Organizations That Integrate Communities Into Customer Support Can Realize Cost Reductions of Up to 50 Percent

Radical levels of customer service, which account for an average of 75 percent all customer interactions, threaten to undermine the customer's affinity for brands in 2012, according to Gartner,Inc. It is critical for customer service organizations to figure out how to harmonize customer service processes that sometimes happen with a human support agent, sometimes through self-service and sometimes by peer-to-peer community networks. 

Gartner's central predictions for the CRM customer service and support market are:

-- By 2014, organizations integrating communities into customer support will realize cost reductions ranging from 10 percent to 50 percent.

-- By 2014, customer fallout will drive down customer satisfaction in 70 percent of organizations that shift customer support to communities.

-- By 2015, 50 percent of online customer self-service search activities will be via a virtual assistant for at least 1,500 large enterprises.

-- By 2015, the marketing budget allocated to retaining customers and increasing loyalty through customer service will more than double.

-- Through 2015, the dominant themes in customer service and support will be collaborative customer service processes, application migration to the cloud and support of mobile consumers.

More information on service and support can be found at www.SupportIndustry.com