THE FUTURE OF CUSTOMER SERVICE:Insights for the Best Customer Service Teams in the Galaxy

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If we’ve learned one thing from years of working closely with call centers, in-house support

teams, and one-man shows alike, it’s that an amazing customer experience is notably easy

to champion and remarkably hard to deliver.

Customer service is changing rapidly. Rather than simply following formulas, reps must

be in the business of creatively solving customer problems. The modern customer service

rep doesn’t succeed by reading from a script—they succeed by wholeheartedly and

empathically caring about their customers.

Lessonly exists to help customer service teams learn, practice, and perform like never

before, and that’s why we created this ebook. With the input of eight battle-tested industry

veterans, we explore the future of customer service and consider how forward-thinking

teams can deliver amazing customer experiences in 2018—and beyond. We hope it

inspires your team to do better work.

ON STELLAR CUSTOMER SERVICE

—Max CEO and Co-founder, Lessonly

TRENDS OF THE FUTURE06

10 BRACE FOR IMPACT

TOOLS FOR THE VOYAGE14

17 QUALITIES OF ALL-STAR REPS

23 OUT-OF-THIS-WORLD TEAMS

MEET THE CREW04

“If you look back in time, we’ve been on the same trajectory for a while. Companies are always looking for

ways to serve customers faster, cheaper, and better.”

Jeff Toister

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BEN COLLET Director of Global Advocacy, Enterprise & Strategic Accounts | Zendesk | zendesk.com

Ben has spent 20 years in the world of technical support and customer service. He has led corporate support teams at Compaq, Gateway, and Teleperformance USA. In 2011, he entered the SaaS industry by joining Zendesk, which builds software for better customer relationships.

MEET THE CREW

The best advice comes from

experience, so we gathered

a crew of seasoned customer

service experts:

MIKE AOKI President Reflective Keynotes | reflectivekeynotes.com

Mike serves on the Advisory Council of GTACC (the Greater Toronto Area Contact Centre Association) and was Master of Ceremonies for five of their annual conferences. He has also been named to ICMI’s “Top 50 Customer Service Thought Leaders on Twitter” for the past four consecutive years.

JEANNE BLISS President CustomerBliss | customerbliss.com

Jeanne pioneered the Chief Customer Officer role, holding the first ever CCO positions at Microsoft, Allstate Corporations, and more. A sought-after speaker and thought leader, she’s also the author of three best-selling books and co-founder of the Customer Experience Professionals Association.

BRIAN COSTANZO CEO/President SOCAP International | socap.org

Brian leverages his 25 years of hospitality and entrepreneurial experience to provide an exceptional journey to the members of SOCAP International, the leading community for customer care and engagement professionals. He’s also a Certified Association Executive (CAE) and President of his local Recreation Association.

JEFF TOISTER Author, Founder Toister Performance Solutions, Inc., | toistersolutions.com

Jeff is the best-selling author of The Service Culture Handbook: A Step-by-Step Guide to Getting Your Employees Obsessed with Customer Service. More than 140,000 people worldwide have taken at least one of his courses on LinkedIn Learning (a.k.a. Lynda.com).

TROY MILLS CEO/Founder Customer Care Advisory | customercareadvisory.com

Troy has extensive experience in the operations and customer care arenas, having been Divisional VP, Customer Care Operations at Walgreens; VP, Global Operations for GE Capital; and more. He also serves as the Chief Academic Officer at CCW University.

HUI WU-CURTIS GM, Customer Service Operations & Strategy Arizona Public Services | aps.com

Hui has 20 years of operational leadership experience, predominantly in contact centers across multiple industries including hospitality, utility, financial services, telecommunications, and healthcare. Her primary focus is identifying opportunities both strategically and tactically.

STEVE DIGIOIA Trainer, Coach, Author, & Speaker stevedigioia.com

Steve uses his 20+ years of experience in the hospitality industry to help companies and their employees improve service, increase morale, and delight customers. Steve also shares his expertise on his blog, “Finding Ways to WOW your Customer.”

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TRENDS OF THE FUTUREAstronomically successful customer

service teams are always learning and

practicing—and they’re also looking

towards the horizon for insights that

will help their agents perform at the

highest level. Here are the top trends

that will impact the customer service

universe in 2018.

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“The majority of the market is still digitizing support efforts and finding a rhythm across digital channels as they scale operations. To overcome the challenges of a highly-integrated customer experience, it’s going to be all about automation and machine learning.”

— Ben Collet

“The biggest trend is the evolution of chatbots. Companies can use text or voice recognition software to answer simple customer questions. The impact is “easy” Tier-1 questions (that used to be outsourced to third party contact centers) can now be handled by chatbots.”

— Mike Aoki

“We are going to continue to see initial AI self-service applications grow in popularity as well as in complexity of the tasks they are supporting.”

— Troy Mills

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“From an operational perspective, the hot trend will be how we interplay technology and people with the goal of addressing the changing demands of our workforce to provide more complex servicing and support to customers.”

— Hui Wu-Curtis

The most important thing you can do as a service professional is listen to your customers and be sure your leadership team is listening as well. That feedback is needed to build the strategy and to help guide discussions on customers and technology.”

— Brian Costanzo

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“Customer service teams need to establish a blend between high tech and high touch. The enthusiasm and pendulum swinging to chat, AI, and more is healthy, but companies need to get this in the right order and do it for the right reason—which is high tech to enable high touch and relevant customer experiences.”

— Jeanne Bliss

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BRACE FOR IMPACTIn the long run, these trends will

radically change the customer service

industry. Here are some of the seismic

shifts that every customer service

leader should consider for the coming

years—and beyond.

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“Agents will need more emotional intelligence and a higher skill level to handle more challenging interactions. It will also require a higher pay scale to recruit and retain such talented front-line staff.”

— Mike Aoki

“Companies that differentiate themselves through service will do three things: They’ll always make it easy for customers to receive service, they’ll provide better products that eliminate or reduce the need for support, and they’ll create positive service experiences with authentic and emotional connections.”

— Jeff Toister

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“Customer service and support have been run in much of the same way over the last 30 years. Look at how the typical organization approaches quality assurance and KPIs—that hasn’t changed despite evolving market conditions, consumers, and technology. Customer service leaders must rethink these operating models to find more business value for the organization.”

— Hui Wu-Curtis

“Customers purchase from companies that they trust and value. To stay relevant to customers and the industry, companies must be sure they have strong values that they live out and put at the forefront of their interactions.”

— Brian Costanzo

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“We’ll continue to see an expansion of user communities and crowd-sourcing support teams that augment support services for greater customization.”

— Troy Mills

“Customer service teams will need to think in terms of value instead of costs. There are tangible, revenue-based opportunities that will also deepen relationships with customers. The modern customer experience and expectation will focus on a harmony between product and customer service that benefits and brings value to everyone.”

— Ben Collet

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TOOLS FOR THE VOYAGEThe rapid pace of technological

change has dusted the industry with

numerous tools and applications to

help customer service teams do better

work. Here are a few things to consider

before integrating these tools into a

customer experience mission:

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“Technology has changed every industry—usually for the better. In the case of customer service, technology has made shopping quicker and more convenient. It’s also empowered the consumer to measure one product against another until they find the best option. But, technology can also remove the human touch that is the basis of great service.”

— Steve DiGioia

“Tech in customer service is driving integrated and personalized service for customers. It also allows teams to continuously and rapidly improve. These innovations should reduce customer effort by creating greater self-service resolutions. However, it will be detrimental for companies that try to leverage technology to reduce costs at the expense of the customer experience.”

— Troy Mills

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“Technology solutions must find a mutually-beneficial space in service and support while providing consumers with convenience, ease, choices, and reliability. While technology can scale and augment the customer experience, the moment it fails or fails to deliver on expectations, it creates the opposite effect.”

— Hui Wu-Curtis

“Tools such as machine learning make so much more personalization possible. It enables us to capture business intelligence without interfering with the customer experience. But, you have to be careful that you don’t lose the people factor. As advantageous as tech can be, you have to measure it and incorporate it into the human-driven experience.”

— Ben Collet

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QUALITIES OF ALL-STAR REPSThe customer service reps of the

future need new skills to address

new challenges. With increases

in interactions and more complex

customer needs, cultivate these

traits to help your service reps

soar to new heights.

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“It’s important for reps to understand the impact of their decisions and their commentary.”

—Troy Mills

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“Customer service reps need to know their company’s products, services, policies, and procedures. Your customer is contacting you because they need an expert’s help.”

— Jeff Toister

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“If you can speak to the customer and empathize with them, the conversation will be that much easier as you’ll be able to truly understand the customer’s needs.”

— Ben Collet

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“Reps need to feel assured that they are trusted and have the appropriate power to act and solve a problem.”

— Jeanne Bliss

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“Undoubtedly, a great rep needs compassion to understand the customer on the phone or online is an actual person—not just a point of sale or a ‘time-limited’ call to rush off the phone.”

— Steve DiGioia

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WANT AN OUT-OF-THIS-WORLD CUSTOMER SERVICE TEAM?To avoid getting lost in a black hole,

customer service leaders, managers,

and trainers should focus on:

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TRAINING & DEVELOPMENT

“If you want omni-channel agents, train them on both written and verbal customer service skills. This includes retraining veteran agents.”

—Mike A.

VISION

“Customer service leaders need to get teams on the same page when it comes to outstanding service. This means creating a shared definition of service—a customer service vision. The best visions have three characteristics: They’re easy to understand, customer-centric, and authentic.”

—Jeff T.

TRAINING & DEVELOPMENT

“If you want omni-channel agents, train them on both written and verbal customer service skills. This includes retraining veteran agents.”

—Mike A.

VISION

“Customer service leaders need to get teams on the same page when it comes to outstanding service. This means creating a shared definition of service—a customer service vision. The best visions have three characteristics: They’re easy to understand, customer-centric, and authentic.”

—Jeff T.

TRAINING & DEVELOPMENT

“If you want omni-channel agents, train them on both written and verbal customer service skills. This includes retraining veteran agents.”

— Mike Aoki

VISION

“Customer service leaders need to get teams on the same page when it comes to outstanding service. This means creating a shared definition of service—a customer service vision. The best visions have three characteristics: They’re easy to understand, customer-centric, and authentic.”

— Jeff Toister

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CHANGE AT SCALE

“Customer service teams will need to be more fluid, agile, adaptable, and quick to market. Customers are demanding more and changing at a pace much faster than support organizations can evolve or adapt.”

— Hui Wu-Curtis

LEADERSHIP

“A successful team should receive constant reinforcement of practices and procedures from their leaders.”

— Steve DiGioia

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Learn More

hello@lessonly.com | 407 Fulton St. Indianapolis, IN 46202 | (317) 469 - 9194IL

Serve Customers FasterIncrease team productivity with content

about new products, updated services,

and best practices. Deliver knowledge in

bite-sized, modern lessons that bring reps

up-to-speed faster and keep them sharp.

Elevate the Customer ExperienceMeasure the impact of learning and propel

reps toward superior interactions. Combine

training with metrics, including first call

resolution rates and CSAT scores, in order

to quantify the return on rep investment.

Drive Consistent ServiceThe best customer service teams improve

their skills through dedicated practice.

Tools like Video Response enable reps to

practice their skills and ensure consistent

customer service in every interaction.

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