For many companies, customer service is a cornerstone of their customer experience strategy. It’s an area of increasing importance because:

Why is it so difficult to deliver good and cost-effective customer service experiences?

Today’s customer service technology ecosystem is very complex. There’s been an explosion of communication channels, touchpoints, deployment methods like cloud-based solutions, and vendor mergers and acquisitions to sort through. With all these changes, customer service organizations struggle to get their agents to use a consolidated toolset that accesses contextual and relevant data; to follow consistent processes; to comply with policy; and, most importantly, provide customer service in a way that customers want to receive it.

So how do you do it better? The contact centers for customer service playbook is a practical guide that focuses our research and recommendations to help you discover, plan, act on, and optimize your customer service operations:

The customer service playbook is a living document, so be sure to check in regularly, as we will update these core reports with new data and examples. Beneath these core reports, expect a wealth of “toolkit” research, such as Forrester Waves and TechRadars, as well as Excel-based models, PowerPoint templates, and checklists.

To get started, read our executive overview that sets the stage for the entire playbook.

So what do you think? How does Forrester’s vision of customer service compare with yours? And will our playbook be useful? Let me know if this approach resonates with you!