Singapore – Around 80% of service professionals anticipate customer service to contribute more revenue this year, according to the latest report by customer relationship management firm Salesforce. This follows AI enabling greater personalised experiences, with service teams being well positioned to maximise upselling, cross-selling, and customer retention opportunities to drive revenue.
According to the data, service professionals are increasingly recognising service as a source of revenue rather than just a cost, driving investments in expansion. This results in service professionals doubling down on revenue generation, indicating 77% of service professionals expecting more budget and 71% of them anticipating growth in headcount.
Furthermore, service professionals are also leaning into AI to boost efficiencies. More specifically, around 90% of them said that they are using or evaluating AI, while 90% plan to increase AI investments this year.
In terms of service use cases for AI, among the top 3 include automated summaries and reports, customer-facing intelligent assistants, as well as service responses. Approximately 97% of service professionals, on the other hand, said AI helps them save time.
Additionally, the report also observed the increasing demands that add pressure on service teams. In particular, around 65% of service professionals expect a higher case volume next year. About 81% of service professionals also say customers are more demanding than they used to be.
Meanwhile, service professionals are stepping up their data integration efforts to fuel human agents and AI systems, with 72% of the respondents stating better access to data from other teams would improve support and 87% increasing investment in data integration this year.
Commenting on the report, Gavin Barfield, chief technology officer and vice president of solutions at Salesforce ASEAN, said, “Service teams cannot afford to miss the moments in the overall customer journey to build stronger relationships and loyalty.”
He further notes, “Generative AI will allow agents to provide a smoother and more personalised customer service experience, freeing up time to focus on relationship building. At the same time, data and AI is enabling service teams to demonstrate their ability to drive revenue growth through greater efficiency and upsell activities.”
“AI is helping customer service agents be more efficient by reducing administrative tasks, which frees up time for them to focus on delivering personalised customer experiences and revenue generation. This will fundamentally shift the role of service teams within businesses from cost centres to profit centres,” Gavin further explained.
