from encryption of data to who has access to it–are needed to prevent fraud and data breaches.

The standards are constantly changing. When I first started in this industry 10 years ago, it was barely discussed. Since then, there have been several liability shifts, changes in encryption levels, and the of course the physical card technology. It’s not a short process either. Only recently, have the majority of local businesses adopted chip technology. Currently, this shift is in motion in the US:

http://www.howtogeek.com/216571/chip-credit-cards-are-coming-to-the-usa-heres-what-you-need-to-know/

This article discusses the “liability shift” that occurred in the US last October. This means that any merchant that does not use chip enabled technology, can continue to accept payment, but they will be responsible for fraudulent purchase. The road to full compliance will take several years.

These PCIDSS standards often create a need for new technology. Going back to my example earlier of following a server to a debit machine earlier, chip transactions require a pin, which means the technology either needs to be mobile or the customer has to be physically present.

Talk about trends driving each other!