A lot has changed in the customer service space in the past 20 years. Few businesses use to pay attention to the quality of their customer service. They spent more time and resources on things that could bring them revenue.

Businesses also didn’t pay much attention to the hassle customers had to go through to report a problem or get an inquiry resolved. Waiting for hours on end for representatives to answer customer queries was the normal.

There was no access to online chat with customer care, let alone any kind of self-service resolution capabilities. Some of you reading this may not even be aware of that reality, because you were born after the digital revolution started.

Today, with the availability of a range of options to most customers by means of the internet, poor customer service is one of the biggest concerns for big companies and enterprises.

Customers are demanding more and better service online and offline in exchange for their loyalty. That means that businesses in the 21st century have to step up their game if they want to stay competitive.

The customer service sector is no longer limited to telephone conversations and answering machines. Now, the customer service industry is focused on innovation. Modern ways and processes are being embraced. Even the term customer service has been replaced with customer success.

Everything Mobile

There is very good reason for the reduction in sales of computers around the world. That is because more and more people are using their mobile phones for shopping and to interact with businesses.

Customer success teams have to become more responsive and alert to the wants and needs and capabilities of consumers on their mobile phones who demand immediate access. Such on demand customer success capacities can be delivered via SMS, or DMs on social media platforms.

Chatbots Everywhere

Chatbots are the ultimate innovation in the field of customer success. When customers want more than just the “human touch”, they frequently look for options that might help them faster than humans can.

Chatbots are becoming a top kind of customer success technology that can greatly reduce the number of contacts human agents have to handle. This also ensures that more humans are freed up to deal with problems that are too complicated for simple chatbots.

According to research, more than 80% of the queries that customers have can be cleared up with the help of chatbots.

Social Media Everywhere

Social media has been used by businesses for marketing and sales for quite a long time. Now, we are fully in the next phase where companies are beginning to use channels for customer success purposes.

Customers have made social media the default way of interacting with their friends and family, along with work colleagues and others. It makes sense for businesses to join the social circle of customers to resolve their queries efficiently.

There are a number of agencies that provide customer success on social media. They can be employed to save capital and the hassle of looking for more reps.

Everything Better with Video

Video chats in the post-pandemic world are being used by everybody. Technologies like Skype, Zoom, and Duo have become a daily part of our lives.

Because customers have become more comfortable with interactions over video chat, businesses should endeavor to launch themselves into this space as well.

Video guidance for customers over video tends to have effects that cannot be attained over other mediums.

Video simulates the actual presence of humans for the convenience of the customers. As a result, video makes customers feel that they are cared for by the company and feel valued.

These innovations in customer success have become prevalent in recent times. More and more businesses are getting focused on improving their customer relations, often hiring dedicated personnel to handle that area for them.

Customer success is becoming so important that there are dedicated agencies popping up offering businesses a steady hand to deal with the queries and questions of customers.

This change is for the better. With the advent and rising popularity of online shopping and telephonic marketing, customers are becoming more aware about the kind of businesses they are interacting with. A few words of appreciation and prompt replies to their emails goes a long way in securing their loyalty.

Innovation in customer success takes on a more systematic approach to delighting customers. It breaks down internal barriers and encourages more transparency.

“Innovation in customer success is about letting the customer lead you into tomorrow.”

When it comes to customer success innovation it’s important to highlight that it isn’t about adopting a single strategy. Today’s consumer lives online across multiple mediums.

The companies who will outshine others in their efforts of enabling effective customer success strategies will meet the customers where they live and play.

This will require a shift in thinking from setting up capabilities to take in requests from customers, to setting up proactive outreach programs that anticipate needs.

With the advent of technologies such AI coupled with the mentioned tactics in this blog, there really are no excuses when it comes to developing and executing an effective customer success plan.

“Innovation is born out of people’s creativity coupled with technology that enhances connection and service standards.”

Companies who are balancing both people’s creativity and emerging technologies will win the race to delighting the customer.

Innovation marketing is a discipline that encompasses activities and novel processes to introduce and deliver entirely new products.

This includes research into the needs of customers, concept and prototype tests with customers, and developing plans on how to market these new products in a saturated market.

“Innovation marketing is playing a leading role in securing and increasing the success of products in markets that are becoming saturated.”

Many successful entrepreneurs have embraced the concept of integrating innovation in marketing. To remain competitive against newcomers who are typically more agile and creative, established companies should strive to include innovation marketing as a key market strategy, whether it be content, website development or graphics designing.

Here are some of the aspects of marketing that get integrated with innovation to produce results that are unbelievably efficient for new companies and companies that are interested in growing big organically.

● Market research comprises the identification of customer needs. Marketing research opens new doors for innovation because new information is constantly flowing in the form of insights that can be used to better serve customers.

● Marketing innovation also plays a very strategic role in the corporate world. There are many cases in which marketing plays a leading role in the development of not only market strategies, but also in R&D of new products. This is because marketing via customer research can identify crucial markets where those learned insights are applicable.

● Focus on the four levers of innovation marketing. For the purpose of constructing effective marketing strategies companies need to focus on: 1) product design, 2) pricing policies, 3) communication and messaging, 4) distribution and sales.

Defining Innovation Marketing

Innovation marketing covers all the activities that contribute to the success of selling new products and services. Innovation marketing includes a very wide variety of tasks and activities that are related to the customer and market orientation.

“Innovation marketing, in its entirety, contributes to the identification of future and new market opportunities by way of research into the needs of customers.”

What are companies supposed to look for, when it comes to customer needs research?

Research into the needs of customer needs to be in accordance with the specific market segment focus. Research is also conducted to gauge market potentials like the feasibility of a market, size of market, and the potential adoption of new products in such a market.

In the process of the development of a product, innovation marketing has the task of involving customers to gain insights and validation continuously. The aim is to collect feedback from customers that regularly engage within the focus market segment and gauge their reactions to current developments.

A major part of innovation marketing is the development of a strategy to roll out a new product. That is where the efficacy of innovation marketing is most apparent.

Innovation marketing is a continuous task that involves both external and internal marketing.

As a first step, for the purposes of initialization, the company’s own marketing staff will need to be aligned and excited about the new innovation that has been developed. You cannot assume to gain any market acceptance at large, without internal alignment.

This isn’t a step that requires coercion, or compliance internally. In other words, this isn’t a top-down effort. It’s about gaining honest and authentic alignment and excitement internally. This is done by developing products that serve the needs of the staff as the first set of customers.

The second step is to market the product externally. This involves the entire marketing plan from product positioning, pricing based on learned customer preferences, adequate and effective communication, and finally setting up efficient advertising and sales channels.

Innovation marketing includes all the tasks of getting a new product or service to the market, from the front-end development to the back end.

Innovation marketing is a about having across-divisional functions that play a very crucial role in the entirety of the process of introducing something new to the market.

It is this phenomenon that makes it clear how closely related and connected the tasks of marketing and innovation are in the process of creating a successful strategy of rolling out a product.

“Innovation marketing is about achieving total cross-functional and divisional alignment centered around introducing something new to the market.”

Innovation marketing is important because if there is a lack of information regarding preferences of the customer base, the needs of the base will be neglected. Hence, the marketing strategy would then become inadequate in the face of scarcity of alignment, causing a failure in sales.

Marketers are realizing more and more that traditional showcasing strategies are not successful any longer. The organizations that are encompassing trend setting innovation with the union of marketing and innovation are the clear winners in the market.

Innovation marketing works really well for technology companies, as an example, because of the obsession with customer data that can be translated into executable insights.

This combined with listening to customer feedback and industry trends allows companies to optimize products and services that gain adoption faster.

Inventive systems in marketing permit companies to modify methodologies to more readily meet customer requirements and increase sales as a result.

We often speak about innovation as it relates to design, products, services, and people strategies. Innovation in the sphere of sales and marketing is probably the greatest opportunity of our time in any industry.

Salespeople are always racking their brains for newer techniques to help them boost sales. Everything in the world depends in some form or fashion on sales. As all markets indirectly depend on sales, there is no other growing innovation that has received hype more than (AI) artificial intelligence.

Artificial intelligence is already beginning to deliver on its potential for extraordinary sales and it is not doing so by hampering the ability or potential of human intelligence.

“The idea that AI is going to replace people is simply not true. You cannot create innovation without human intelligence.”

Much to the disappointment (or good fortune) of the people who predicted AI was going to take over everything, you simply cannot achieve innovation without human intelligence.

Recently, scientists (also humans) have become adept at combining data and intuition to personalize the journey a buyer goes through via company sales channels.

The customer journey starts with emotions, generates a transaction, and gets supported long term by enabling the right emotions.

“AI can help quickly discover the right mix of emotional attributes that generates a transaction, only with the help of human intelligence.”

Humans are leveraging machines that work for them, including computers, to work more efficiently and integrate diverse data to cough up insights that boost growth and shirk hurdles.

These insights also help businesses understand how customers behave and help determine how behaviors can be used to their advantage.

By having knowledge of behaviors and the how-to science behind them, a business can increase sales and customer satisfaction. Customers can also get better service and experience faster more tailored support.

To keep testing the effectiveness of artificial intelligence we should stop and ponder over some of the more real-world applications.

We need to dig deeper to find out how artificial intelligence can become an integral and almost inseparable part of our lives.

It is through the journey of the emergence of artificial intelligence that we can find the answers to the plethora of questions sales analysts have had for years.

AI Symbolize Innovation in Sales

Consider a company sales representative who is not able to fulfil the requirements of a client in a given time, due to lack of know-how, or experience.

To help with this process, the company can provide access to expertise and actionable insights with knowledge base software enabled with artificial intelligence. The AI application then acts as a virtual assistant helping the representative appear more knowledgeable.

The platform can load the correct set of data at once, coughs out insights that could have been missed by a hundred analysts, and recommend the next best strategies based on those insights.

“With the help of actionable artificial intelligence, a salesperson can become unstoppable.”

When a salesperson has information based on proactive studies of customer behaviors and the ability to predict how a customer is going to react in any given circumstance, sales results can boom.

This approach accelerates sales and guides the company through a plateau. Eventually, sales teams become more effective at meeting their quota quarter over quarter, sometimes even exceeding it.

By contributing to the increase in sales through the use of artificial intelligence software, sales reps indirectly help increase the overall revenue and profit of the company.

Artificial intelligence is just one example of how innovation in sales can translate to huge increase in revenues and increase customer loyalty at the same time.

“In saturated markets with fixed number of buyers and sellers, businesses with better sales and marketing strategies win.”

Technology is leading the way towards innovation in sales and marketing. This is more than apparent to sales teams and marketing strategists of today.

More than 90% of sales leaders around the world are investing in technologies that help them engage prospects and customers.

Innovation in the sales industry is a priority for marketers and strategists and analysts around the world.

The key is connecting those technology investments and producing results that lead to quantifiable business outcomes. I am talking about results that can be seen and felt by large and small companies alike.

Competition for the best and the largest customer base is fierce. With more and more people starting up and becoming entrepreneurs, this competition is not going away anytime soon either.

Science and the Human Spirit

When people and science cooperate, astonishing things occur. Innovation is uncovered through the viewpoint of information, clearing a path for disclosure and advancement to improve business results and drive a culture of greatness.

No place is this more apparent than in the effect of Artificial Intelligence (AI) on business. Something beyond mechanizing work processes, AI and its subfields, for example, Machine Learning, are helping outreach groups deal with their pipeline, profitability, and with better execution.

While AI evokes fears of occupation misfortune and dehumanization, a portion of its perspectives really moves the needle towards the other way.

In deals for instance, AI supplements the human touch, empowering deals experts to scale their effort without weakening personalization when and where it is important.

It is wise to say that leveraging AI coupled with human genius creates innovation in sales, and it is the best way forward for any business.

Many scientists of the past were right when they predicted that we won’t be able to solve the problems of the future with the same kind of thinking of the past.

With the rapid changes that society is going through every day, the methods we have been using to deal with our problems in the past are no longer relevant.

We need to develop thinking methods that are much more efficient and systemized and do not depend on human skills and physical labor.

Innovation of this kind will certainly help us tackle problems of the 21st century in the most practical way possible.

The problems that artists, designers, business owners, engineers and civic leaders of today face are on a whole new level.

In a world that is largely globalized in every which way, changes in the economy and resource management are felt in every sector across the world almost instantly.

“To solve the new problems of today, we need new kind of innovation in design thinking.”

Design thinking is a large part of new innovation that we need to bring into our everyday mindsets.

This will allow us to engage in collaborative work by having a human-centered perspective towards the work needed.

“We need to make sure that most problems get tackled logically and scientifically, instead of with emotions or egos.”

Problems We Can Tackle with Design Thinking

Here is a hardly exhaustive list of problems and challenges that can be tackled with design thinking. Problems and challenges in society that involve:

● A redefinition of values

● Shifting markets and behaviors

● Reinvention of business models

● Addressing rapid changes in society

● Multiple systems and ideals

● Direct impact to diverse groups of people

● Quality of life

● Multidisciplinary teams

● Entrepreneurial initiatives

● Education advances

● Medical breakthroughs

● Inspiration

● Problems that big data can’t effectively solve

How to Approach Challenges Holistically

Design thinking is best suited to addressing problems by applying multiple dimensions to them, not singular views of one way or the other as we are experiencing today, especially in the political theater.

They are also most effective at the intersection of business and society, logic and emotion, human needs and economic requirements, rational and creative beings and between systems and individuals.

We would not require this kind of design thinking when you’re tackling time problems — that is, problems that have fixed solutions that are known to many stakeholders. Cake walks, basically.

Unless we’re looking for a novel way to address the problems that we’ve been tackling with the same solutions for so long, deep thinking is less than useless.

“Deep thinking is not just a process or a fixed set of steps you follow.”

Design thinking cannot be understood as a process that can solve a set-in-stone collection of problems that someone finds in front of them. It is rather a mindset towards approaching problems.

This mindset can be applied to almost any scenario where innovation or thinking differently is the most crucial aspect.

It can also be effectively combined with other thinking or strategy methodologies, business strategies that have been devised by marketing experts and management practices that have been followed heuristically for years by organizations or teams.

The Human Spirit

Information overload in this information economy is a big problem. Companies and organizations are battling not for money, but for attention.

Besides the constant accountability drives and scrutiny of employees by their seniors and superiors, people are being bombarded with information they don’t need for very long.

Hence, more and more humans are seeking products, services and organizations that they personally connect with.

These meaningful connections provide them a sweet escape from the daily information hustle, making them more capable to get up and put in a productive day of work.

“With the right mindset, we can tackle any problem with innovation in design thinking.”

The challenges that society and countries are facing today are much more complex than they were decades ago.

As they are becoming more complex every year, we must make sure that we employ proactive ways to figure out newer techniques that help us deal with them effectively.

Design thinking is a big part of that innovation. We must make sure that the thinking we design helps us focus on a human-centric approach to problem solving, making sure that the solutions designed are incorporating creativity as well as logic.

When we align our mindsets, skills and environments, we are able to create innovations that allow us to survive the constant challenges that society and the world presents us with.

“To solve the biggest problems facing us today, we have to replace convictions with curiosity.”

By being curious about understanding differences in points of view, we can learn more from the cause of current thinking, vs the effects.

“We can’t continue to tap into ideologies of the past to move us forward, we must evolve to collaborative design thinking driven by the human spirit.”

We must make sure that we keep a deep desire for learning alive inside us so that we always seek out better ways to solve the hurdles in life and find peace at last.

Employers look for certain characteristics in potential employees. They primarily look for dependability, sincerity, teamwork, general intelligence, willingness to learn, and ability to adapt.

Among many essential qualities, emotional intelligence is a must if you value resilience and longevity from employees.

Someone may be highly qualified and experienced, but if they cannot adapt to the workplace and motivate themselves when things become difficult, such an employee will have a hard time adding value to an organization long term.

What is Emotional Intelligence?

Emotional Intelligence (also known as EQ or emotional quotient) is the ability to perceive, understand, and manage one’s feelings and emotions. According to the renowned psychologist, Daniel Goleman, EQ entails five core components:

Self-awareness: The ability to assess and understand your moods and emotions and their impact on those around you.

Self-regulation: The ability to keep your impulses and moods in check before taking actions.

Internal motivation: The ability to drive yourself towards set objectives on your own volition and not because of external expectation, or any kind of reward.

Empathy: The ability to understand feelings and motivations of those around you to successfully develop trust within the team and lead.

Social skills: The ability to form relationships and build networks in the community.

I will go a step further and say that EQ is also having a higher consciousness about life’s bigger picture. It’s the ability to see yourself inside of a larger collective and perceive how your actions resonate across the entire Universe.

“The highest form of emotional intelligence is connected to the super consciousness of the Universe enabling people to be interdependent.”

Benefits of High Emotional Intelligence Employees

Though people choose to believe that the emotional needs of today’s workforce are far-fetched, they are still worth investing in.

Employees with high emotional intelligence turn out to be more engaged and committed and thrive in the workplace.

There are several benefits of high EQ in employees that sets them apart from others, such as:

Better Team-Players

Employees with high EQ can communicate better. They engage in open discussions and understand the concerns of their coworkers before taking a decision.

Not only do they attain the trust of their team but are also respectful towards everyone in the workplace with a focus on strengthening bonds within the team.

These employees maintain harmony in the workplace and boost the morale of others as well. These are the team members that will be instrumental in the growth of the organization.

“When a team is working well together, the cause is shared roots in emotional intelligence.”

More Self-Aware

Employees with high EQ can assess their own strengths and weaknesses. They are also better at receiving constructive criticism from other individuals.

While other employees often overpromise and underdeliver, these employees know their capabilities well and always deliver the results they commit to.

Employees with high emotional intelligence can also adapt well to changes in the organization and provide valuable inputs in the process.

“A self-aware employee is appreciated and often is an invaluable member of the organization.”

More Self-Control

In every workplace, there are often tough situations that can be challenging for employees and leaders.

During such circumstances, it is essential to remain calm and control your emotions.

Employees with high emotional intelligence are better equipped to handle tough situations as they know that acting in a negative, provocative, or irrational way could escalate issues unnecessarily.

“Those who practice restraint, handle tough situations more efficiently.”

Compassion

People with high EQ are compassionate and are always considerate towards the feelings of others.

They can read other’s expressions and understand the behavior of people around them. This is an extremely helpful skill in business and in your personal life.

Such employees can properly balance their professional life and personal life.

By showing compassion, an employee develops a strong relationship with coworkers and improves the overall motivation and reputation of the organization.

Leadership Potential

Every organization is constantly looking out for potential leaders and aims to nurture such employees in the workplace.

Such leaders respect and value their team members and significantly contribute to enhancing the productivity and profitability of the organization.

When employees with high emotional intelligence stand out in the workplace by showing empathy for others and delivering on their goals, management recognizes their roles and regards them as potential leaders.

Even recruitment firms are looking out for such talent as other organizations also want these employees to be a part of their team.

“A leader with emotional intelligence knows how to enroll people and get out of the way, so others can step into leadership.”

Every good organization recognizes and rewards its employees for their contribution. Employees with high emotional intelligence will always get highlighted in the team because of their team efforts and self-motivation.

As management realizes their potential to lead in the future, they naturally become an invaluable member of the organization and are provided every opportunity to thrive.

Leadership in its true essence is more about helping others than yourself. Empathy means the ability to understand the needs of those around you. Empathy is an essential quality of an effective leader.

As a leader, you must be aware of what those who have chosen to follow you are thinking and feeling. This will help you in defining your relationship with your team and lead more effectively.

It should not be misunderstood here that as a leader you are supposed to agree with the viewpoint of others, but it means that you are willing to acknowledge and appreciate their concerns.

Empathy is often misconstrued as a quality that makes leaders weak and ‘touchy-feely’. The reality is that an empathetic leader understands the strengths and skills of people better.

As a leader who practices empathy you also gain the trust to be able to push your team to work on themselves, enhance their capabilities, and lead and inspire them to thrive in the right direction.

“Empathy is the foundation of a true leader.”

Traits of an Empathetic Leader

The three key traits of an empathetic and effective leader are:

– Being a Good listener

– Non-judgmental

– Heightened Emotional intelligence

Empathetic leaders should be good listeners so that they can communicate efficiently with people. This does not mean that talkative people are not empathetic leaders.

“Sharing your thoughts and expectations with people is equally important to listening to them.”

However, you must know when to talk, when to listen, and more importantly what to say after they talk. This is only possible when you establish an open and fair communication channel with people.

Empathetic leaders are non-judgmental, and they respect the differences of opinions in the team. Even when some people are in direct disagreement with them, leaders must first understand their perception and reasons behind opinions.

Instead of judging if they’re right or wrong in having such feelings, empathetic leaders should acknowledge their thoughts and then decide on what is best for the organization.

Finally, emotional intelligence is of utmost importance for empathetic leaders. You should analyze the feelings of people in an objective manner and not let personal biases influence your decisions. This will not only strengthen your bond with people you serve, but also instill their faith in your leadership.

Significance of Empathy in Leadership

It is often observed in the workplace that managers expect their employees to conform to their thoughts and ideas. For instance, many managers expect their teams to work very long hours consistently without even considering that each individual may have a different personal situation at their home.

This makes employees feel that their managers are insensitive towards the concerns of the team and they end up getting painted as an enemy. Each team member then starts looking out for their own emotional interest which eventually disrupts the workplace.

Noticed I called these types of leaders, managers? The above are not the traits of a leader.

“An empathetic leader ensures that the feelings of the employees are never overlooked or ignored.”

Empathy lays down the foundation of the most important element in the workplace — trust.

You can never be an effective leader if your team doesn’t trust you. When you show that you are considerate towards the feelings of your employees and understand their concerns even when you don’t agree with them over a few things, you develop trust.

Employees notice when you are acknowledging their feelings and respect their personal opinions. Once you bond with employees and they trust you, you can then inspire them to succeed by mentoring them where they are lacking.

This will further strengthen your relationship with the team, increase collaboration with them, and improve the overall productivity in the organization.

Developing Empathy

Empathy is not a special talent or something that needs years of experience. It is not something hard to grasp or difficult to inculcate. All it requires on your part is some forethought.

Simply take a step back in any situation and try thinking about what others are feeling around you rather than focusing on how you feel.

It does not mean that you have to disregard your own feelings. But when you are working with a team and they are looking up to you, it becomes your responsibility to handle things with care when they are hurt, irritated, or upset.

“An empathetic leader focuses first on what people are experiencing instead of focusing only on their own feelings.”

You must consider them as individuals with personal lives and not just employees. When you start treating them right with respect, they will also trust your leadership skills. You can then focus on the mutual growth of the team that will lead to efficient and considerate work culture.

Being an empathetic leader builds trust and strengthens your relationship with people. They will see that you care, value, and understand them.

When you are not judging them, you will be able to get to the root of problems and effectively collaborate to solve them.

Your concern and personal interest in the team will ensure that employees become more engaged, loyal, and productive.