Gartner : Says Organizations Need to Move from a Reactive to Proactive Customer Service Approach
October 19, 2020 at 12:10 pm EDT
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Customer service and support leaders must transform their service experience with dynamic customer engagement (DCE) to enable personalized proactive conversations with customers, according to Gartner, Inc. However, most service organizations operate in a reactive manner, requiring customers to exert significant effort to navigate multiple service channels, often unsuccessfully.
DCE is a strategy that enables organizations to deliver differentiated service experiences. DCE helps service organizations transform data into insights to deliver next best actions to customers and transform the customer experience.
"Reactive service experiences place the burden on customers to find the best channel for resolution, whether it's to check on the status of a request, conduct a transaction or troubleshoot a repair issue. Customers often switch channels or use multiple channels concurrently, further increasing both effort and service costs," said Philip Jenkins, senior director analyst in the Customer Service and Support Practice at Gartner. "But these negative effects extend well beyond cost and the service experience - to the organization's revenue, its inability to mitigate disloyalty and maximize wallet share, and gauge overall profitability as well."
A Gartner survey of more than 6,000 customers revealed that only 13% reported receiving any type of proactive customer service. However, that same research showed that proactive customer service results in a full point increase in Net Promoter Score (NPS), Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT), Customer Effort Score (CES) and Value Enhancement Score (VES).
Gartner, Inc. specializes in analysis and consulting services in IT and communication technologies. Net sales break down by activity as follows:
- research and analysis services (82.7%): conducting analyzes, market assessment, and publication of research to help clients gain market visibility and select suppliers of products or services best suited to their needs;
- consulting services (8.7%): consulting services in the selection and implementation of IT projects, digital marketing strategy, development and realization of information systems architectures, digital transformation projects, etc.;
- organization of congresses, conferences and exhibitions (8.6%).
At the end of 2023, the group had around 2,500 analysts and 950 consultants around the world.
Net sales are distributed geographically as follows: the United States and Canada (66.2%), Europe/Middle East/Africa (22.6%) and other (11.2%).
GARTNER, INC. 
