Customer service trumps cost as king: U.S. trend report

March 2, 2015, Manchester, NH – The
growing labour market demand for customer service experts from
increasingly savvy customers, suggests a College for America trend report.

March 2, 2015, Manchester, NH – The
growing labour market demand for customer service experts from
increasingly savvy customers, suggests a College for America trend report.

Customer service representatives
with problem-solving and communication skills are needed to support
today’s informed and connected customers, says the report, which is entitled “Customer Service Trumps Cost as King: How
customer expectations are reshaping business needs and skills
requirements." Yet qualified candidates are
often in short supply, even as business needs grow rapidly.

“Even as companies rely more heavily on technology
solutions, customer representative jobs are projected to grow 13 per cent
by 2022,” said Melissa Goldberg, primary report author.

This report explores why good customer service is
increasingly important in today’s growing and competitive marketplaces
and how that is affecting the requirements of customer service roles
across many industries, including retail, insurance, and banking. It
also identifies steps businesses can take to attract and retain
high-potential service representatives, such as educating employees,
giving staff more autonomy to solve problems, and compensating customer
service employees competitively.

Download the seven-page report.