FOCUS | CSIA Quarterly | November 2018

November 2018 CSIA Quarterly

SERVICE EXCELLENCE Celebrating the customer service industry's leading professionals at the 2018 ASEAs

Stryker South Pacific

Looking ahead to 2019

The 2018 Best of the Best Winner on transforming their approach to customer service

Customer service trends and technological changes to look out for in the new year

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Welcome to the Summer edition of FOCUS. 2018 has flown by!

In this issue, we celebrate the achievements from the 2018 ASEAs and look ahead at what to expect in 2019.

An enormous thank you and congratulations to all the finalists and winners of this year’s Australian Service Excellence Awards (ASEAs) program, which we celebrated in Sydney on 1 November.

It was a perfect way to celebrate 2018 hurtling toward its close.

It was a magical evening and I had the pleasure of speaking with many customer service professionals from a disparate range of industries. It’s one of my favourite aspects of the night: customer service is important for every organisation, no matter your industry or sector. It is also important for every individual – if you have a job, you're a customer service professional.

We also examine the rapid increase in the use of new technologies to service the needs of the customer.

It's been fascinating to see how each business has successfully taken on the challenge of adapting to these changes while continuing to improve and deliver customer service excellence.

The insight and good humour you all have when it comes to creating great experiences for your customers is a pleasure to witness.

It inspires me, and the entire CSIA team, to keep on with our mission.

Celebrating our evolving industry is an important, enjoyable part of the job. I’d like to thank Brooke, this year’s event partner, for supporting us in making the night a special one.

Hear from this year's finalists and winners on how they're delivering excellent customer service experiences in this edition of FOCUS.

We hope you enjoy reading the last FOCUS for this year. We’ll be back in February 2019 with news and insights from the world of customer service.

Anouche Newman CEO

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“The ability to make someone’s day better, whether it’s in your team or for a patient who’s in a great deal of stress is a gift."

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Contents

04

News in Brief

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Celebrating the ASEAs

Relive the night and discover the stars of the industry at this year's Australian Service Excellence Awards.

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2018 ASEAs Awards List

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Measuring success

A conversation between CEO of CSIA and the Managing Director of Brooke.

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Stryk-ing success

Discover how Stryker South Pacific transformed customer service delivery and became the Best of the Best winner.

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Rockend: Customer advocacy in proptech

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Aoife Roche

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A profile of the 2018 Customer Service Manager of the Year.

How to manage a technology-driven future

Anouche Newman on the challenges customer service professionals will face.

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Trends in 2019

We delve into the trends that will be influential next year.

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We Recommend

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CSIA FOCUS

News in Brief

CSIA is moving to George Street From 3 December 2018, CSIA’s new offices will be at WeWork's complex on 383 George Street in the Sydney CBD. The growing need for customercentric business practice fits well with the evolving nature of work, which WeWork facilitates the world over.

CSIA's Certified Practitioner Program We are pleased to introduce our Certified Practitioner (CP) program.

consulting expertise, aligned to the principles and philosophies of CSIA.

Our CPs work hard to support the wider community in realising their vision for best practice customer experience.

This is your opportunity to work closely with experienced partners to build the right sustainable customer service experience for your business.

No matter where you are on your customer service journey, our CPs can provide you with high-quality

Learn more

Shutting down for the holidays After one of the busiest years on record, the CSIA team is looking forward to a Christmas break. We will be offline and visiting friends and family from 12 noon on Friday 21 December and will reopen on Tuesday 8 January 2019.

We wish everyone a safe and enjoyable Christmas break!

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Congratulations We are pleased to congratulate Adelaide Airport, Stryker South Pacific and HCF: The Hospitals Contribution Fund of Australia for maintaining their status as Certified Customer Service Organisations through recertification to the International Customer Service Standard (ICSS 2015-2020).

These businesses are continually improving the implementation of powerful customer service strategies across their organisations.

Learn and achieve customer excellence in public services Have you got your tickets to attend the Achieving Customer Excellence in Public Services Conference on the 12 13 February 2019 in Sydney?

Join a wide variety of different organisations - from public sector departments to commercial agencies to local councils - as they showcase the diverse ways they approach customer service transformation.

Key themes at next year’s Criterion conference revolve around building commitment, enhancing capacity and measuring outcomes effectively.

Whether it’s learning how to integrate a customer culture in your organisation, understanding how to train, upskill or create agile teams, or learn the standards and tools that will help you evaluate success, the conference provides unique insights for your business.

Early bird tickets are still available, and you'll receive an additional $100 off when you use the code CC*CSIA. Purchase Tickets

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CSIA FOCUS

“It’s a powerful industry to be in and I’m so grateful and humbled to be a part of it.”

An awards night to remember It was a night of glittering gowns, full glasses and cheeky jokes. We relive the 2018 ASEAs Gala and hear from the night's winners.

The 2018 Australian Service Excellence Awards, held at The Star in Sydney earlier this month, was a riot of positive energy and genuine goodwill.

For the 17th year running, the CSIA gathered hundreds of customer service professionals from across the country to celebrate the crucial role they play in Australian business success.

“We love doing what we do because we love honouring customer service professionals,” CEO Anouche Newman told the packed room.

With categories spanning from Customer Service Team of the Year, to Customer Service Organisation of the Year (Small, Medium and Large) to the newly instated Customer Service

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Organisation of the Year - Retail, the breadth of industry expertise and experience was stunning.

“The ability to make someone’s day better, whether it’s in your team or for a patient who’s in a great deal of stress is a gift,” said James Doyle, Senior Director - Customer Experience from Stryker South Pacific who took out the Best of the Best award.

“I would never have imagined I would be recognised like this,” said Jennifer Tse, the Senior Customer Success Specialist at Intuit after collecting the Customer Service Professional of the Year award.

The level of humility and compassion in the room was palpable and there were Mexican waves, thundering cheers and an unwavering intensity as those who often go unacknowledged were publicly celebrated.

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“The ability to make someone’s day better, whether it’s in your team or for a patient who’s in a great deal of stress is a gift."

“Understanding that nothing in customer service is one size fits all is key,” said Ashleen Ford, Member Services Manager at the Australian Catholic Superannuation and Retirement Fund.

“Great people are passionate people,” said Matthew Hargrave from American Express, who picked up the Customer Team Leader award.

With the night hosted by Larry Emdur and Kylie Gillies from Seven’s The Morning Show, the wise-cracks and good-natured ribbing came thick and fast.

From “The Customer Is Right Game Show” to the helpful fashion commentary, the personalities ensured the night was a huge success.

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CSIA FOCUS

2018 Australian Service Excellence Awards Winners Organisations

Individuals

Customer Service Organisation of the Year – Government/Not for Profit

Customer Service Team of the Year Small

Winner University of South Australia Business School Service Champion City of Melville

Winner CMC Markets, Sales Trading Service Champion Revenue NSW Customer Insights Team

Customer Service Organisation of the Year – Small Business

Customer Service Team of the Year Medium

Winner Centorrino Technologies Service Champion Ocean Keys Shopping Centre

Winner Brisbane City Council, Customer Services, Customer Experience Team Service Champion Adestra Support Team

Customer Service Organisation of the Year – Medium Business

Customer Service Team of the Year Large

Winner Jennifer Tse, Intuit Australia Service Hero Donna Coote, Stryker South Pacific

Winner Stryker South Pacific Service Champion Rockend

Winner Wyndham Vacation Clubs Asia Pacific Customer Experience Service Champion Harbour City Ferries

Customer Service Leader of the Year

Customer Service Organisation of the Year – Large Business Winner Melbourne Cricket Club Service Champion HCF: The Hospitals Contribution Fund of Australia Customer Service Organisation of the Year – Retail Winner Pacific Fair Shopping Centre Service Champion Muffin Break Victorian Operations Team Service Excellence – Small Contact Centre Winner Australian Catholic Superannuation & Retirement Fund Service Champion Intuit Australia Service Excellence – Medium Contact Centre Winner Rockend Customer Support, Perth Service Champion WEX Australia

Customer Service Project of the Year – Customer Impact Winner Sydney Water, Customer Hub Service Champion HP Inc Sth Pac, Customer Support Customer Service Project of the Year – Continuous Improvement Winner icare NPS 'much more than a score' program Service Champion Wyndham Vacation Clubs Asia Pacific 5 Day Project Customer Service Project of the Year – Service Transformation Winner City of Casey, Bunjil Place 'One Place One Team' Service Champion OPTUS Robotic Process Automation Customer Service Project of the Year – Service Innovation

Service Excellence – Large Contact Centre

Winner Stryker South Pacific, Quality Partner Model Service Champion Intuit Australia

Winner American Express Australia Limited Consumer Engagement Network Service Champion Sunsuper

Best of the Best Winner Stryker South Pacific

Extraordinary Service Award Winner Milan Mili, University of South Australia Business School Customer Service Advocate of the Year Winner Raf Marini, NAB Service Hero Yu-hsien Kuo, American Express Australia Limited Customer Service Professional of the Year

Winner Matthew Hargrave, American Express Australia Limited Service Hero Kristiina Bedford, Rockend Customer Service Manager of Year Winner Aoife Roche, Assetlink Service Hero Muzi Ozcelik, Assetlink Customer Service Executive of the Year Winner Scott Downing, Rockend Service Hero Adam Centorrino, Centorrino Technologies

Thank you Thanks to all those who made the 2018 Australian Service Excellence Awards such a wonderful success.

Events like this highlight the excellent customer service work you all do on a daily basis.

“It means so much to us to be able to celebrate like this together...Nights like this are so special.”

– Aoife Roche, Assetlink

“A lot of people in our team came together to deliver a very complicated project on time and on budget.

That’s worth celebrating!”

– Darren Cash, Sydney Water

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Measuring Customer Service Success We sit down with Anouche Newman, CEO of CSIA and Bruce McGregor, Managing Director of Brooke to speak about their new powerful partnership and how they measure customer service success.

Anouche Newman: It’s one thing for an organisation to identify where the customer is missing from the design of its systems and processes. But it’s another to actually implement what’s needed to genuinely transform a business towards true customer centricity.

At CSIA, we provide insights and guidance on how customer focus, across the organsation, can be improved, but Certified Practitioners like Brooke are the ones who can help implement those transformations on a more practical level.

Bruce McGregor: We work hard to change the mindsets of our clients to fully embed the customer at the heart of their businesses, and it’s the strength and support from the International Customer Service Standard (ICSS: 2015-2020) certification program that allows us that depth.

It all comes down to people, both internally and externally. Clients will come to us and say they need a digital transformation. And they’re talking about technology, or that they need to get into the cloud. But we ask them, what is the outcome you’re actually seeking? What’s the service experience that you want to deliver?

Working out how to close the gaps in businesses takes much more than a shiny new platform, it takes real vision.

AN: We see two types of fear that manifest in businesses at the start of their transformation journey, and customer centric businesses are generally able to address both of them.

authentic focus on the customer.

CSIA’s certification program is about organisational systems and processes and a true commitment to building your strategy around the customer.

The first is the fear that the customer is going to say something a business doesn’t want to hear, opening a huge can of worms. So a lot of the time, businesses don’t even ask their customers what they are experiencing or where there are problems.

Leaders might be focusing on things like profit, market share, and shareholder value but they should be looking at how the customer service experience actually drives all of those things. That’s where success starts.

The second fear is the person “responsible” for customer service success doesn’t have the backing of the executive team.

BM: We see that fear often. When the head of marketing or customer service receives the results of a review and finds there are things to work on, that creates tension in a business.

Unless that person has the backing of their leaders, it is extremely difficult to facilitate lasting change.

And the other major mistake many organisations make, is they don’t actually speak to their customers at all! Underlying that is a fear of the truth. The customer service experience is never perfect, but after years of insight I can tell you that 90 per cent of customers actually appreciate that you’ve gone to speak to them. And their insight is always invaluable.

AN: Orgasiations must embrace these fears to achieve a genuine and

BM: In order to gauge success, we are constantly measuring and testing against the ICSS, which has 27 attributes. They range from leadership to process to culture to quality to service elements. And we apply them to the internal processes, where re-work and bureaucracy and red tape crop up. And as we change that, the Standard gives us a benchmark from which the client can genuinely start to improve.

AN: That’s the practical side of things. We use the Standard to measure whether, within everything that a business is doing, is it considering the customer?

Because regardless of whether you’re a commercial business measuring success in profits or a government organisation measuring operational efficiency, if you’ve got the customer front-of-mind, your success measures will go up.

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2018 ASEAs Breakfast Panel with Salesforce Event Details Sydney Date Tuesday 4 December Venue The Mint 10 Macquarie St, Sydney Time 8-10am Tickets Register here

Melbourne Date Venue

Time Tickets

Hear from the 2018 winners!

You are invited to join Salesforce and CSIA at breakfast events held in both Sydney and Melbourne to showcase some of the ASEAs winners as part of an informative panel discussion.

Hear from organisation and individual winners as they detail their approach to best practice customer service, key challenges they faced, and learnings they’ve developed. Additionally, network with your peers and industry experts over breakfast.

Both events are free, and suited to customer experience professionals, managers and business leaders who want to learn more about innovative ways to implement customer service excellence within their organisation.

Thursday 6 December Zinc, Federation Square Corner Swanston St and Flinders St, Melbourne 8-10am Register here

ASEAs Achievements American Express Australia Limited (Consumer Engagement Network) Winner Service Excellence in a Contact Centre - Large Winner Matthew Hargrave - Customer Service Leader of the Year Service Hero Yu-hsien Kuo - Customer Service Advocate of the Year Centorrino Technologies Winner Customer Service Organisation of the Year - Small Service Hero Adam Centorrino Customer Service Executive of the Year Intuit Australia

Sydney Panelists

Melbourne Panelists

Ariane Cowie

Adam Centorrino

Director of Customer Service Operations at American Express

Managing Director at Centorrino Technologies

Service Champion Customer Service Project of The Year - Service Innovation Service Champion Service Excellence in a Contact Centre - Small Winner Jennifer Tse - Customer Service Professional of the Year

Bianca Bowron-Cuthill

Mike Whittaker

Rockend

Head of Customer Success at Intuit

Manager Customer Service at City of Casey

Scott Downing

James Doyle

Chief Customer Officer at Rockend

Senior Director, Customer Experience at Stryker South Pacific

Winner Customer Support, Perth – Service Excellence in a Contact Centre – Medium Service Champion Customer Service Organisation of the Year - Medium Winner Scott Downing - Customer Service Executive of the Year Service Hero Kristiina Bedford Customer Service Leader of the Year

James Doyle Senior Director, Customer Experience at Stryker South Pacific

Danielle Larkins Lead Judge of the 2018 ASEAs

Stryker South Pacific Winner Best of the Best award Winner Customer Service Organisation of the Year - Medium Winner Customer Service Project of the year - Service Innovation Service Hero Donna Coote - Customer Service Professional of the Year

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CSIA FOCUS

Stryker South Pacific breathes new life into customer service A distressed telephone call from a customer with a heart rate monitor beeping in the background is not uncommon for Stryker's customer service staff.

Those on the frontline of one of the world’s largest medical technology firms must be ready to provide accurate and fast service for a wide variety of medical professionals in urgent situations.

“Very often you can hear in the person’s voice that they are distressed and in a situation where they need our help,” says James Doyle, Stryker South Pacific’s Senior Director - Customer Experience.

“There are times when things go right, but there are very real times where things go wrong and whether we need to provide a product in an escalated fashion or provide some kind of solution, very often there’s a pressing patient situation underway.”

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“If the customer trusts you enough to explain what is and isn’t working for them, you will be able to leverage their new ideas for your business growth.”

Stryker’s customer-centric approach has taken years to implement and Mr Doyle is quick to point out it is an ever-evolving journey, that is never truly complete or finished.

“Building a culture with the customer at the heart doesn’t happen overnight and when it does happen, it comes down to the kind of talent we hire,” he says.

“Passionate and empathetic people who can really put themselves in other people’s shoes form the basis of any customer-focused culture, especially when you’re talking about hospitals.”

In an industry famed for its laborious administrative processes and manual procedures, Stryker has taken it upon itself to build technologically advanced tools that streamline some pockets of the healthcare industry.

The professionalism and expediency with which Stryker’s customer service teams respond to such events is why they were recognised as ‘Best of the Best’ at the 2018 Australian Service Excellence Awards.

From the executive board to the operating table, the judge’s felt Stryker’s service consistently exceeded customer expectations and rose to their important task as facilitators of medical equipment.

“Our motto is think big, start small, and run fast,” says Mr Doyle. “And most ideas generally start with a customer need first and foremost. If the customer trusts you enough to explain what is and isn’t working for them, you will be able to leverage their new ideas for your business growth.”

One example of a technical innovation that unfolded from Stryker’s customer service feedback was its EDI project.

“Lots of our customers are surgeons and nurses and they need to be able to access reliable help,” says Mr Doyle of his team’s win.

Where manually transacted purchase orders were the norm for supply channels and those supplementing their medical procedures onsite, Stryker built a system enabling that information to translate directly into their systems.

“It’s incredibly humbling to be recognised in an industry that we’re so proud to work in.”

That way customers got more accurate orders, quicker orders and immediate electronic responses.

“That kind of customer integration comes directly from their feedback and over time, we’ve fine-tuned our process so it’s gone from 10 per cent of our order volume to around 70 per cent,” says Mr Doyle.

“And from what started as a customer efficiency project has ended up having an enormous impact on our overall business.”

But rather than embarking immediately on large-scale development programs, Mr Doyle says teams are encouraged to test new ideas with small customer sample groups as soon as possible.

“Test it with customers and get feedback, that way you can make it fit for purpose and can then iterate really well,” says Mr Doyle.

“We can decode a lot of challenges around patient care and privacy, for example, but we need to think big, start small, and run fast.”

While technology plays a critical role in the evolution of Stryker’s business and enables its customer service teams to do their jobs with efficiency and accuracy, maintaining the comforting human touch is what truly builds that lasting trust and rapport with customers.

“We want to be easy to do business with and help change people’s lives,” says Mr Doyle.

“That’s a big mission, but when you’ve got the kinds of people we do; thinking carefully about what customers need and anticipating what they might want, we can make important inroads to achieving that mission.”

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Injecting customer advocacy into the proptech industry

The explosion of ‘proptech’ into the mainstream has property and real estate businesses scrambling to make sense of what technology is genuinely useful and what is just “innovative” noise.

From launching unique Net Promoter Score metrics to leveraging a comprehensive contact centre interface, Rockend can now turn data into action.

For property software supplier Rockend, the best business advantage technology provides is a deeper layer of customer insight which dramatically improves overall customer experience.

“It is incredibly important for customers to feel like their voice is being heard and their feedback is presented to those who can most benefit from it,” says Mr Downing.

Effective relationship building with real estate agencies, property, and strata management companies has long been critical for a company like Rockend, but in recent years the organisation has developed a deep internal focus on having the customer present in all business decisions, either literally or through data analysis.

Scott Downing joined the Sydney-based organisation in 2017 as the Chief Customer Officer, and instigated a wideranging cultural and operational business transformation.

“Our teams can then actively workshop this rich customer feedback and, just as importantly, drive change.”

Under Mr Downing’s leadership, new and innovative tools, processes, and teams were introduced to gather feedback on all aspects of the customer experience, enabling the organisation to deliver a higher quality customer service.

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NPS as KPIs One of Mr Downing’s most important initiatives was to change how the business measures successful customer experiences.

Rockend doesn’t use key performance indicators in the traditional sense, instead embracing the power of three different Net Promoter Score (NPS) metrics.

Each metric measures a different aspect for customer experience. At a macro level, if the organisation improves the experience, the NPS strategic score moves in a positive direction.

The first is an Interaction NPS (iNPS) which facilitates feedback at an interaction level, like from a single phone call or a live chat. Based on that interaction, a survey asks the customer whether the employee was friendly, knowledgeable and empathetic, as well as if the query was resolved and whether the customer would recommend Rockend.

The second is an Episode NPS (eNPS), which evaluates and provides a unique score for different “episodes” in the customer life cycle. Episodes are typically made up of a predefined set of interactions.

And lastly, Rockend considers a Strategic NPS (sNPS), where every single customer completes a full survey on the organisation’s performance, mapping out where Rockend is and isn’t doing well and providing a basis for change and improvement.

By breaking up the customer experience and looking at the process from an end-to-end perspective, Rockend can implement cross business improvements.

“For example, where previously a customer talked to up to 16 contacts before being onboarded, we’ve now created a new, highly efficient customer journey and team so that we onboard customers in a timely manner,” says Mr Downing.

"New and innovative tools, processes, and teams were introduced to gather feedback on all aspects of the customer experience, enabling the organisation to deliver a higher quality customer service."

Linda Battin, the Customer Insights and Improvement Manager at Rockend, describes the types of software that allow the business to maker sharper commercial decisions.

“All customers and employees can give feedback straight into the Qualtrics platform and from there, our customer service teams can use the data to alleviate key challenges,” she says.

Vocalcom, through Quality Connex, Rockend’s contact centre interface, allows teams to know how they responded to customer needs, not how well we adhere to a process!”

Ms Battin explains, that it’s only once this data is produced that it can be drawn back into the larger Qualtrics system, generating richer insights.

“These are then fed directly to our leaders across the entire business,” she says.

Turning insights into profit Using NPS as its true north, Rockend has developed a suite of tools that both save the business money, reduce work waste and increase business value.

For example, the NPS calculator assesses the financial value of customer satisfaction, and as they move their Strategic NPS, they can calculate what the Word of Mouth value is worth in revenue to the business.

Turning data into action

Also, by breaking the customer journey down into episodes, Rockend managed to redesign some processes to remove unnecessary follow-up mail and internal transferring of customer calls.

Rockend is wholly committed to the collection of customer feedback, as well as remaining open to acting on that feedback.

“What used to take approximately three contacts on average before a customer issue was resolved has been halved to 1.5,” says Mr Downing.

The company believes lower sentiment scores offer a pathway to continuous improvement.

“In this instance ‘fixing’ customer problems means removing work waste.”

Not only has Rockend implemented a variety of datacapture systems, but the customer and employee feedback-gathering technologies are fully integrated, rarity in the property sector.

All in all, Rockend has adopted ‘systems thinking’ which has enabled the business to streamline unwieldy processes and create new features that give the business a powerful customer experience edge.

“And our NPS is telling us that this is working for our employees and customers.”

PROFILE

Aoife Roche CSIA talks to Aoife Roche, the Customer Service Manager of the Year at the 2018 Australian Service Excellence Awards.

We find out how Aoife connects with, retains and grows Assetlink's client relationships.

Adapting her language to communicate with clients from all walks of life is one of Aoife Roche’s key techniques to reaping the rewards of a successful customer relationship.

“Some companies focus only on business development and getting new clients, and there’s an attitude of ‘I’ve won this contract, let’s get the next one’,” she says.

An Irish immigrant, bringing years of global hospitality experience to Assetlink’s Australian account management strategy, Ms Roche says open, transparent trust between teams and clients comes from listening to each other.

“But from the minute you win a contract, I believe that A+ standard has to be maintained throughout the partnership, otherwise you’re dropping margin and having to constantly re-tender.”

“Australians speak informally, the Irish are incredibly professional and the Americans are entirely different again,” says Ms Roche, the National Key Account Manager at Assetlink and Customer Service Manager of the Year at the 2018 Australian Service Excellence Awards.

“It takes a while to understand the cultural differences between people, but once you adjust to speaking on a customer’s level and with honesty, your relationship will grow into a great partnership where trust shines right the way through the business.”

Ms Roche and her colleague, Muzi Ozcelik, who was highly commended as a Service Hero in the same category, now oversee 1,850 commercial cleaning contracts for Assetlink and her clients range from national carrier Australia Post to media house Fairfax.

Ms Roche works hard to represent her clients’ points of view at the management level, which feeds directly into Assetlink’s customercentric culture.

Ms Roche points to the solid economic value of serving, maintaining and strengthening customer relationships and empowering internal team members to act with customer retention in mind.

“Rotating clients mean you don’t have time to gather good quality feedback, so my practice is to retain business as long as possible because clients are the ones who can truly help you innovate and grow.”

From this customer feedback and the capital it saves the business from re-tendering, Assetlink have envisioned, developed and executed technological strategies that make life smoother and easier for both staff and clients.

“We have the time to develop new processes and innovate; we’re not constantly trying to drum up new business,” she says.

“It’s easy to focus just on profit margin, but when you introduce the customer point of view into big decisions, you ultimately save the company so much money because you’re reacting directly to what customers need and want.”

"From the minute you win a contract, I believe that A+ standard has to be maintained throughout the partnership, otherwise you’re dropping margin and having to constantly re-tender.”

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Managing a technology-driven future Anouche Newman looks at the challenges customer service professionals face as the pace of technological change continues to increase.

During CSIA training programs, we often ask participants to consider how they felt after a ‘wow’ customer service experience.

In an age where businesses have access to more dynamic and powerful technical tools than ever before, you could be forgiven for expecting the most common words to be “amazing”, “delighted” or even “awesome!” Oddly, the word ‘relieved’ is proffered time and time again.

Despite the avalanche of new technologies, people still rarely expect businesses to solve their problems smoothly, efficiently and with care.

So when a business does, with no fuss and with a level of compassion, foresight, and skill; the impact on the customer is profound. This is regardless of what form that method of delivery takes.

CSIA often talks with businesses about how technology has changed the game. We generally start the conversation from a societal perspective, and how the ways in which we all absorb information has shifted.

Thanks to the advent of realtime information we have instant gratification available at our fingertips.

Extending this out to the customer service industry, it’s fair to suggest a NSW taxpayer, for example, would expect that same level of instant service from a government agency.

That shift in customer service expectations is the largest influence technology has had on our industry and businesses must bring themselves up to date on the types of technology customers are familiar with.

But we also maintain that it’s crucial to take this shift in expectations inside the organisation and look at this development strategically.

We keep hearing that over 85% of customer service interactions will be handled without the need for a human being by 2020.

If your customers want a self-serving and seamless technological process; then naturally you should aim to deliver that.

But rather than push all your customers towards one channel or solution, businesses need to remember to embed the humanity and care that is crucial to maintaining customer service success. And humans like choice and they like variety. On one day, a person might want to self-serve, on another, they might want to pick up the phone and speak to a human.

It’s when technology breaks down, or there is a deep sense of distrust and concern about privacy, that

"Businesses need to remember to embed the humanity and care that is crucial to maintaining customer service success."

businesses must offer flexible, human solutions to customer problems. It is here, in these calm, personable solutions where “relief” is generally found.

This blend of expectations – those just looking for relief, combined with the new technological capabilities – provide a unique opportunity for organisations to become truly omnichannel businesses.

Anouche Newman CEO Customer Service Institute of Australia

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Trending in 2019 With the world of consumer behaviour and technology surging into 2019, we’ve done the homework to find trends most likely to influence customer service professionals in the new year.

Face to face communication Nothing beats proper eye contact, and the level of rapport you can build with your customers with face-to-face communication is second to none.

Video communication tools allow for that additional level of personalised customer service, even though your customers are often spread out all over the world.

Options to leave video voicemails encourage a feeling of connectedness and wherever possible, begin scheduling video and face-toface meetings in order to facilitate openness.

A shift to full self-service

"Online self service and call queue management are perfect opportunities to allow bots to help your customers help themselves."

Self-service is in full flight, and next year we expect this dynamic to pick up a notch.

A proliferation of software, hardware and messaging tools are giving non-technical customers the ability to easily control and manage their own experiences.

We recommend keeping an open dialogue with your customers, so when support is needed and wires are crossed, you can provide a seamless path back to productivity and success. This includes establishing several methods of contact, so the customer can choose how they engage with you.

Combining customer service and marketing A growing trend for 2019 is the combination of customer service and marketing budgets, as the line between both departments starts to blur in the digital age. Personalised customer service features will form the basis of most marketing and branding campaigns and customer expectations will increase.

We expect marketing budgets to flow across departments in order to fully capture the changes in consumer behaviour and experimentation in new display-based marketing channels to reach fever pitch.

Bots to help, not replace Sure – we’ve heard bots are arriving to wipe out all our jobs. But the truth is, bots have instead emerged as one of the customer service professional’s most powerful tools.

Online self service and call queue management are perfect opportunities to allow bots to help your customers help themselves. And despite what the headlines might be telling you, we recommend taking the time that bots save and channeling it towards those customers who need the human touch.

NOVEMBER 2018

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For more than fifteen years, between them, Adam Toporek and Jeannie Walters have had careers focused on what makes a great customer experience.

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Hyken uses case studies and examples from top companies, both big and small, to show how the principles apply in the any business context and can be implemented by any size organisation.

Buy the book

In their podcast Crack the Customer Code they share what they’ve learned with a focus on helping you, as a business leader, to understand your customer better.

They explore the quickly changing marketplace through timely topic discussions, a variety of examples of the best and the worst way to treat customers, and interviews with innovative leaders from Fortune 500 executives through to entrepreneurs.

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