This post is part of G2's 2023 digital trends series. Read more about G2’s perspective on digital transformation trends in an introduction from Emily Malis Greathouse, director, market research, and additional coverage on trends identified by G2’s analysts. 

Building customer loyalty by automating customer support processes

Retention is more than the sum of its parts—sales, customer success, and customer support

Many businesses continue to see customer support as a cost center, and after facing continuing economic uncertainty, there will be a shift to this paradigm. The best perspective is to understand customer service as a force multiplier that does not impact revenue directly but amplifies the impact of any gains in revenue. Sales, customer success, and customer support teams are most effective when all three functions receive sufficient resources to operate at optimal levels. Business leaders must refrain from seeing these functions as independent of one another but instead as a critical customer-facing ecosystem that suffers when one pillar is neglected.

For example, in some cases, exceptionally fast response times to customer complaints can even increase customer intent to spend more. It is worth noting that an engaged customer implies a desire for a resolution, while a lack of engagement could mean the customer has lost all faith in acquiring help. Even angry customer complaints should be seen as an opportunity to reestablish customer loyalty. The opposite of love is not hate; it is indifference.

Good customer experience has been shown to positively affect business performance. In a study measuring cumulative total returns (CTR) with quality of service, leaders in customer experience (CX) saw 307% in CTR, while those with a reputation for poor customer service only saw 90%. This relationship was even more impressive during the 2009 Great Recession. It showed CX leaders staying afloat with a 6.1% CTR while CX laggards struggled with a -57% CTR.

With the upcoming recession, the most resilient businesses to come out in the best shape will be those with the best reputation for customer support and the best automation to empower those support teams.

G2's traffic trends show increased interest in products for improving customer loyalty

When businesses experience an economic downturn, they usually shift their growth strategy from rapid expansion to focus on customer retention. The rationale behind this decision is attributed to the cited statistic showing customer acquisition as 5 to 25 times more expensive than customer retention efforts. Businesses will shift to focusing on the quality of customer engagement to prevent churn.

This increased interest in finding software to fill skills gaps can also be seen in our user behavior. From January to October 2022, the Customer Success category experienced a 42% increase in web traffic. Enterprise Feedback Management (EFM) and Experience Management (EM) have experienced an even more pronounced increase in web traffic, with a 64% and 58% increase, respectively. 

The rising interest in customer success software shows how many businesses are beginning to focus on maintaining customer relationships. Likewise, the traffic to EFM and EM categories can represent a proactive interest in keeping a finger on the pulse of customer satisfaction and finding customer pain points to address complaints. User behavior should continue to reflect an increasing interest in developing customer loyalty using automation. Solutions like Proactive Customer Retention and Multilingual Customer Support are also powerful tools for increasing customer loyalty.

Preparation will ease the hardship 

When the pandemic first struck, 64% of companies downsized their customer service departments. Now, an economy that has not fully recovered from a pandemic is expected to endure an economic downturn within the next year. To compensate for the gaps in headcount, software products featuring automation will be increasingly sought after to replace job functions usually handled by employees.

Edited by Jigmee Bhutia