For its first benchmark report, Hiver surveyed 500+ US-based support professionals to uncover the latest trends in customer service performance and delivery

As many as 75% of customer service teams deliver support outside of regular business hours while 34% offer 24×7 support, according to a report published by Hiver.

The global pandemic has transformed the way in which consumers communicate with brands — they expect brands to make themselves available whenever and wherever they want.

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To understand whether companies are delivering on these demands, Hiver, the world’s first Gmail-based help desk, surveyed over 500 US-based support professionals for its first ever ‘Customer Service Benchmark Report’.

The survey found that 60% of customer service teams are providing support across three or more channels. Interestingly, phone is the most used channel with 83% of teams offering tele-support. Email is the second most used channel with 77% of teams offering email support.

In terms of popularity, traditional channels trump modern channels. Around 44% of those surveyed said that phone is their busiest support channel, followed by email at 23% and chat at a mere 10%.

The survey also revealed that a majority of companies have impressively fast response and resolution times. More than 60% teams have a First Response Time of under 3 hours for email queries. Further, almost 50% of teams have an SLA policy to resolve customer requests under 6 hours.

Commenting on the survey findings, Niraj Ranjan Rout, CEO, and Co-founder of Hiver, said, “The results of the benchmarking report are both impressive and surprising. While a lot of companies are going the extra mile to deliver multi-channel and fast support, many still have a long way to go when it comes to exceeding customer expectations. It would be interesting to see how in the near future, companies balance the use of technology with the human touch to deliver customer experiences worth remembering. Because one without the other clearly isn‘t going to cut it anymore.”

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