Customer Support Trends 2023

Except for the 2008 crisis, economic growth across the globe in 2023 is predicted to be the slowest it’s been in 20+ years. 

“I haven't been on a customer call in the past two months where someone didn't mention ‘do more with less’ as their top priority for 2023,” recalls Ultimate's CEO and Co-founder, Reetu Kainulainen. And this sentiment is shared by the top CX leaders out there, according to our research.

One of the most common ways businesses across the world are meeting this challenge head on is by shifting their focus from acquisition to retention. There are two simple reasons why: It’s cheaper and way less risky than trying to wow new customers from scratch.

As businesses are forced to grapple with new and creative ways to drive profit, they’re reevaluating the traditionally reactive role of customer support. They can't afford not to.

So how do you get your support to start paying for itself?

Incentivize your agents, reduce silos between sales and support, and systematically harness your CS team’s proximity to customers for insights to better serve them. Then, invest in the right tools to track the additional value you're generating this way.

Consumers have had it with phone queues, and businesses are taking note.

It's become commonplace to handle our life admin while brushing our teeth, between meetings, or while we’re stuck in traffic. The way we communicate digitally supports this shift: Asynchronous messaging, meaning messages we send over hours or days (vs. in real time), is on the rise.  

WhatApp and Facebook messenger are quickly rising as go-tos for this type of support, but the old customer support evergreen email continues to hold its own.

Customer experience is a key differentiator when it comes to consumers’ buying decisions, with 86% of consumers willing to pay more for a better experience. Knowing this, industry leaders are allocating funds to an area of business that has become more than a nice-to-have.

In 2023, a forward-thinking CX strategy has become a non-negotiable. It's connected to all of the trends we've covered on this page: retaining customers, creating revenue, and harnessing a growing appetite for async comms. This is why we’re going to see more top talent starting careers in CX — and making it to the very top.

Want to dive even deeper into 2023's hottest CS trends and statistics? Grab your Ultimate 2023 Trends Guide now.