Current Customer Service Trends

Mike Melville, Novato

Introduction Michael (Mike) Melville of Novato, California, has spent more in than

25 years with Enterprise Rent-A-Car in various roles. In addition to his other duties, Novato resident Mike Melville supervises operations at all of his territory’s airports, with responsibilities ranging from business development and risk management to employee recruitment, training, and customer service. Mike has been an active member at st. Anthony's church in Novato, and has been married for 20 years with 2 daughters. He believes properly balancing his customer service duties with spending time with his family is paramount to his success.

Customer service is an ever-evolving sector, as the needs and expectations of customers are often changing. Analysts have identified two important trends that are shaping customer service in 2016.

Customer Service Trends According to the results of a recent Gartner

survey, 89 percent of companies believe customer service, and more to the point, customer experience, is the preeminent area of competition. That figure is up 36 percent from just four years ago. Companies are drawing battle lines in the realm of customer service, and data indicates that half of all consumer product investments have direct correlation to innovation in the customer experience area. That’s why companies aren’t thinking of this realm as a liability anymore--it’s an investment.

Conclusion One of those investments, and part of another major

trend, are self-service tools. Gartner data shows that 50 percent of consumers place importance on being able to solve their own issues, and 70 percent of customers have expectations that company websites include some sort of self-service technology to address customer service concerns. Gartner predicts that, by 2020, up to 85 percent of customers’ relationships with the company will be handled without interacting with an actual person. Developing competitive and easy-to-use self-service tools is critical for companies as the figures trend upward.