Predictions for Service Leaders in 2020
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The service leaders of the new decade face daunting challenges — replacing a retiring service workforce, meeting ever-growing customer expectations across the global marketplace, and keeping pace with rapidly changing technologies. We predict that the most innovative service leaders will turn these obstacles into opportunities this year, by empowering their service teams with the tools and training to deliver exceptional service.
THESE ARE THE SERVICE TRENDS TO LOOK OUT FOR IN 2020.
From a benchmark study of service executives by Service Strategies Corp:
60%
Issue Triage and Resolution
26%
Customer Communication
10%
Skills Matching
4%
Scheduling
What part of the service delivery process do you believe that AI can make the biggest impact on?
While many companies have embraced artificial intelligence for customer service in the last decade, the applications have been limited. Companies are using AI to automate replies or route inquiries to appropriate agents — functionality that shaves costs but fails to make foundational improvements in service delivery. In 2020, we’ll see a shift towards incorporating AI across the service lifecycle — from triaging issues to analyzing team performance to interpreting data from connected devices.
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Customer service leaders will embrace AI applications beyond chatbots
BONUS: 11 Ways AI Elevates Service
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Smart technology will bridge the generational skills gap
Baby Boomers, who make up the majority of service personnel, are rapidly exiting the workforce as they near retirement age. As they leave, they are taking loads of undocumented institutional knowledge with them — everything from customer preferences to little-known equipment fixes.
of service organizations indicate they will become burdened by a retiring workforce over the next five to ten years.
Current knowledge transfer practices simply aren't effective for today's labor force, and that's making it difficult to onboard incoming Millennials and hit KPIs. An easier way to speed up training, increase mission-critical employee knowledge, and make junior employees experts in a matter of days is through the use of AI-powered tools that give everyone in the organization equal access to information.
The skills gap may leave an estimated 2.4 million positions unfilled in the next decade, with a potential economic impact of 2.5 trillion.
Source: The Service Council
Source: 2018 skills gap in manufacturing study, Deloitte
BONUS: Solving the Millennial Skill Gap with AI
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Digital transformation projects will (finally) put the focus on tribal knowledge
The reality of digital transformations in 2020 is that they aren't as rosy as promised. The high rates of failed or delayed implementations have analysts urging service leaders to focus on the most important pieces of the service puzzle, including employees and customers. To make the real changes that empower employees and improve the way your business solves complex problems, look to your organization’s hidden resources – the tribal knowledge that isn't found in the data.
Of the $1.3 trillion that was spent on DT last year, it was estimated that $900 billion went to waste.
Source: Digital Transformation Is Not About Technology, HBR
BONUS: WHAT’S YOUR DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION MISSING?
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Global service teams will raise the bar on CX across markets
Training skilled technicians is a particular challenge for global companies – vital knowledge tends to get lost in translation. Failure to capture the insights of your global workforce leads to inconsistencies in how you deliver service across the markets you serve, impacting customer satisfaction and retention.
In 2020, service leaders will embrace technology that can make it easy for your service pros to act on the insights of their seasoned colleagues across the globe – even if those insights were written in free text notes. Teams will start to evolve past stale, badly translated manuals, and partake in a global, real-time knowledge sharing that lifts the performance of the entire team. This will result in less friction across global expansion.
Businesses with highly connected and engaged workforce experience a 17% increase in productivity, a 21% increase in profitability, and a 40% reduction in employee turnover.
Source: How Employee Engagement Drives Growth, Gallup
BONUS: How to Transfer Knowledge Across Your Global Service Team
Today’s customers are more empowered, knowledgeable — and yes, demanding — than ever before. In this climate, great service that exceeds expectations needs to be the norm, not a "nice to have" option. This is particularly resonant in the manufacturing space, where companies are struggling to compete on product differentiation and price. Market leaders are shifting towards servitization, creating customer value by selling product-service systems. The most successful companies are leveraging skilled and knowledgeable employees to transform service into a top competitive differentiator and a value center.
Market leaders will embrace servitization
Source: Salesforce
of manufacturing executives believe that data-driven services will be their primary revenue source within 10 years.
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