The 2023 Hero Experience Report sheds light on the direct connection between elevating your customer service agents and your customers
Gladly, the customer service platform built around people not cases, released the Hero Experience Report 2023, which dives into the experiences and minds of customer service agents and illustrates their positive impact on a brand’s overall customer experience. Driven by the fact that 72% of shoppers are willing to spend more with a brand that provides a great customer experience, Gladly spearheaded the report to serve as a guidebook for executives to utilize customer service teams to the fullest extent by understanding agents’ needs and motivators.
In today’s increasingly ecommerce-driven world, customer service teams are often the only human interaction a customer has with a brand, yet 59% of all consumers feel companies have lost touch of the human element in the customer experience.
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Here is what the customer service agents had to say:
- Personalized interactions with customers motivate customer service teams. Legacy ticketing systems don’t create a personalized experience for consumers or customer service. In fact, 73% of consumers want to be treated like a person, not a case number. And the same goes for the agents — 47% of respondents ranked engaging and conversing with customers as a top motivator, while 37% ranked resolving service issues as their secondary motivator — yet too often they are forced to work in systems that treat customers as cases rather than people to build connections with. Customer service teams are looking for tools to enhance the human experience and nurture their key motivations.
- Customer service agents desire continual learning opportunities. 62% of respondents report that they want ongoing training opportunities to help them grow their careers and stay on top of the latest industry trends. In fact, many of these agents are already incredibly skilled in the field, with 61% of agents having been in the industry for six years or more — and they’re ready to take on more. When businesses take the time to invest in adequate training for their teams, it supports the agents’ motivations and builds a loyal customer base to help increase revenue.
- Customer service teams are well equipped to grow with the business. The report also revealed the customer service agent’s dedication to grow in their role, with 52% of international respondents ranking career growth as their second most important motivator. 89% of respondents plan to stay in their field and two-thirds of agents want to climb the ladder to a management role. Customer service is imperative to a business’s bottom line and nurturing this growth and passion is crucial.
“At Gladly, we believe that any customer service agent can be a hero, but that’s often not the norm,” said Joseph Ansanelli, CEO of Gladly. “We designed this report to amplify their voices because when they’re motivated and empowered, they build stronger customer connections and lifelong loyalty.”
This report comes on the heels of Gladly’s latest Customer Expectations Report, where the company highlights the motivators, wants, and needs of the modern-day customer. With the introduction of the Hero Experience Report, businesses can see the whole story and create a humanized customer experience at every touch point, inevitably creating happy customer service agents and by proxy, satisfied customers.
For more information, the full Hero Experience Report report can be found here. To hear how customer-focused brands are reimagining service and to learn from other CX leaders, enthusiasts, and mentors, join Gladly Connect: a CX community.
Gladly is the only customer service platform built around people, not tickets. Our platform helps commerce brands understand who their customer is and matches them to the right agent. With everything built-in — voice, email, SMS, chat, social messaging, self-service — Gladly works as one, lifelong conversation. Agents become brand heroes with no time wasted on channel switching and no missed conversation history. That’s why the world’s most-loved brands like Allbirds, Bombas, Crate&Barrel, Ulta Beauty, Warby Parker, and more partner with Gladly to transform their customer service and build lifelong loyal customers.
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