Here’s How the Digital Age Affects Customer Experience

A new brief released by Forrester Research examines changing customer expectations in the digital age, urging companies to not only be aware of these expectations but also adopt customer service technologies to “deliver outstanding customer experiences“. The brief advocates adopting web self-service technologies for both customers and contact center agents, and notes that in 2014, “more US online consumers used web self-service than any other interaction channel for customer service.”   The brief, ‘Focus On Three New Service Experiences To Thrive In The Age Of The Digital Customer: Social, Proactive, And Embedded Customer Service Builds Intimacy With The New Breed Of Consumers’ is available for a free download by filling out the form below. Forrester Senior Analyst Ian Jacobs, who authored the report along with Stephen Powers  Danielle Geoffroy, summarizes the brief:

“A new generation of customers doesn’t seem to remember details of service processes. They have begun to prefer self-service versus speaking with contact center agents and now look to companies to act as the coordinator of their customer service experiences. The modern customer prefers to learn where to find information, rather than actually memorizing it. This report details why these digital-focused customers think and behave differently than preceding generations and what AD&D pros should look for in customer service technologies to deliver outstanding customer experiences to this new breed of customer.”

Forrester profiles WalkMe in the brief, noting that proactive, contextual and direct guidance like WalkMe’s solution helps both customers and customer service agents to more easily perform key online processes. The brief states that Forrester believes contact center professionals should empower their agents by deploying technology that provides agents more direct guidance while continuing that “[c]ustomers unwilling to remember complex processes would also benefit from guided customer service experiences.” Companies “can reduce both customer and agent frustration by providing agents automated walkthrus such as the WalkMe technology…A chat agent could simply send the customer a link that initiates the self-service walkthrough and then either end the chat or monitors the customer’s progress while also serving other customers.”