Case Management, Agent Desktop, Collaboration Tools, Online Portals, and Unified Communications Deliver the Most Value for CX

Of 51 different types of technologies, customer service leaders cited case management, consolidated agent desktop, internal collaboration tools, online account portals, and unified communications as the ones that deliver the most value, according to new research by Gartner.

"Customer service and support leaders derive value from these technologies because they support an important part of their operations," said Lauren Villeneuve, senior principal in the GartnerCustomer Service & Support Practice. "Additionally, they support new operational needs of managing a remote workforce, new demands and expectations from customers, and heightened expectations for service to deliver improved customer experience and value."

In general, the research found that investments in technologies focused on the customer are rapidly becoming a top priority for customer service and support leaders. These include chatbots, artificial intelligence, and analytics.

This signals a focus and investment shift from agent enablement technologies to technologies that help them more fully understand customers. 

In two years, the most valuable technologies will continue to revolve around the customer, through digital self-service platforms and understanding customer behavior through analytics.

"It is crucial that leaders understand how customers interact with digital channels in order to contain customers within them and improve their overall customer experience," said Connor Seidenschwarz, principal of research in the Gartner Customer Service & Support Practice. "In fact, most customer service leaders we surveyed view investments in analytics as an investment in improving their self-service capabilities."

Past challenges with analytics stem primarily from a lack of data or difficulties transforming raw data into actionable insights that can be used to inform decisions, according to the research, but current CSS leaders indicate they are overcoming these challenges and anticipate the largest increases in value over the next two years will come from technologies that analyze and leverage customer data.

As the technology landscape advances, Gartner recommends that customer service and support leaders responsible for service and support strategy and leadership take the following actions:

• Review core service objectives, understand customer preferences and behaviors, and conduct a thorough market scan to select and prioritize technologies for investment.
• Collaborate and coordinate with other functions, including IT, marketing, and finance, to understand existing plans for technology and their perspectives and identify areas of coordination.
• Gather data on customer behaviors and experiences to identify the technology’s current and potential role in the customer service journey.
• Assess the performance of existing technologies by evaluating usage, cost, customer experience, rep experience, and strategic relevance, and how they fare against market trends.