Been doing some digging! Well some research really on what the people in customer service think will be the future challenges small businesses will have to face. It’s been interesting asking around and reading the enormous amount of information out there. I’ve summarised the most popular thoughts:

1. The IT savvy generation will choose technology over direct communications to contact companies they want to buy from.

2. Future buying behaviour will be heavily influenced by social networks. Customers will ignore advertising (they already are)and use these sites to make buying decisions.

3. To be competitive in the future, we will need to eliminate queuing on the phone, in the shop and on the internet.

4. Some customers are more important than others. Knowing who they are is half the battle.

5. Manage the ‘white space’ the bit when you are not contacting or communicating with customers. For example when you have booked a restaurant for two weeks time and there is no contact in between! What can you do to keep customers informed.

6. Customers will expect to communicate with people who know about the product/service and empowered to make decisions - implications for recruitment, skill development and salaries!

7. Going that extra mile when the customer thinks they are already satisfied (I’ve blogged about this before)

In a world of sameness, we all better get thinking about how to make the most of customer experience, true customer experience…..