Need for knowledge: customers haven't changed, products have

Catherine Heath | December 13, 2016

Some people think that the nature of customer service has changed because the modern consumer no longer expects personal service, like our grandmothers did. Despite this, with the rise of social media, they now expect more from customer service.  

These same people hypothesize that this has led to the development of customer support - customer service 2.0. 

On the surface, it looks like the nature of customer service has changed. People start panicking and conducting all sorts of research, trying to find out the nature of the ‘modern customer’. 

Are they millennials? Are they of the golden generation? Someone else entirely? 

The answer is: the customer is still the same. Only products have changed. 

History of customer support

Ten years ago, we didn’t have large support teams providing technical assistance to SaaS customers. 

This was also before technology was properly widespread in business. Only the largest companies could afford enterprise software models and in house IT support. Regular companies tended to make do with simpler tools. 

At this time, we also had outsourced IT call centres and a lot of frustration. This was bad customer service.

Companies slowly realised that this was turning off their customers, but not before lots of competitors sprang up offering a better service. 

Software as a service

The development of SaaS (software as service) meant that consistent, ongoing support was needed. Just like an outsourced IT team. 

Selling a SaaS product is equivalent to selling your knowledge to your customers. Neil Patel published a great article about knowledge-based SaaS companies and their unique content marketing needs. 

The internet has enabled a lot of business to be conducted online, largely independent of location. Many B2B customers use a variety of SaaS products during their workday and require customer support for each one. 

Your support team is like the traditional in house IT support desk in large companies, and your agents enable your customers to use your products effectively in their business.

Customer service is still the same today, except that we now have a new area of business called customer support. It’s dominant in SaaS companies which sell software on subscription, giving rise to a need to offer ongoing support to their customers. 

Your agents are seen as a source of information and expertise, so make sure they’re well trained. You can think of them as the bridge between your customers and your technical team. 

Give your customers value

Customer support has changed due to the evolution of software and new products being developed, but the nature of customer service is still the same.

With such complex technology, it becomes easier to conduct support queries over email or online chat rather than over the phone, due to the ease of explaining and the ability to copy and paste diagrams or code. 

To an extent the modern consumer is more sophisticated, but good old fashioned customer service is still king.

People will be thrilled if you can go above and beyond what’s expected of you as a service provider. They will tell their friends, and your business will grow. 

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