This week marks the Institute of Customer Service’s National Customer Service Week 2025. Ageas UK’s Chief Customer Officer Caroline King looks back at the ICS future forecasting in 2020 and reflects just how accurate those predictions for the evolution of customer service were.
National Customer Service Week (NCSW) is a valuable opportunity for businesses to recognise and raise awareness of the critical role customer service plays.
As active members of the Institute of Customer Service (ICS), in 2020 Ageas joined other leading organisations in sponsoring ICS in their Customer of the Future research.
The findings predicted that by 2025, customers would be digitally savvy, values-led, and expect fast, personalised, and ethical services. It also anticipated concerns around trust, namely Artificial Intelligence (AI) and data privacy.
The full research is not publicly available, but many of the themes identified in the report align with the trends I have seen in the last five years, and I believe the prevailing development to be a heightened demand for trust.
Trust
Understandably and rightfully so, we as consumers are demanding ethical conduct and transparency.
As predicted in the 2020 research customers have become more pragmatic, they want to trust businesses to not only offer a personalised, empathetic service, but to act fairly, responsibly, and as a force for good.
Whether it’s the sustainability of its premises or acting in the customers’ best interest, now more than ever businesses should wholeheartedly be striving to be better. Businesses should recognise that responsibility is shared by every single employee, regardless of their role or function everyone is a customer champion.
As technology advancements allow us to deploy speech analytics to help us identify vulnerabilities and better support our customers, it too advances for fraudsters. Customers need to trust businesses with their data, and we must act fast to fight the threat of cyberattacks.
Opportunities
The 2020 report also identified a range of future opportunities for 2025, with integration, emotionalised personalisation, and trust being the standout themes.
In my experience the demand for seamless, multi-service experiences has increased and whether it’s on the phone or online, every customer has different communication preferences and needs. Firms looking to meet these disparate requirements should do so by both enabling self-service and providing customer service colleagues with enhanced tools to support customers who make contact looking for a service or support.
In recent years we’ve also focused a lot on emotionalised personalisation, namely how we can better support customers living with characteristics of vulnerability. By having different communication methods available, we’ve had customer feedback confirming our e-claims and Voicebots platforms have supported vulnerable customers to manage their insurance.
A lot can and will be learned from this report, and I believe building trust is fundamental to delivering good customer service now and for the future. To achieve this, we need to improve transparency, innovate responsibly, and respond appropriately to evolving expectations and individualistic needs.
Service with Respect campaign
2025 marks the fifth anniversary of the ICS Service with Respect campaign.
Just as customers should be able to trust the businesses they are buying from, individuals providing customer service should be able to trust that they will be treated with dignity and respect both by the customers they are serving and their employer.
As well as raising awareness of the unacceptable abuse that many customer-facing employees continue to face, the campaign highlights the importance that should abuse happen, employees feel safe, supported, and valued by their employer.
Our CEO, Ant Middle, has joined over 100 business leaders in signing an open letter to the Government, calling for stronger legal protections for public-facing workers.
I would invite other businesses to do the same, so we can come together, acknowledge the challenges, and champion a customer service culture where respect is not just expected, but embedded.
National Customer Service Week
More information on National Customer Service Week and how to get involved can be found via The Institute of Customer Service website.