The Future of Customer Service: From Personal, to Self, to Crowd Service

2. EVOLUTION IN CUSTOMER SERVICE: MORE SATISFIED CUSTOMERS AT A LOWER COST

3. Evolution in customer service: more satisfied customers at a lower cost To avoid overstretching, traditional companies must invest in digitization and in forging a personal (emotional) connection with the customer. Technology is opening up new possibilities in this regard but customers also like personal contact. This combination is shaping the future of customer service: a shift to self-service while still keeping things personal. Also, the service package is expanded by involving the customers themselves in the process. The customer-helps-customer philosophy (crowd service) enables companies to be more efficient and improve their service without losing sight of the human aspect. Fifty-five percent of consumers like the idea of other consumers helping them and 58% are prepared to help others.1 The customer is ready for crowd service. The corporate world is at full stretch. On the one hand companies must meet ever-growing expectations with regard to customer experience, while on the other hand there’s a need for economic efficiency. The ultimate challenge for the customer service of the future consists in offering improved customer service at a lower cost. In the years to come, every company will question its customer processes. Any sensible company will strive to create the ideal combination between efficiency and the perfect customer experience. Players who are only active online, such as Amazon. com and Booking.com, boast a highly efficient customer process. Even though their customers rarely come into contact with actual people they still provide a very satisfactory customer experience. Traditional companies have a history of a personal service burdened with a heavy cost structure. This paper was written based on my own research (in collaboration with SSI and translation partner No problem!), desk research and discussions with companies. This paper takes a closer look at new trends and evolutions in the field of customer service.

4. TRENDS THAT WILL INFLUENCE THE FUTURE OF CUSTOMER SERVICE

5. Trends that will influence the future of customer service Our society is evolving at breakneck speed and the mass consumer market is being flooded with new technologies. This changes consumer behavior and creates fresh opportunities for companies. At the moment, there are four trends with a major impact on customer service. These four trends emphasize the urgency for companies to place their own customer service under the microscope. billion dollars.6 A study by Jeremiah Owyang 7 shows that consumers would rather do business with companies from the crowd economy than with the traditional players in the market. For instance, customer satisfaction with AirBnB is much higher than with classic hotel chains like Hilton. This trend is a great customer service opportunity. People like working together and consumers like to help each other. The future of customer service is a future of working with the customer. • MOBILE  Since Q2 2013, American adults have been spending more time on their mobile phones than watching TV.2 Since mid-2013, more than 1.5 billion smartphones are in use worldwide.3 The future is mobile. Consumers can contact companies with their questions anywhere in the world, round the clock. The next few years will see a continued expansion of mobile applications such as Google Glass, Apple iWatch, etc. Consumers will no longer automatically run to their telephones or computers in case of problems or questions. Instead, their initial reflex will be to grab their mobile. Also, they will expect the problem to be solved instantly. The future of customer service is mobile. • CUT-THROAT COMPETITION  the economic crisis and digitization have made for much fiercer competition. The average stay in the Fortune 500 has dwindled from 65 years (1920-1950) to just fifteen (2000-2013). In our fast-evolving world, the names of the top players change more rapidly than before. As a matter of fact, many companies find themselves competing with a “free” rival. For instance, every newspaper is damaged by free online content. There are two models for dealing with this situation: in the first model, customer centricity is fully automated, thereby minimizing the amount of human contact. In turn, this alleviates the pressure on margins but the chances of building an emotional rapport with the customer are small. The second model promotes the combination of digitization with a human touch. A pure online player like Coolblue is able to give its company a human face by having employees feature in YouTube videos. Their offline shops also add another human dimension. People enjoy human contact, even in an increasingly digitized society. The second model also increases the likelihood of an emotional bond, which inspires greater customer loyalty. The future of customer service is digitization but with a human touch. • UNREALISTIC CUSTOMER EXPECTATIONS customers find every aspect of customer service important.4 They want speed, amiability, a solution in a single interaction, the integration of different service channels... For the average company, meeting customer expectations has become an all but impossible proposition. Besides, the traditional approach is too expensive to be able to meet expectations. The only way of doing so is through self-service. Self-service is fast, always available and solves the problem in a single interaction. Seventy percent of customers expect a self-service solution. In the late nineties, customers hated completing bank transfers via the computer; not offering this option today is a competitive disadvantage. The future of customer service is self-service. • THE CROWD ECONOMY consumers do business with each other more and more often. According to The Economist, the crowd economy or sharing economy as it is also known, currently represents a $ 26 billion industry.5 MIT expects significant market growth: in the near future, this economy may be worth as much as 110

6. CUSTOMER SERVICE SHIFTS ITS FOCUS

7. Customer service shifts its focus The focus in customer service will evolve in the years to come. For every company out there, it is important to take the lead in this evolution. Its goal: more satisfied customers at a lower cost. A study by McKinsey has revealed a key difference in efficiency between personal service, self-service and crowd service. If the cost of personal service is 100% then the cost of self-service amounts to 12% and crowd service to 9%,8 so there’s a huge discrepancy there. ADVANTAGES OF SELF-SERVICE AND CROWD SERVICE FUTURE DEVELOPMENTS IN THE FIELD OF PERSONAL, SELF AND CROWD SERVICE Apart from efficiency, self-service and crowd service have additional advantages to offer. Additional advantages of self-service: • The relationship between the different service types will undergo some changes in the years to come. Consumers expect more self-service and are receptive to crowd service. Moreover, both approaches are more efficient than personal service. This means that a shift from personal service to self and crowd service will result in better service at a lower cost. • In the first few years, self-service will gain importance before crowd service does. Many companies have already invested in self-service (e.g. the financial world, travel sector...). For now, investments in crowd service are more modest. • In a second phase, though, crowd service will catch up. The crowd economy will keep growing and this will make the transition to crowd service easier than it is right now. • Of course, personal service won’t disappear altogether but its importance will diminish over time. Personal service will continue to act as a kind of safety net. The need for a personalized solution will continue to exist in those cases where self or crowd service fail to provide the answer. Companies like booking.com, a pure online player, are already focusing on self-service (consumer takes care of bookings and modifications) and crowd service (questions about hotels are answered by other consumers). Nevertheless the company still has a large call center to assist customers personally if self and crowd service are not enough. • Available 24/7 and year-round: the customer has access to customer service on a permanent basis. • Self-service solutions for mobile devices are easy to design. • As self-service is digital, it is easier for companies to keep records of the interactions than with offline contact. Additional advantages of crowd service: • Crowd service makes it possible to offer a broader range of services. When consumers ask questions about the product category, it is often too expensive for organizations to answer those questions themselves. When the input on non-core questions comes from other consumers, the cost is very limited. • Consumers taking part in a crowd service program feel like they are part of the company. They often become brand ambassadors and this creates an indirect marketing effect. • Crowd service is a type of personal service. Customers communicate with others (other customers). In other words, this is personal interaction, which builds more of an emotional bond. This table gives an indication as to how the focus in customer service may shift in the coming years. Personal Service 75% 50% 20% Self-Service 20% 30% 40% Crowd Service 5% 20% 40% 2000-2010 2011-2016 2017-2020

8. TWO KEY WORDS: INTEGRATION AND MOBILE

9. Two key words: integration and mobile Customer expectations are sky high. The challenge lies in offering an improved customer experience in a cost-efficient way. The evolution from personal to self and crowd service is the way to go. Two ingredients are crucial to the success of this evolution: DATA INTEGRATION Even though the focus in customer service is shifting from personal to digital service, the personal channel still exists. Customer service is becoming more of a multichannel affair than before. Data centralization is a priority in the elaboration of the channel strategy. Consumers expect companies to centralize and keep track of all their interactions. Customers don’t like to repeat themselves. Organizing the new service channels in the manner of silos is far from ideal. THE CONVERSION TO MOBILE Mobile customer service is essential in a mobile world. By 2016, more than half of all customer service questions will be submitted via a mobile device.9 Organizations would do well to mold their self-service solutions entirely on mobile.

10. PREPARING FOR THE CUSTOMER SERVICE OF TOMORROW STARTS TODAY

11. Preparing for the customer service of tomorrow starts today Less than one in two companies realize the urgency of devising a customer service policy for the future.10 Given the rate of change, the time to elaborate a plan of approach is now. ANALYSIS OF THE CURRENT APPROACH First you need to get in front of the mirror and evaluate your current customer service approach. Evaluate how much effort is being put into personal, self and crowd service. Next, determine to what extent data integration and mobile are part of the current approach. STRATEGY AND OBJECTIVE FOR EACH OF THE THREE PILLARS Next, decide what is possible for the three types of service and determine how they should evolve over the next few years. Every business puts different demands on service and every company has its own corporate culture. Set your goals and develop your vision in a way that suits the organization’s unique character. ROADMAP AND BUSINESS CASE Fine-tuning your vision is followed by drawing up a concrete implementation plan. A vision is worthless without proper implementation. Since most companies are at full stretch (need for improved efficiency combined with an investment in customer centricity), business cases for each of the projects are an absolute necessity. Defining the customer service of the future rests on two pillars: an enhanced customer experience with a smaller budget. START SMALL: BULLETS BEFORE GRENADES This type of strategy easily grows out of proportion so try to take small individual steps .Start small and only go full throttle once the experiment has proved its usefulness. Provide sufficient room to experiment with new service concepts. Starting small also makes it easier to abandon an approach that doesn’t work.

12. CONCLUSION: THE FUTURE OF CUSTOMER SERVICE STARTS TODAY

13. Customer relations are changing. The digitization of society is creating new opportunities for companies to optimize their relationship with their customers. Nevertheless, the rate of change continues to accelerate. Today, if an organization fails to question its own approach or doesn’t know where it’s going with its customer service, then it is bound to come under threat in the relatively short term. THE FUTURE OF CUSTOMER SERVICE STARTS TODAY! Brainstorming about the changing role of personal, self and crowd service is a priority to any organization.

14. THREE STRONG SELF-SERVICE CASES More and more companies are investing in self-service. The pure online players have done an excellent job of elaborating and fine-tuning the concept. They came up with the idea out of necessity: when they started out, these companies were simply too small to install a personalized customer service. An efficient self-service channel was their only option to develop a good customer relationship. Banks were also among the early adopters of the idea. Online banking was one of the main activities of the early internet surfers. Banks introduced this application purely from an efficiency point of view. Today, customers expect them to provide this service. Companies from various sectors experiment with or make a living from self-service. The three examples below couldn’t be further apart: an offline retailer, a pure online player and a financial giant. Still, all three have integrated self-service into their customer service strategy.

15. ANYTIME FITNESS is automated and this also goes for the changing of bookings. In case of unexpected changes, Booking.com staff will sometimes call customers. In many cases these are proactive outbound calls to inform customers of changes made to a booking. Incidentally, the self-service process works perfectly on mobile devices. Mobile bookings went from 1 billion in 2012 to 3 billion in 2013.11 Data integration is obviously available. The different channels are interconnected so the complete customer history stays available. Anytime Fitness is the world’s fastest-growing fitness chain. In a saturated market, this company still manages to make a difference. They’re open round the clock. An electronic security system provides 24hr access. The company obviously has personal trainers on staff but there is also a self-service solution. Customers can take video lessons 24 hours a day. The personal trainers have recorded instruction videos of a broad range of training sessions. Apart from the self-service option (in an offline retail channel), Anytime Fitness also has a site with nutritional and training advice for the individual customer. This enables customers to continue their health plans at home thanks to their fitness club. This self-service application is free for members but is also available for non-members in return for a monthly fee. RABOBANK: NEW MORTGAGE SYSTEM Rabobank Nederland invests in self-service. As a financial player Rabobank already has lots of experience in this subject area, but in the coming years they want to take it one step further with their new digital mortgage system. Customers who wish to take out a mortgage can now compile their own customer file. Five years ago, no bank could envision customers ever using online banking for anything other than basic transactions. Today, a large percentage of customers are apparently receptive to this self-service approach. Without going into detail, Rabobank was surprised at how many of its customers prefer this approach. The digital service comes with a personal backup system: they can ask an employee of a local branch for assistance. BOOKING.COM Booking.com is a daughter of Priceline. com, which has ranked among the world’s fastest-growing companies for a number of years now. The company masters the art of offering an excellent self-service with a personal safety net to fall back on if necessary. The entire purchase process

16. THREE STRONG CROWD-SERVICE CASES Crowdsourcing and consumer collaboration are marketing buzzwords but the whole system is still in its infancy. Most co-creation experiments are really PR campaigns rather than examples of actual consumer involvement. At the university of customer collaboration, the corporate world is just a freshman. Outsourcing (part of) your customer service to customers is obviously a drastic evolution. By taking this step, you’re really implying that customers have at least the same amount of product knowledge as the manufacturer. The IT world was the first to make tentative strides in crowd service with organically constructed forums where ICT enthusiasts lend each other a helping hand. Today, the technological sector is still the most fertile ground for crowd service.

17. GIFFGAFF CUSTOMER SUPPORT answer the questions they have personal experience with. Ninety percent of the community members are readers. They are just trying to find the answer to their queries. Crowd service only works when the super users are actively involved in a community. The presence of that one percent attracts the 90% of readers, which sparks the efficiency surge that companies are counting on. Giffgaff is a ‘SIM card only’ telecom player in the UK. The customer service is entirely in the hands of their community members. All members are customers. The more active BARCLAY CARD their support for other customers, the bigger the rewards. There is no safety net and Giffgaff has no call center. In other words, the entire customer service consists of crowd service. In 2010, no fewer than 130,000 queries were posted on their forum and these questions elicited more than 1 million replies. 95% of all questions were answered within the hour. The average response time is three minutes. Barclay Card is a credit card built around a strong user community. On the one hand, Barclay’s online community helps the company brainstorm about the future of the product while on the other it acts as a crowd service platform. Customers discuss various financial topics and help each other with small operational questions about the credit card. The results are astounding. Customer retention is up 25%. The number of questions and complaints via traditional customer service channels dropped by 50%.13 Barclay Card puts the total return at 10 million dollars. VERIZON Telecom player Verizon uses a customer- helps-customer forum in support of their other service channels. The ratio on their forum is 1-9-90.12 One percent of their users are so-called super users. They spend between 20 to 30 hours a week on the forum helping others. These super users are not rewarded financially; instead they are rewarded with a digital status. They earn recognition instead of money. Nine percent of users frequently answer questions by other users. They don’t spend that much time on the forum but they do

18. About the author: Steven Van Belleghem Steven is one of Europe’s thought leaders in the field of social media, conversations and digital marketing. His entire career, Steven has studied the influence of digital and social media on consumers and organizations. With this knowledge he inspires and facilitates companies to adapt their current way of working towards the new world we live in. His latest book, The Conversation Company, offers a clear philosophy and roadmap on how to become a true customer centric organization that uses the possibilities of digital media to its full extent. His previous book, The Conversation Manager is seen as a reference guide to adapt your communication strategy from a 1-way to a 2-way conversational approach. In 2010, the book won the Marketing Innovation in Literature award. Steven can be hired to give motivational keynote speeches (both in-company and conference presentations), strategic workshops, management coaching and to provide strategic advice about social media and conversation management. Next to his advisory work and being an author, Steven is a part time marketing professor at the Vlerick Business School, where he teaches interactive marketing in the Masters in Marketing program. In addition he is also very invested in executive teaching (mainly about social media). Before starting B-Conversational, Steven was a managing partner at InSites Consulting, one of the most innovative market research companies in the world. No other agency has won more industry awards (by Esomar). During his 11 years at InSites, he was instrumental in growing the company from a 10 people start-up to an international leading company with 120 employees and branches in 5 countries.

19. FEEDBACK? QUESTIONS? Please don’t hesitate to contact the author of this paper, Steven Van Belleghem. Steven@VanBelleghem.Biz @StevenVBe linkedin.com/in/stevenvanbelleghem facebook.com/theconversationmanager Prof Steven Van Belleghem | www.stevenvanbelleghem.com

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