It’s not your imagination. Customer service is improving.
Janet Heller noticed it when she broke her arm and could no longer drive. She needed a prescription filled and was worried she couldn’t make it to Walgreens.
That’s when she discovered that Walgreens would come to her. In 2021, the drugstore chain introduced contactless, same-day delivery to help customers during the pandemic. In December, the company extended its same-day delivery to more markets, including Heller’s.
“I really appreciated the customer-service improvements,” says Heller, who runs a nonprofit organization in Portage, Mich. “It helped me while I recuperated from my injury.”
How is customer service getting better?
Customer service improvements are part of a broader trend in American business. Companies are eliminating nuisance fees, improving their products and streamlining their processes.
- USAA Federal Savings Bank last month eliminated its out-of-network ATM fees. That gives its 9 million members the ability to use any ATM in the United States without getting hit with a fee from the bank. USAA is one of the top-rated companies for customer service.
- Mediacom Communications, the fifth-largest cable operator in the United States, last year completed several ambitious projects to extend its fiber optic network. It included a 34-mile network expansion to residents and businesses in California’s Kern River Valley, which gave them lightning-fast internet. And it completed the expansion of a state-of-the-art fiber network to Edgewood, Ill.
- Allianz Partners last year hired more than 500 associates to help manage calls from customers. It also streamlined the way it managed travel insurance claims. “This year, we will refresh our claims process to enhance clarity and transparency and reduce the need for our customers to call to ask about the status of their claim,” says Daniel Durazo, a spokesman for Allianz.
What’s behind the post-pandemic customer service improvements?
“Customers have higher expectations for rich experiences,” says Adrian McDermott, the chief technology officer at Zendesk. “And much lower patience.”
He says despite the upgrades, there’s still a lot of room for improvement.
Zendesk’s 2023 Annual CX Trends Report found that a shift in customer behavior has prompted leaders to invest in technology that creates immersive, seamless service experiences. These new customer service standards are essential to boosting customer acquisition, loyalty, and profitability, according to Zendesk.
But what shifted? I asked Ataur Rahman, the CEO of GetGenie, a company specializing in AI tools. He says it all started with remote work during the pandemic.
“Companies had to quickly adapt to remote work,” he says. “This resulted in the increased use of technology to provide customer support. As a result, businesses were able to offer faster response times and improved connectivity.”
After that, there was no going back. Companies felt a competitive pressure to upgrade customer service functions, technology and other parts of their business. And experts say that’s where we find ourselves now: in the middle of an enormous upgrade cycle.
Call centers are adding AI. Customer-unfriendly policies are being scrapped. Products are being improved.
It’s just good business.
How to take advantage of the customer service improvements
To take advantage of these recent improvements, experts say you have to keep up the pressure on businesses to perform. That means doing business with a company that offers great service and holding it accountable when it doesn’t.
“Companies must improve their customer service to survive in today’s competitive economy,” says Christena Garduno, chief executive officer of Media Culture, a multichannel media agency.
But where do you find these businesses? There are awards for customer service, including the American Business Awards (the “Stevies”), J.D. Power, and my nonprofit organization’s customer service awards. These awards can guide you to a company that gets it. You can also consult the American Customer Satisfaction Index to determine which companies are worth your hard-earned dollar.
But the second part is holding a company accountable when it fails to meet its customer service obligations. Those promises are easy to find. They’re written in their mission statements, their customer guarantees, and their ticket contracts.
It is far too easy for employees to lapse back into pre-pandemic customer service mode. As a consumer advocate, I’ve found that a brief, polite and written reminder of what the company stands for is often all it takes to nudge a business in the right direction.
How long will the customer service renaissance last?
How long will these improvements continue? The first two decades of the 21st century were marked by steep customer service declines in many industries. But the pandemic changed everything. Businesses saw value — and profits — in creating better products and backing them up with better service.
If customers reward them with their business, this trend could continue. But the moment an industry believes bad service is profitable, it will probably end.
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Christopher Elliott is an author, consumer advocate, and journalist. He founded Elliott Advocacy, a nonprofit organization that helps solve consumer problems. He publishes Elliott Confidential, a travel newsletter, and the Elliott Report, a news site about customer service. If you need help with a consumer problem, you can reach him here or email him at [email protected].
