Tech-enabled customer services expected to contribute larger share of revenue for companies

Amid growing headcount and budgets, customer services is expected to contribute a larger share of revenue for companies this year, found a new report by Salesforce. Close to 80% of Indian organisations in India expect service to contribute more revenue this year, while 85% expect higher budget allocation towards this function. 

“Customers today value their experience a lot and every purchase decision, every repurchase decision, their word of mouth depends on the consumer experience, which is driven a lot by the technology. So your ability to understand the customer and propose solutions to the customer, based on the technology available to you is of great importance, and that directly impacts the revenue,” Deepak Pargaonkar, Vice President, Solution Engineering at Salesforce told TechCircle. 

Technology-wise, companies are ramping up their investment. For instance, while the widespread adoption of AI may be still in its early stages, benefits are already visible. Salesforce survey showed that service professionals at organisations investing in AI, 93% say the technology saves them time on the job. The top three service use cases for AI in India are automated summaries and reports, intelligent offers and recommendations, knowledge article creation.

“Organisations are getting better at striking the balance between delivering service at speed with quality augmented by the increasing maturity of automation, and data capabilities. AI and Data are fueling the next level of customer experience, with AI proving its value with a variety of use cases delivering unmatched value to customers while unlocking revenue-generating opportunities,” added Pargaonkar. 

Lastly, to improve their AI systems, service organisations are doubling efforts on data integration. More than 80% of the service organisations are set to increase investment in data integration this year.