Digital customer service

In what is widely considered one of the least-foresighted predictions of all time, renowned economist Paul Krugman infamously forecasted that it will eventually become clear that “the internet’s impact on the global economy has been no greater than the fax machine.” Now, 26 years after this ill-fated prophecy, The World Bank estimates the digital economy contributes to more than 15% of global GDP, and most of us can’t imagine a world without ecommerce and digital customer service.

As customers continue to turn to the web for their purchasing needs, businesses must also cater their customer service offerings to meet their customers on whichever digital channels they use.

Today, we’ll dive into the ever-evolving arena of online customer service and how to optimize your support strategies to thrive in the increasingly digital-first market.

What is digital customer service (DCS)?

Digital customer service (DCS) refers to using digital channels and technologies to support your customers. It involves leveraging various online platforms, communication tools, and automated systems to address customer inquiries, issues, and requests. 

Digital customer service is paramount in today's interconnected world as it aligns with the evolving expectations of consumers who increasingly rely on digital communication. With the prevalence of online interactions, customers anticipate immediate support through various channels, including live chat, social media, and self-service portals. Digital customer service not only enhances convenience but also allows businesses to engage with a global audience, provide webinars and tutorials, and demonstrate responsiveness in real-time. As customers prioritize efficiency, a robust digital customer service strategy becomes instrumental in maintaining positive brand perceptions, fostering customer loyalty, and ultimately contributing to success in the modern marketplace.

Ways that digital customer service comes to life

Key features of a refined digital support system should include well-rounded use of online channels, self-service options, and utilization of chatbots and virtual assistants. 

Maintaining online support channels is one of the major components of digital customer service. Email, live chat, social media, and messaging apps are some of the most popular platforms customers currently prefer to communicate through. Online support is generally more cost-efficient than traditional methods, transcends geographical boundaries, and allows for increased ease in collecting valuable customer data. 

Self-service options are another highly desirable element of the digital system, enabling customers to find answers to common questions, troubleshoot issues, and access information without direct human intervention. Self-service can include FAQs, knowledge bases, and interactive guides. This results in a more efficient and satisfactory experience for the customer and frees up time for human agents to attend to matters that may require more personalization.

The increased deployment of chatbots and virtual assistants has also freed up time for real-world agents with their ability to handle routine tasks, answer FAQs, and direct customers to the proper resources. These AI services offer round-the-clock availability, provide real-time responses, and can be customized better to fit the tone and style of your brand. By integrating chatbots and virtual assistants into your customer service plan, you can optimize efficiency, provide timely support, and enhance the overall customer experience.

In addition, some other ways that digital customer experience may come to life include:

• AI-powered chats that can reduce call volume to a contact center or call center.

• Knowledge bases on both web and through mobile apps to help customers achieve their own customer success.

• Text messaging (or SMS) interactions to the end customer that can streamline alerts, notifications, and updates.

Why should companies invest into digital customer service?

A well-employed digital customer service plan will always lead to increased customer satisfaction by offering 24/7 availability, personalized support, and multi-channel options. Additionally, the ability to collect and analyze customer data enhances understanding, enabling businesses to anticipate needs and proactively address concerns. Larger corporations or businesses anticipating significant growth will likely find the biggest benefit in digital support, as it offers desirable scalability to help you meet your needs as they continue to evolve.

The absence of a digital customer service strategy can lead to several undesirable results for businesses that insist on sticking with more traditional methods. Without digital channels, customers will face limitations in accessing support, especially outside regular business hours. This can result in frustration and dissatisfaction among those who require assistance outside of traditional business hours. Additionally, inefficiencies in customer service can often result in higher operational costs. Implementing digital solutions can lead to monetary savings through improved efficiency and resource utilization.

What are the most commonly used digital customer service channels?

Once you’ve decided to integrate a digital customer service strategy into your business plan, the next step is deciding which channels you want to focus on. Here are a few of the more commonly utilized channels across all industries: 

Social media: Some of the key platforms on which you’ll want to engage with customers are social media channels. Knowmax reports that 67% of customers consider contacting customer support via social media to be convenient. Additionally, engaging in customer support on social media provides an opportunity to showcase your brand to a wider audience. Positive interactions with users can be shared, liked, and commented on, exposing your message to potential customers. 

A key challenge with social media is keeping up with new platforms your customers are migrating to as they’re introduced. You’ll want to make sure your company is constantly evaluating data insights and considering feedback to continue meeting your customers on the channels they use the most.

Email: Though it may seem a bit old-school at this point in the technological arc, traditional e-mail outreach remains a great way to connect with users. E-mail is optimal for utilizing customer segmentation which allows you to tailor your communication to different groups, thus providing a more targeted customer support experience. For instance, new customers may receive welcome emails with onboarding information, while repeat customers could receive loyalty program updates or exclusive offers. Even with the constant introduction of newer platforms, an ACA survey found that email still ranks first for customer service in terms of ease of use, with 65.7% of respondents saying they prefer it over any other channel.

Self-service portals: Self-service portals play a critical role in enhancing digital customer service by empowering users to find information and troubleshoot issues on their own. Its round-the-clock accessibility is a major plus for customers, allowing them to address their issues at any time and reducing dependency on normal working hours. Self-service can also result in cost savings for your company by reducing the volume of queries handled by support agents. 

A good example of self-service mastery is Microsoft – it provides an entire dedicated support website that offers articles, tutorials, and guides covering nearly all of their products, helping to lessen the strain on its service representatives.

What are the benefits of providing digital customer service?

Businesses that embrace digital channels can foster a more responsive, customer-centric experience, contributing to higher customer satisfaction and loyalty. In addition to better serving current users, maintaining a digital presence can help acquire new customers – providing tutorials and FAQ pages can ultimately find their way to potential consumers who may not be aware of your products or services. Let’s break down some of the key benefits of employing a digital customer service plan. 

Personalized digital experience for customers

Customization is an increasingly important feature for customers and can position your brand as forward-thinking, customer-centric, and attentive to individual needs. The data insights gained from digital customer service can help businesses create detailed profiles to build a personalized experience tailored to individual customers. Additionally, recommendation engines can suggest relevant products based on the customer’s purchase history to facilitate sales that may not have occurred otherwise. 

Expedited resolutions for customers

Perhaps the most obvious benefit of employing digital support, online customer service can quickly resolve common issues in several different ways. First, offering support across multiple digital channels allows customers to choose the most expedient communication for their individual needs. Moreover, automated self-service options such as FAQs, knowledge bases, and automated troubleshooting guides can resolve user issues without agent interaction. Round-the-clock availability of digital support enables customers to access service at any time of day, freeing up company resources during normal working hours as well.

Ability to connect with more customers

Maintaining a digital support system increases your business’s visibility, allowing for communication with customers you may not have been able to connect with otherwise. Customers who may experience anxiety with phone communications are significantly more likely to utilize digital platforms, creating a more comfortable and convenient support experience. Furthermore, companies can schedule webinars and virtual events to showcase their products or services, which can attract new customers and foster a sense of community around your brand. 

Provide customer service from customers’ preferred channel

Another important feature of digital customer support is that it enables your business to engage customers on whichever channel they prefer. Studies have shown that 62% of customers want to interact with companies across multiple digital platforms, highlighting the market’s desire for multi-channel communication. This can also demonstrate your business’s commitment to flexibility and meeting customer needs, which can contribute to increased customer loyalty and higher levels of satisfaction.

Being able to “scale smarter” with self-service techniques 

Self-service options can help deflect common inquiries without agent interaction, allowing human representatives to focus on more nuanced inquiries. This is a particularly important tool for large organizations or fast-growing businesses, as self-service can resolve the issues of myriad customers simultaneously. The Harvard Business Review found that 81% of all customers attempt to find a solution to problems themselves before reaching out to an agent. When dealing with hundreds or even thousands of queries per day, the benefits of self-service techniques only continue to grow as your company expands.

Freshdesk offers extremely scalable self-service capabilities that can help your business adjust to any changes that may lie ahead.

Handling lower-level requests with chatbots and other AI automation

Chatbots and virtual assistants are other digital tools that can help take the onus off your human agents by helping to resolve lower-level requests and other FAQs. Chatbots can provide instant responses to customer questions which is particularly valuable for companies handling high volumes of routine queries. Virtual assistants are more comprehensive than chatbots and are capable of handling complex tasks. They can be personalized to the individual user since they learn from interactions, adapt to preferences, and utilize machine learning (ML) to predict customer needs.

Freshworks’ chatbots are fully customizable, making it easy to personalize your bot to fit your unique brand.

Provide insights for product and engineering teams

By leveraging digital customer service data, your company can gain actionable insights to drive improvements in operational efficiency, product development, and customer satisfaction. Instituting customer surveys and feedback forms can provide your business with an in-depth evaluation of customer preferences, allowing you to fine-tune your products and services to better suit their needs. Businesses can also analyze their customers’ journeys to understand the different touchpoints users have with their system. This helps identify critical points in their interactions where improvements can be made.

Ability to connect customer data with other internal tools  

By integrating digital customer service with your CRM, you can create a unified approach to user interactions to help personalize interactions and optimize operational processes. Access to CRM data enables support agents to greet customers by name, reference previous interactions, and offer customized solutions based on the user’s preferences. Additionally, this allows for the segmentation of customers based on demographics, behavior, and purchase history to enable targeted campaigns and improve customer retention.

6 steps to creating a digital customer service strategy

The biggest hurdle for many businesses considering a digital customer service strategy is simply taking the initial leap. With a well-thought-out blueprint and assistance from your digital service provider, we assure you the transition is quite painless and usually results in immediate, quantifiable benefits. Let’s dive into what your business should consider when implementing your digital customer service system.

1. Conduct a needs assessment

First, evaluate your current customer service capabilities and identify areas that can benefit from digitization. Understand customer preferences, pain points, and expectations through surveys, feedback, and market research. This will assist you in selecting a digital service provider that best suits your business’s particular needs. 

Freshdesk is one of the most well-rounded systems on the market, providing an all-in-one solution designed to benefit organizations of all sizes.

2. Set clear, achievable objectives 

Next, define specific and measurable goals for your digital customer service strategy. This could include improving response times, reducing customer churn, or enhancing overall customer satisfaction. Make sure your goals are ambitious, but achievable – setting unrealistic benchmarks can result in discouragement and lower company morale.

3. Implement multi-channel support

Offer service across various digital channels, such as email, live chat, social media, and self-service portals. Ensure consistency in communication and quality across all channels so that customers are receiving a cohesive experience on all platforms. Providing support through multiple channels demonstrates a commitment to increasing satisfaction and often results in increased loyalty from your customer base. 

4. Deploy AI support

Implement chatbots and virtual assistants for routine and repetitive tasks to improve efficiency. Design chatbots to provide quick answers, route inquiries to the correct departments, and enhance the overall customer experience. Successful implementation of AI support benefits the customer and your business alike, by creating a more efficient interaction and enabling human agents to handle more contextual inquiries.

5. Train your team 

Train your customer service team on using digital tools effectively and provide ongoing training as technologies evolve. Empower your team to make decisions and resolve issues independently, especially when it comes to complex queries. The better your team can utilize your digital customer service technology, the more beneficial it will be for everybody involved. 

6. Enable customer feedback mechanisms

Deploy mechanisms to collect customer feedback and use it to improve your digital customer service strategy. Act on feedback promptly to demonstrate responsiveness and a commitment to continuous improvement. Actively considering feedback allows customers to feel heard and also helps to optimize your digital processes to foster increased satisfaction rates.

Best practices for a digital customer service strategy

Effective digital customer service strategies encompass various best practices to ensure a cohesive and satisfying experience for customers. Here are three key best practices:

• Provide multi-channel support: Implementing a multi-channel approach ensures that consumers can reach out for support through their preferred communication channels, whether it's email, live chat, phone, or self-service options like knowledge bases or FAQs. By offering multiple channels, businesses accommodate diverse individual preferences and provide greater accessibility. Moreover, integrating these channels to maintain consistency and continuity across interactions enhances the overall customer experience.

• Include personalization in your experience: Utilize customer data and analytics to personalize interactions and support experiences. This involves understanding customer preferences, purchase history, behavior patterns, and demographics to tailor recommendations, responses, and offers accordingly. Personalization can enhance engagement, foster loyalty, and make consumers feel valued by demonstrating that the business understands and caters to their individual needs.

• Create efficient and responsive communication: Ensure timely and efficient responses to customer inquiries and issues across all digital channels. This includes implementing automation and AI-driven solutions such as chatbots for handling routine queries and providing instant assistance. For more complex issues requiring human intervention, prioritize responsiveness and transparency in communication to keep consumers informed about the status of their requests and provide realistic timelines for resolution. Prompt communication builds trust, reduces frustration, and reinforces positive perceptions of the brand.

What are the challenges of digital customer service?

While digital customer service offers numerous benefits, it also presents unique challenges that businesses must overcome to provide exceptional experiences. Navigating these hurdles is essential for success in today's digital-first world.

Balancing limited human interaction with customer satisfaction

One of the main challenges of digital customer service is finding the right balance between automated solutions and human interaction. While AI-powered chatbots and self-service portals can efficiently handle simple inquiries, complex issues often require the empathy and problem-solving skills of a human agent. Striking the right balance is crucial to avoid frustrating customers who may feel lost in a maze of automated responses. Businesses need to ensure a seamless transition to human support when necessary and provide clear communication throughout the customer journey.

Overcoming barriers for less tech-savvy customers

Not all customers are equally comfortable with technology. Digital customer service channels can present barriers for less tech-savvy individuals, potentially leading to frustration and exclusion. To address this, businesses need to design user-friendly interfaces, provide clear instructions, and offer alternative support options for those who prefer more traditional methods. Accessibility features, such as screen readers and alternative text for images, are also essential to ensure inclusivity for all customers.

Maintaining personalized service in a digital environment

Delivering personalized experiences in a digital environment can be challenging. Unlike face-to-face interactions, online communication can sometimes feel impersonal and transactional. To overcome this, businesses need to leverage data and technology to personalize their interactions. This can include using customer data to tailor responses, offering proactive support based on past interactions, and providing personalized recommendations. By creating a sense of individual attention, businesses can foster stronger customer relationships and build loyalty even in the digital space.

Managing technical issues and downtime effectively

Website crashes, server outages, and software bugs can disrupt service and frustrate customers. To maintain customer trust and prevent service disruptions, businesses need to proactively monitor their systems to detect potential issues before they impact customers. This includes implementing redundancy in infrastructure and regular data backups to minimize downtime and data loss. When technical issues occur, having a clear incident response plan that quickly addresses and resolves them is essential. Transparent communication is also key, keeping customers informed about outages and estimated recovery times through status pages or other channels. Keep in mind, that regular system maintenance and software updates are also needed to prevent issues.

Why do customers value digital customer service?

Customers value digital customer service for several reasons:

• Convenience: DCS allows customers to seek assistance from anywhere at any time, without the need to visit physical locations or adhere to specific business hours. This convenience aligns with the busy lifestyles of many consumers today.

• Provide accessibility: With DCS, individuals  can access support through various digital channels such as websites, mobile apps, social media platforms, and more. This accessibility ensures that customers can choose the channel that best suits their preferences.

• Enhance your speed to resolve issues: DCS often provides quicker responses compared to traditional customer service methods. Automated systems like chatbots can provide immediate answers to frequently asked questions, while live chat options offer real-time assistance without the need to wait on hold.

• Improve your efficiency: Digital platforms enable streamlined processes for issue resolution and communication. Consumers can quickly find information, track orders, and resolve problems without the need for lengthy phone calls or in-person interactions, leading to greater efficiency for both the customer and the business.

• Include personalization: Digital customer service ( systems can leverage customer data to provide personalized experiences. By analyzing past interactions and preferences, businesses can tailor recommendations, offers, and support solutions to each individual's specific needs, enhancing their overall experience.

• Give multi-channel support: DCS allows customers to switch seamlessly between different communication channels while maintaining continuity in their interactions. For example, a user may start a conversation on social media and continue it via email or live chat, ensuring a consistent and integrated support experience.

• Provide complete self-service options: DCS often includes self-service features such as FAQ sections, knowledge bases, and troubleshooting guides. These resources empower customers to find solutions independently, reducing the need for direct assistance and improving overall satisfaction.

• Provide 24/7 availability with support: Unlike traditional customer service channels with limited operating hours, digital customer service is available around the clock. This accessibility ensures that consumers can receive support whenever they need it, regardless of the time zone or their own schedule.

In summary, customers value DCS for its convenience, accessibility, and efficiency, while utilizing features such as multi-channel support, self-service options, and 24/7 availability, which contribute to a more seamless and satisfying customer experience.

The future of digital customer service

The future of digital customer service holds a plethora of exciting possibilities as technology continues to advance and customers keep utilizing new and unique channels. Features such as omni-channel service, voice recognition, and predictive analysis offer tremendous potential for improvement as the field evolves. Let’s take a glimpse into what the future of digital support may have in store.

The omni-channel system is an area of digital customer service that simply will never stop growing, as new platforms continue to be introduced every day. The AI that generally helps maintain these channels will continue to become more sophisticated, fine-tuning its ability to handle more complex queries and tailor its support to individual users. The data insights gained across these platforms should also improve, providing companies with the opportunity to better understand their customers and enhance support strategies. 

Additionally, AI will continue to perfect its voice recognition and natural language processing (NLP) abilities resulting in more human-like interactions. By leveraging machine learning, AI systems will become better at comprehending and retaining context over more extended conversations. This includes recognizing references, maintaining continuity between different queries, and understanding the evolution of topics during a conversation. Statista reports that over eight billion digital voice assistants are in use as of 2024 – we forecast that number will grow significantly as their capabilities continue to enhance. 

Predictive analysis also projects major advancements, as AI continues to utilize machine learning to better recognize customer needs and anticipate behavior. Early identification of customers at risk of churning is one ability of predictive analysis poised for significant improvement in the coming years. Machine learning can analyze various attributes such as usage patterns, transaction history, and support interactions to predict the likelihood of churn for each customer.

Lastly, personalization can be improved through predictive analysis by enabling businesses to offer suggestions that align with individual tastes. Netflix continues to heavily utilize its analysis in this manner, famously personalizing your home page to display recommendations based on your previous selection history. AI will only continue to refine its algorithm in this regard as it continues to gain a better understanding of users.

How can Freshdesk can help?

Freshdesk can significantly strengthen your digital customer service experience:

• A unified platform: Freshworks provides a unified platform that consolidates various customer service channels such as email, chat, phone, social media, and self-service portals. This centralized approach streamlines communication and ensures consistency across channels, enabling agents to deliver seamless support experiences regardless of the consumer's preferred contact method.

• A complete 360-degree customer view: The platform merges user data from different touchpoints, providing agents with a 360-degree view of each customer's interactions, purchase history, preferences, and more. This comprehensive view enables agents to personalize responses, anticipate needs, and deliver more relevant solutions to enhance the overall customer experience.

• Freddy AI: Freshdesk offers automation and AI-powered tools such as Freddy AI, chatbots, virtual assistants, and predictive analytics that can automate routine tasks, facilitate self-service options, and provide intelligent recommendations. These tools help reduce response times, improve efficiency, and scale support operations to handle high volumes of inquiries effectively.

• Being able to provide omni-channel support: Freshdeskalso enables omni-channel support, allowing consumers to effortlessly transition between different channels while maintaining continuity in their interactions. This ensures a consistent and integrated support experience across all communication, enhancing customer satisfaction and loyalty.

• Seamless collaboration and productivity features: The platform includes collaboration and productivity features such as shared inboxes, internal notes, and task assignment capabilities that enable agents to resolve consumer issues efficiently. This fosters teamwork, improves communication within the support team, and ensures prompt resolution of customer inquiries.

• Powerful analytics and reporting: Even more, Freshdeskprovides robust analytics and reporting capabilities that allow businesses to track key performance indicators (KPIs), monitor customer satisfaction levels, and gain insights into support operations. By analyzing data trends and identifying areas for improvement, businesses can optimize their digital support strategies, drive operational efficiencies, and enhance the overall consumer experience.