Research from Gartner recently revealed some interesting insights into the changing world of customer experience. The analytics group revealed that around 10% of customer service organisations are likely to revamp their hierarchical staffing models in 2025.
As the workplace of today and tomorrow grows increasingly diverse and dispersed, customer service leaders are discovering that the standard “office silos” we’re used to are no longer acceptable. Instead, every team member needs to be able to connect with internal experts to collaborate on delivering a better customer experience.
Gartner notes that customer service leaders say that they need access to a wider set of skills than ever before. By creating “huddle groups” of cross-functional and customer-service leaders, companies can improve the flow of knowledge in the workforce, and potentially drive better CX outcomes as a result.
Huddle Groups for Customer Experience
Hierarchical staffing models are common among many businesses from different verticals. In a hierarchical organisation, every person (except for the owner of the business) is subordinate to someone else. Today, this kind of structure is beginning to deteriorate under the impact of the new world of work, and emerging customer trends.
As artificial intelligence and chatbots enter the contact centre, it’s becoming increasingly common for clients to deal with smaller problems on their own. AI tools can easily deliver answers to frequently asked questions and provide guidance to consumers. Because of this, the customer service and support interactions that customer service leaders deal with are usually more complex.
Cross-departmental collaboration in the CX landscape could be the key to offering a better level of care to the modern consumer. Gartner’s recommendation that customer service leaders should collaborate with cross-functional leaders suggests that we should have teams of people in every business who are specifically trained to support different kind of customers.
With huddle groups focused on specific customers, companies can ensure that every client gets a collaborative service experience based on the industry they’re in, the product they use, or the type of subscription they have.
Working Together on Customer Experience
A new, “expert huddle group” approach to customer service could have a positive impact on every company’s ability to respond quickly to complex problems in a way that’s relevant and personalized to the customer. Today’s clients are proving more than ever that they don’t just want fast and convenient customer service. Instead, your employees want to see evidence that you understand their individual pain points and needs.
Huddle groups of experts can come up with tailor-made solutions to improve customer satisfaction across every client segment within a business. These groups could also reduce the risk that businesses would end up suggesting one-size-fits-all strategies to more complex and specific consumer problems.
In the past, huddle groups were often seen as an agile collaboration opportunity. Going forward, the right groups, like those described by Gartner, could be the key to delivering an agile, personalized, and effective strategy for customer service.
