When it comes to customer services, there’s a new normal in town…

The hurdles we’ve all had to clear during the global pandemic are gradually coming to an end. But while the shock for businesses has subsided, what’s interesting is the way it’s accelerated the deployment of online-only customer services.

Practically, this change has meant many businesses have invested even more in their web-based support functions, spinning up browser-based customer services where there previously were none. It’s hard to see them ever going back.  

Many brands, however, were already making this move, and the necessity triggered by Covid-19 has accelerated this shift. At Upscope we’ve already been working with “online only” customer service teams for the past six years, so this comes as no surprise to us.

Things are far different to the call centres of the past. Long gone are the huge office buildings filled with rows and rows of desks, manned by stressed support operatives. In today’s world, the above description couldn’t be further from the truth.

The modern-day support Superagent has a lot more responsibility than the customer support agents of old. Thanks to the influence of AI and automation, ‘super agents’ are only becoming more helpful and specialised than ever before. 

What do superagents look like?

We’re quickly becoming used to chatbots and automated responses that have been deployed by businesses to tackle the majority of simple (and time-sapping) issues customers tend to call about. This means that the only issues which reach a human tend to be more specialised and nuanced, or require a more bespoke solution.

This change in job requirements has propelled the traditional role of the customer service operative or customer support agent upmarket – with the term “superagent” quickly becoming a more apt term for these new multi-skilled workers.

Superagents need a larger variety of technical product knowledge, and an understanding of the various options and solutions that can aid their customers. They are also not adverse to deploying sales skills, because in order to successfully solve their problem the customer may at times need to spend more money – upgrading to bigger software plans, or changing hardware for example.

A good example of what a superagent might look like is the Apple Genius – rebranded support workers who can solve problems and offer solutions, as well as delight customers and sell effectively.

The tools of the future

With the shift to online-only services, and the increased usage of AI and automation, superagents will soon become the norm. The tools these new workers will require will need to match their wider skillset.

Here at Upscope, we’re working on building a full-stack context machine which will allow superagents to understand customers’ needs and problems fast. Our main tool, co-browsing, helps superagents see exactly what their customers see on their screen in just a few clicks. This is massively useful for onboarding new customers, troubleshooting issues, or helping customers make the right buying decisions.

However, to work effectively, superagents will need full-context data on the customer in front of them. They’ll need to know what the customer was doing right before they hit a roadblock or error, and they’ll need predictive algorithms which foresee the issues the customer may incur later down the line.

by Cameron James, Head of Marketing, Upscope

If you want to see how Upscope customers such as Square and Moo give their agents superpowers, click here.