Trends in customer service for the coming year spotlight growing momentum in key areas that are changing not only the way service organizations interface with customers, but the way customers interface with each other. There are three major trends that every business and organization should be watching right now and reacting to in their customer service implementation for 2012.
One is providing device-specific customer support and online engagement to mobile users who are now connecting with businesses and organizations from their tablets and smart phones, rather than logging on via their PC. The growth of mobile devices has been explosive over the last few years, but the potential and need for mobile-specific customer service engagement and support services is just now being realized.
Consider this impressive statistic: According to Gartner research, in Q2/2011, 107.7 million smart phones were sold worldwide, marking a 16.5% increase in unit sales over the same quarter in 2010. Gartner research reveals an overall 74% growth rate through Q2/2011 year-over-year, with a total of 428.7 million sold during that period. This increase is noteworthy enough, but it illuminates the fact that smart phones are now outselling PCs, which saw a 2.3% increase in sales in Q2/2011, with 85.2 million units shipped. Read More
A recent study by the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth Center for Marketing Research shows that 100% of responding colleges and universities utilize social media (primarily Facebook and Twitter) for student recruiting, student communications, and alumni and public outreach. The higher education sector as a whole is proactively leading the way in communication and support on social media, even more so than most Fortune 500 companies.
