Customer Service

As companies increasingly look to provide a better experience for customers, offering support across multiple channels is becoming more popular than ever. According to the Aberdeen Group, companies doubled the number of channels they use to interact with customers between 2012 and 2017. But there’s a difference between providing support on a few channels and delivering a truly integrated omnichannel solution. Using the Zendesk Benchmark, our crowd-sourced index of customer service interactions from 45,000 participating organizations across 140 countries, we examined why companies are going omnichannel and what sets the companies using Zendesk for omnichannel support apart from everyone else.

Even if companies understand that an omnichannel approach performs better in terms of operational metrics and meeting customer expectations, there’s still the question of how to do it. How should companies go about adopting an omnichannel support solution? With data from the Zendesk Benchmark, our index of product usage data from 45,000 Zendesk customers, we put together findings on best practices when it comes to launching new channels, integrating existing channels, and teaming up with the right technology partners.

At a time when it’s routine for millions of consumers to ask digital assistants (e.g., Amazon’s Alexa or Apple’s Siri) to tell them a good joke or ask if they need an umbrella, it’s surprising most businesses are still in the early stages of implementing intelligent automation technologies for customer communication. Even fewer have made…

Brand experience can make or break a business, but most companies are too focused on other priorities — e.g., financial planning, partnerships and expansion — to get to the root of whether their brand experience is really a positive one for its customers. A survey from global consulting firm Bain & Company shows that 80 percent…

Creating an authentic, real and honest connection with your customers is critical to acquiring their loyalty. This was a key takeaway from a session yesterday at IRCE 2018 in Chicago about building loyalty through high-touch customer service. Ryan Lane, founder and CEO of Dream Beard, a men’s product and lifestyle brand, detailed the company's efforts…

Imagine a monster movie where the monster in question is played by Amazon.com, the e-commerce giant, and the everyday folks tasked with taking it down are played by small businesses all over the country. Here’s the twist: Instead of defeating the monster, both sides find an equilibrium, where the monster continues to loom over everyday…

In episode 148 of Total Retail Talks, Total Retail's Editor-in-Chief Melissa Campanelli interviews Sid Gupta, founder, president and CEO of Lolli and Pops. Gupta discusses why Lolli and Pops is different from other candy shops, what experiential retail means to the brand, how it's using technology as a competitive advantage, among other topics.

In episode 148 of Total Retail Talks, Total Retail’s Editor-in-Chief Melissa Campanelli interviews Sid Gupta, founder, president and CEO of Lolli and Pops. Gupta discusses why Lolli and Pops is different from other candy shops, what experiential retail means to the brand, how it’s using technology as a competitive advantage, among other topics.

Is physical retail really dying? Not according to statistics, which show that upwards of 80 percent of all retail sales ​still take place in traditional brick-and-mortar stores. Yes, marketplaces like Amazon.com provide the convenience of online and mobile shopping, but physical retail continues to deliver on the promise of human-centered experiences. After all, humans are…

Best Buy is now offering a subscription service for a version of its Geek Squad tech support unit, betting that the growing complexity of smart homes and connected devices will create demand for offerings that go beyond the one-off repair job. The Verge reports the service, called Total Tech Support, offers subscribers 24/7 tech support…