Zendesk CX Trends Report: Manufacturing Industry 

Customer service has evolved as a major difference between businesses, a top concern for customers, and a profit-generating force in its own right. Seventy-two percent of manufacturing leaders agree that customer service influences a company’s bottom line. 

Following last year’s crises, 61% of people worldwide think they now have greater customer service requirements. And an equal amount would now defect to a competitor after only one negative client experience. 

Delivering outstanding customer service may make the difference between standing out and falling behind. But manufacturers must act swiftly to prevent typical pitfalls that might derail their growth plans. 

However, many businesses fail to provide their agents with the training and resources required to be productive. 

Let’s dive right in to discover the CX trends of 2022 in the manufacturing industry and how you can align with them. 

CX Trends 2022 in Manufacturing Industry: Zendesk Report 

1. Customers Aren’t Impressed 

Even though 65% of manufacturing businesses wrote themselves decent marks for service quality, what they’re giving falls short of what customers expect.   

In fact, 54% of customers say customer service is an afterthought for the majority of the companies from which they buy. That’s a dilemma for businesses that want to amaze their consumers and encourage repeat purchases. 

Solution: Concentrate on decreasing customer effort, providing faster outcomes, and improving the overall quality of every customer support conversation. 

2. Leaders Aren’t Engaged in Customer Service 

Going all-in on customer service needs top-down support. However, while 72% of manufacturing leaders believe that customer service is a crucial business objective, 33% feel that it is still not owned by the C-suite. Furthermore, just 20% report checking customer service analytics daily. 

Solution: Instill a customer-first mentality throughout the organization through active leadership engagement. 

3. Current Budget isn’t Enough to Fund a Standout Team 

Customer involvement is booming, with 30% of manufacturing companies expecting a budget increase of at least 25% over the next two years.  

However, budget projections fall short of expected demand, with just 29% of respondents strongly feeling that they are spending appropriately in customer support efforts. 

Solution: Go beyond customer satisfaction and track the data required to establish a strategic plan for customer service. With Flare, a Zendesk integration, you can connect your existing CRM and ERP platforms to visualize, process, analyze, and interact with your third-party data in one place.

4. Agents Feel Burnt Out and Undervalued 

Agents’ duties have become more strategic, yet just 16% of those working for manufacturing organizations feel empowered to conduct their tasks properly.  

Moreover, 44% believe they’re not treated as well as others in the organization. 

It’s a risky road: unhappy agents can easily become unsatisfied consumers. 

Solution: Start taking care of your agents by providing them with the training, tools, and flexibility required to provide superior client experiences. 

5. Disconnected Systems Confuse the Customers  

It’s quite difficult for agents to get a single perspective of the consumer when they’re juggling different tools.  

It’s a missed opportunity: while 90% of consumers are eager to pay extra for tailored experiences, only 28% of manufacturing agents feel they’re highly efficient at getting the required information to meet those expectations.  

And to get there, 29% of manufacturers believe they will need to build and execute new work methods or risk increasing frustration for everyone engaged. 

Solution: Provide agents with the information they require to handle issues more quickly and increase the business. 

Moving Forward  

Now that you know the CX trends in the manufacturing industry, you can start working on perfecting your customer service efforts. Don’t let the frequent customer service pitfalls mentioned in this article harm your business.  

According to the CX mastery published by Faye, the base of the customer experience is how you manage the relationships with them. Zendesk Sell from Faye is a simple and powerful CRM solution that can help you remove friction from your sales process. What’s more, with enhanced CX strategy, analytics, data migration, and integrations tools, Faye offers greater efficiency for your teams. 

Our expert team in the business strategy consulting space is always ready and eager to help you get your company to the next level. If you need help boosting your customer experience effectiveness with Zendesk register for our Zendesk Efficiency Review below!