2022 Customer Service Trends and Priorities

Discover what’s top of mind for service and support leaders

Key Customer Service Priorities in 2022

Each year, Gartner surveys hundreds of customer service and support leaders to identify their strategic priorities and investments for the year ahead, helping leaders more confidently benchmark their own strategic planning decisions. 

Download our infographic to understand customer service priorities for the CSS function and perspective on challenges expected in the coming year. 

Download the 2022 Key Customer Service Priorities

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    Customer Service Insights

    Are you looking for what service leaders are planning to focus on in 2022? Gartner surveyed service executives worldwide on their top business priorities. The results provide a comprehensive snapshot of which customer service trends and anticipated challenges service and support leaders are focussed on for 2022. 

    Priority 1:  Growing the Business

    74% of respondents say improving content and knowledge delivery to customers and employees is “important” or “very important. The greatest challenges with extracting value from knowledge management systems (KMS) are keeping the information current, having a single source of truth, and guiding customers. 

    To find out more, download the Guide to Customer Service Experience.

    More choice hurts your bottom line. This bar graph displays a breakdown of customer resolution journeys and journey costs. 9% only used self-service and 61% switched out of self-service to live/rep-assisted.
    Pie chart displaying how 87% of customers did not receive proactive service and 13% received proactive service.

    Priority 2: Improving Operational Excellence

    74% of respondents say creating a seamless customer journey across assisted and self-service channels is “important” or “very important. CSS organisations are investing a lot in new customer-facing channels and enhancing capabilities in existing channels.​ The goal of business growth is best achieved via positive CX outcomes, so self-service containment is most important, but if not contained then the experience must feel synced across channels.​

    To have a seamless customer experience, download the insights to Drive Dynamic Customer Engagement.

    Pie chart displaying how 87% of customers did not receive proactive service and 13% received proactive service.

    How to Tackle These Challenges 

    The past two years have been disruptive for the workplace, so it’s more difficult than ever to know if your organisation is focusing on the right set of priorities.​ In order to effectively tackle these priorities, you must shift your budget to focus on technology spend.  In fact, technology spend is expected to have substantial expected growth throughout 2022, with notably less spend expected for both facilities and T&E. 

    To leverage technology within customer service, download Customer Service AI Use Case Prism.

    Pie chart displaying how 87% of customers did not receive proactive service and 13% received proactive service.

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