CUSTOMER SERVICE

Customer service execs say tech and process problems hinder progress

By our News Team | 2022

Close to half of execs reported that customers find their payment technology hard to use, while 40% said reporting and analysis is disjointed.

Customer service executives are facing challenges in achieving revenue results, with 95% saying there are technology or process challenges in their departments that are hindering success.

Notably, 43% said their customers find their payment technology hard to use, and 41% said reporting and analysis is disjointed.

This is according to the latest Chat Commerce Trends Report published by Clickatell, the international chat commerce company.

“Revenue-generating responsibilities of customer-service departments have significantly increased, while many of their technical capabilities have remained the same,” said Pieter de Villiers, Co-Founder and CEO at Clickatell.

Photo by Mikhail Nilov from Pexels

“With rising revenue expectations should also come the tools and investments that help customer-service departments meet them. Chat commerce, providing seamless and secure engagement and transactions, allows representatives to support customers along their entire path to purchase, while also encouraging the opportunity for increased sales.”

Customer service executives trust chat for sales and payments

Overwhelmingly, (96%) of customer service teams in these revenue-producing departments are responsible for taking payments from their customers, yet more than half still use antiquated processes – such as sending a bill or invoice (60%) or taking credit cards (53%).

According to the report, 97% of leaders agree customer service teams would benefit by using chat-to-pay technology and nearly half (48%) of organisations that don’t currently accept chat payments plan to do so in the future.

Additionally, 88% of leaders agree that using chat channels for payments will help meet revenue goals, while 97% said that chat payment investments pay for themselves.

WhatsApp, Google Chat and Facebook Messenger are the chat apps most used by customer service teams. Others that are popular include Instagram Chat, Apple Messages, WeChat and Telegram.

The survey findings also noted that email (30%) and chat apps (27%) are the most preferred channels for customer service agents, while phone calls (19%) are least preferred.

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