Customer service is undoubtedly a key player in any company’s customer experience (CX) program. It’s the necessary companion to a great product or service—in fact, 80% of customers say that the experience a company provides is as important as its products or services.
Given its significance, we conducted a global study to identify the latest customer service trends and best practices. Specifically, we looked at key industry trends for curating and optimizing customer feedback. This article recaps our findings.
The 5 customer service trends and best practices that caught our attention
- Case Closed CSAT is the most valued metric among service teams.
- Email is still a popular survey distribution channel, but text message is moving up the ranks.
- Most customer service teams are surveying customers within 24 hours of their interaction.
- The biggest challenge for customer service agents continues to be response rates.
- Most agents filter feedback by type of issue.
But first, here’s who participated in the study
Every industry out there has had a hand in the making of this report. We’ve uncovered new insight for retail, technology, banking, healthcare, manufacturing, nonprofit, and the list goes on.
Organizations from around the world contributed, from North America to Europe, Asia to Latin America—39 countries and 280 cities, to be exact.
Hundreds of companies, including large enterprises, small businesses, nonprofits, and government agencies, shared how they collect and utilize customer service feedback to make a long-lasting impact.
Now on to our top 5 findings.
1. Case Closed CSAT is the most valued metric among service teams
Over 50% of customer service folks prioritize case closed Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT) above all other metrics. According to our participants, Case Close CSAT carries the most weight in many organizations—it provides valuable customer feedback in real-time, it’s expected in most companies’ reports, and it’s used to measure agents’ performance.
Here is how the other popular metrics ranked in comparison.
2. Email is still a popular survey distribution channel, but text message is moving up the ranks
When asked about distribution channels, the majority of customer service agents reported using a link or button in an email (72%), followed by the method of one-touch email. However, the service industry recognizes the importance of needing to provide mobile-friendly surveys, given that 48% of its customers are responding via mobile devices. So, although text message surveys ranked 4th as a survey distribution channel, we foresee this trend moving upward in the following years.
Especially since mobile-friendly surveys are the 2nd most important feedback feature that customer service teams can’t live without, following CRM integration. See below.
3. Most customer service teams are surveying customers within 24 hours of their interaction
Specifically, 36% of customer service teams are surveying customers directly after an interaction. And 22% are asking for feedback within 24 hours of their customer interaction.
4. The biggest challenge for customer service agents continues to be response rates
Participants reported an average customer response rate of 42%. To tackle this challenge, the majority of customer service teams are keeping surveys short and concise (67%), as well as ensuring their surveys are mobile-friendly (33%) and ensuring their surveys are designed to align with their brand (31%).
5. Most agents filter feedback by type of issue
Service teams are filtering their feedback by type of issues, which is the ideal method—monitoring feedback by issue helps you identify sources of dissatisfaction before they become worse. 31% of service teams also filter feedback by agent, which is a good approach for managing the and rewarding individual success performance of each team member.
If you want to improve customer service at your organization, GetFeedback has a suite of tools to help you listen and act on insights from your customers. Get started with a free trial today.