With Empathy And Comfort To Better Customer Relations

A relationship must be nurtured to reach its full potential. This also applies to the relationship between customers and companies. The term "customer service" has long since come to mean more than just acute problem solving. The focus is increasingly on customer care.

Excellent customer service can increase company profits in addition to trust and interaction. In addition, service has an impact on lost customer trust toward the company. A Salesforce study found that 91% of customers are more likely to make a repeat purchase after a positive service experience.

Customer Requirements

Customers feel comfortable when service is personalized, seamless and fast. However, this is usually difficult to implement in reality. 83% of customers expect their contact request to a company to be answered immediately. However, 52% of customers describe their service interactions as "fragmented".

More Than Just Personalization

Personalization is now found in everything business. As a result, most customers expect it in their interactions with companies as well. Every customer has to deal with individual circumstances. As a result, companies expect more than just personalization: a holistic understanding and, ultimately, empathy. Sending an offer for an expensive product to a person who has just lost their job would be insensitive. Sending the offer of a product or service upgrade to a CEO who just had to cut back on investments would also be inappropriate.

Showing personal empathy with a broad group of customers is a major challenge. Customers are well aware of this challenge and the discrepancy between expectation and reality. Only 37% of customers believe that companies generally show empathy.

Comfort In Doing Business

Even brands and companies with very strong reputations stumble when doing business is not effortless. The importance of "convenience" is changing as the purchasing power of digital natives increases.

The Salesforce survey shows that all generations place a higher priority on the convenience of doing business than on the brand itself. Especially Generation Z, as they no longer know life without a smartphone and orders at the touch of a button. 83% of customers expect flexible shipping and fulfillment options, such as online ordering with on-site pickup or self-checkout at brick-and-mortar retailers.

Conclusion

Customers' expectations of companies have risen. These are also reflected in the demands placed on customer service: personalized, seamless and fast. This presents companies with new challenges. The integration of empathy into personalized customer communications, as well as extensive shopping convenience, will determine potential first-time and repeat purchases in the future.

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