5 Ways COVID-19 Has Changed Customer Expectations

Experts from the customer service center industry have highlighted that customers expected more from call centers during the COVID-19 pandemic. Also, they have noticed that there have been changes in customer expectations that are here to stay.

But what does this mean exactly?

Users have always had high expectations that the agents of a contact center can resolve their query in the shortest possible time and on the first call. This is why many companies protect the customer experience by designing tiered and specialized customer service teams so that more complex requests can be resolved quickly.

To discover how customer expectations have changed during COVID-19, a specialized consultancy has surveyed 300 call center managers from various industries in the United States and the United Kingdom.

5 Ways COVID-19 Has Changed Customer Expectations

1) 63% of managers in the US believe that clients expect contact centers to offer multiple communication channels, and 53% of them highlight videoconferencing.

Before the pandemic, many companies already offered multiple communication channels (phone, email, live chat, etc.) to users who needed assistance. That change was already happening and, in many cases, those new channels were already in operation although the customers did not use them as a priority.

COVID-19 prompted call centers to look for new ways to further squeeze productivity out of every minute of the day. So they started looking for the fastest and most efficient way to solve customer problems, and that solution was often a new customer service communication channel for them, like live chat or video conferencing. Finally, they began to experiment with new communication channels, and found that users used them frequently. Videoconferencing, for example, is a great example of a channel massively impacted by the pandemic.

Now that so many people use video conferencing, it’s easy to imagine a not-too-distant future where users expect, even demand, the option of seeing, not just listening, the customer service agents who assist them.

2) 62% of American managers say customers expect agents to have more emotional empathy in their interactions, both during and after the pandemic.

Living a collective and generalized experience like a pandemic tends to unite humanity. Reactivate and replenish deep innate empathy for all of us. As a result, it also increases the amount of empathy we expect from those we ask to help us in some way, such as customer service agents.

During the pandemic, according to the survey, it was found that there has also been an increase in customer empathy towards customer service agents. Users are proving to be more patient and understanding of delays.

3) 57% of managers in the United States believe that customers have a greater need to “feel heard” by agents.

Although customers have always had high expectations for being actively listened to, the strange and never-before-seen combination of factors they have dealt with in the past 3 to 4 months (dealing with a pandemic, working from home, educating children at home, etc.) has created an emotionally charged environment, where users, exhausted and with little time, cannot repeatedly communicate their needs.

They want a customer service agent who “understands” them, someone who can quickly understand the problem and come to a resolution that the customer finds satisfactory.

4) 54% of North American managers believe that clients expect agents to help them with more complex queries and questions.

Organizations have helped create this expectation by forcing customers to communicate through a single channel of support, such as phone or email, during the pandemic. But, since few agents can assume the role of “expert agent” who can answer almost any question that is presented to them, many call centers found it difficult to guarantee the most experienced and / or technical resources needed to resolve queries and more complex questions.

To meet this expectation, customer service centers need to provide all agents with the best tools and techniques to assess the most complex situations and train them to answer difficult questions on their own whenever possible.

5) 51% of managers in the US believe that the customer service experience affects brand loyalty more than ever.

This loyalty is usually answered with a simple question: How good has your last customer service experience been with that company?

This means that a company has the opportunity to “restore” brand loyalty every time a user interacts with it. The company will meet or exceed expectations and preserve brand loyalty until the next interaction with that user arrives; or you will not live up to expectations, losing your loyalty until you are given a chance to get it back.