12 Customer Service Challenges You Need To Watch Out For in 2024

Updated on May 13, 2024

In the age of conversational AI and tech support that is evolving every single day, customer service leaders have their work cut out for them. They are between a rock and a hard place, with technology enabling them to improve their operations significantly. All this while traditional call centers are becoming a thing of the past.

 However, when these digital channels are not performing up to the mark, companies must master entirely new approaches to performance improvement alongside their traditional toolkits. According to a McKinsey survey, there has been a 19-point percentage increase in recent times when you compare to 2019 among customer care leaders who want to improve customer experience.

Customer service shouldn’t just be a department, it should be the entire company.” Tony Hsieh

In this blog post, we are going to look at 12 of the most common customer service challenges, and how your organization can solve them.

Here they are:

Challenge 1: Providing a consistent experience across multiple channels:

Challenge:

 A majority of today’s customers expect enterprises to provide a cohesive experience across multiple touchpoints, including both the digital and the physical channels. To provide this omnichannel support, you need to preliminarily conduct research and see where your customers hang out, and what they say about your brand.

Solution: 

Adopt an omnichannel strategy for customer service that seamlessly integrates all interaction channels, making sure you get a unified view of customer data and interactions. Train your personnel and invest in a good CRM solution that enables a smooth transition between all your communication channels, without losing context.

Winning in an omnichannel world demands excelling in all channels, from in-person to hybrid, inside sales, digital self-serve, and marketplaces—especially during uncertain economic times in which a poor customer experience may lead to a lost sale.”

 McKinsey’s The multiplier effect: How B2B Businesses grow.

Challenge 2: Dealing with a large volume of inquiries

Challenge: 

As organizations grow, there is bound to be a large volume of customer inquiries. Customer service teams will find themselves at the receiving end of a lot of frustrating customer calls. There may be longer response times and longer time to fix issues, with some inquiries being transferred between different departments. All this will lead to customers feeling unwelcome, which will lead to a loss in customer loyalty.

Solution: 

The solution to this challenge is to implement good self service options so that customers can help themselves. This goes hand in hand with the Gartner survey that says 38% of GenZ and millennials are likely to give up on resolving a customer service issue if organizations cannot resolve it in self-service. Customers can use self-service options such as knowledge bases, chatbots, and virtual assistants to take over the repetitive and simpler tasks of human agents.

Challenge 3: Knowledge management 

Challenge: 

The more technologically advanced a product or service gets, the trickier it becomes for customer service teams to address technical queries effectively. Enterprises must ensure that all the customer service agents have up-to-date, accurate, and easily accessible knowledge. Without this, chances are high that there are inconsistencies in responses, longer resolution times, and eventually, frustrated customers. 

Solution: 

Solving this challenge involves enterprises building a centralized knowledge base that has a built in search capability and integrate it with existing customer service tools. In addition to this, organizations must establish proper processes for continuous content updates. And lastly, agents must be given proper training to properly utilize knowledge resources for accurate and fast responses.

Customer service challenges 1. Provide consistent experience 2. Dealing with a large volume of customer queries 3. Knowledge management

Challenge 4: Timely resolution and instant gratification

Challenge: 

Time is one commodity that customers today have the least amount of, and when they invest that time in your business, you better provide them with the solution they are looking for. Gen Z and millennials expect instant gratification, with real-time assistance becoming a norm rather than an exception. The long waiting lines on the phone have become a thing of the past, and if your organization is making a customer wait, you can bet that they will take their business elsewhere.

Solution:  

Using technology to implement solutions that will solve customer queries in an instant is one of the only solutions for this challenge. This includes chatbots, virtual assistants, and AI-powered customer service tools that will give customers real-time assistance and instant responses. 

Challenge 5: Using customer data and analytics

Challenge: 

The modern organization has data coming in from a multitude of sources, which will leave customer service representatives with a trove of data that is scattered across different systems and departments. Extracting precious insights from customer data to make improvements and drive informed -decision-making can be complex. As an example, companies can analyze purchasing behavior and browsing patterns to give customers personalized recommendations, but this becomes complex as the number of customers increases.

Solution: 

 Companies should consider investing in data warehousing solutions where they can consolidate data from multiple sources, such as CRM, marketing, social media, etc. into a centralized repository. Companies can also adopt machine learning and AI-powered analytics to see where the trends are leading and discover hidden insights, to help in the data-driven decision-making process.

Challenge 6: Handling negative feedback

Challenge:

When you sell to a huge range of customers, there is bound to be some negative feedback. These negative experiences and complaints have the potential to quickly escalate and potentially damage brand reputation and loyalty. This negative feedback can spread through social media and other channels, fraying the relationship between the organization and the customer.

Solution: 

Companies can tackle this challenge by having a good complaint resolution management process in place, one that provides swift and empathetic responses. Frontline customer service agents must have the necessary tools and resources in place to resolve issues swiftly. Also, enterprises must proactively monitor social media using monitoring tools, and also other websites and review sites to see if there is any negative feedback or complaints.

Customer service challenges 2 – Instant gratification, Timely resolution, Using customer data

Challenge 7: Personalization

Challenge:

The modern customer expects companies to provide them personalized service, be it online or offline. It is the equivalent of the store assistant at your regular clothing store calling you by your first name. According to this Deloitte survey, 43% of the executives list personalization as one of the top reasons for investing in hybrid experiences. The solutions that organizations provide must be tailored to individual needs and preferences. Failing to meet these expectations may lead to loss of business and customer dissatisfaction.

Solution:  

Enterprises can again adopt technology, especially chatbots, to provide personalization at scale. Enterprises must also leverage customer data and analytics effectively. Implementing a good CRM system and integrating it with other business systems can give organizations a bird’s eye view of each customer’s journey. In addition to this, companies can use Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning to identify patterns. This will help them provide personalized recommendations or solutions, which will enhance the overall customer experience.

Challenge 8: Maintaining a consistent customer service quality

Challenge: 

Many enterprises struggle with maintaining consistent customer service quality, especially those that have a distributed workforce and a global team of customer service agents.  Outsourcing may save these enterprises costs, but it may come with sacrificing the quality of customer service. When there is an inconsistency in the service quality, it can lead to frustrated customers, who will then negatively impact brand reputation and loyalty.

Solution:

 Enterprises can address this challenge by investing in good training programs and QA measures. This comprehensive training must not only cover product and service knowledge, but also soft skills and communication techniques. Regular call monitoring, screen recording, and studying customer feedback will help organizations identify areas of improvement. Enterprises must foster a sense of customer-centricity, giving frontline workers more autonomy in driving decisions. This will lead to a more consistent customer service quality.

In his book, “The Virgin Way,” Richard Branson writes that in his many years of business experience, he has found that unhappy customers who have a problem handled quickly and effectively end up being more loyal than if they never had a problem at all.

Challenge 9: Improving the self-service options

Challenge:

The modern-day customer does not care much about dealing with customer support agents and prefers self-service options to get their queiries resolved. But here too, organizations must tread with caution. Knowledge bases can get cluttered, and finding relevant information can be difficult for many. Also, many of these self-service options may not offer solutions to complex queries, forcing employees to reach out to agents.

Solution: 

 The most prevalent solution to this challenge is to invest in well-established self-service portals, knowledge bases, and IVR (interactive voice response) systems. Implementing AI-powered search that understands natural language and filters users based on their intent is another approach. And finally, integrating AI-powered chatbots to answer repetitive questions and troubleshoot common issues is one of the best solutions to this particular problem.

Challenge10:  Managing a hybrid workforce

Challenge:

In a post-pandemic world, more and more organizations are adopting the hybrid or remote workplace model. In such cases, maintaining good service quality and effective collaboration among customer service teams can get a bit challenging.  Another challenge that companies face is fostering a sense of belonging in a hybrid environment, which can impact employee motivation and retention rates.

Solution:

 One way to address this challenge is to use an established set of collaboration tools, and virtual communication platforms which will aid in real-time interactions and knowledge sharing. Virtual team meetings, social activities, and training sessions can help bridge the physical gap and ensure a more cohesive organizational structure, where there is a sense of belonging among team members. To maintain consistent service levels, make sure there are clear guidelines and performance metrics in place for both hybrid and remote employees.

Customer service challenges 3 – Self -service options, managing a hybrid workforce, ensuring data privacy, incorporating emerging technologies.

Challenge 11: Ensuring Data Privacy and Security

Challenge: 

 Given the increasing concerns about cybersecurity threats around the world, ensuring data privacy and security is a critical challenge for enterprises in 2024. Many countries have stringent data protection policies in place, such as GDPR and CCPA. Also, customer service personnel often handle sensitive information, such as the personal details of consumers or financial details, and they are thus prime targets for cyber attacks. If such a data breach happens, the consequences are severe, from financial penalties to legal repercussions, but, most importantly, loss of customer trust.

Solution:

 Establish clear data retention and disposal policies that will minimize the amount of customer data stored, reducing the attack surface and the potential impact in case of a breach. Conducting regular security audits and penetration testing will also enable enterprises to identify the vulnerabilities in the company’s infrastructure. Also, enterprises must invest in training programs to educate the customer service teams on data security best practices, such as recognizing phishing attempts.

Challenge 12: Incorporating emerging technologies

Challenge:

 Emerging technologies such as Artificial Intelligence, the Internet of Things (IoT), and Virtual Reality (VR) continue to evolve rapidly, posing a new challenge for enterprises to incorporate them into their customer service strategies and enhance experiences. The primary challenge here is customer service teams must be trained to leverage these technologies effectively.  Solutions such as AI-powered chatbots, virtual assistants, and automated problem-solving tools require specialized knowledge and skills to implement and maintain.

Solution:  Enterprises should invest in upskilling and giving detailed training to customer service teams on the effective use of emerging technologies. For this, companies can collaborate with technology providers, conduct thorough risk assessments, and seek expert guidance in navigating the complexities of incorporating these emerging technologies.

The customer service landscape thus in 2024 presents a multitude of challenges, but by proactively addressing these challenges through innovative solutions, enterprises can not only meet but exceed customer expectations. We have shown you how adopting emerging technologies and fostering a strong service culture will now be crucial for delivering exceptional customer experiences. Doing so will give your enterprise a competitive advantage for years to come.