 Thank you so much for joining us today. My name is Sandra and I work in Superoffice Norway as a senior consultant. We are here today to talk about the European B2B customer service report for 2023 and I'm lucky to have with me Björte and Fredrik. Thank you Sandra. I'm Fredrik Slander, CEO of Superoffice and I'm very eager to talk about the future of customer service. My name is Björte Lysanne, I work in a company called Customer Trends so we provide insight about customer service, customer experience to the public. I've been working in customer service my whole professional life. Exciting. Let's get started. So Fred, can you tell me a bit about this report? Why did Superoffice and Customer Trends decide to make this report? What is it that makes this unique? So at first I mean we saw that there is a gap in the market, not enough research has been done looking at customer service for B2B companies. And by chance, me and Björte came in touch. Björte representing Customer Trends with deep know-how into customer service and we at Superoffice have been working deeply with B2B companies for the last 30 years. So I thought it was a great match here. So I thought it makes sense and our partnership is then producing this report and that means that we can compare B2B and B2C data. Which is awesome to really see what's because B2C companies are often in the forefront of what's adapting new tech, new trends. So I think this can be very valuable for us. Absolutely. And I would like to say that we have been contacted by business to business executives, from service business to business executives for a number of years. They've been wanting insight about business to business customer services, but we haven't been able to do it because the Norwegian and Nordic markets are a little bit small. And yeah, it's all about funding and getting the resources to do the studies. We are very happy to have found Superoffice and that you were so motivated in doing this job together with us. I agree, this is exciting. So can you tell me a bit about how this report was conducted? Sure, sure. So we invited a selection of customers and contacts in our joint databases. So it's both customers but also those we simply have in our networks. So we wanted to have a good mix of companies representing a variety of industries. So in the report we have around 20 industries represented and more than 100 respondents. We wanted to focus on quality and not on quantity in this report. So the result is there for a quite extensive report, almost 30 pages where we go quite deep into many areas here. Yes, and we found the respondents all over Northern Europe and a very big thank you to everybody who has spent time and effort answering all our questions. So without the respondents there would be no report. So yeah, a big thank you to everybody who has spent time on the report so far. I fully agree. Thank you a lot. I mean, we also got response from CEOs, service directors, so a lot of busy people. So we deeply value their input in the report. Going to the next slide here. Yeah, so since this report it's just been launched, I was wondering if you could give us a bit of a sneak peek. What can we find inside of it? What sort of insights are there inside and what are we expected to learn from this? Sure. I mean, it's a quite in-depth report and there are tons of useful insights in the report. There's a few highlights I think it's worth for everyone to see and to get some kind of voice over too. So let's see what's in there. Looking at the key findings, I will just jump to the next picture here. So one of the big highlights is really a big disconnect. It's a disconnect between the main objectives for customer service teams and the main KPI. And I would like to compare this with, imagine if you're a sales manager or a sales rep and your objective is to sell, but your main KPI is not sales, it's something else. And in the case of customer service teams, we see that the main objective is customer satisfaction, but the main KPI is service level agreements. So that's a big one. I don't know, Bjarke, do you have any idea or unsure comment? Why do you believe this is the case? That's a very good question. So what we know from B2C is that what is most important for the customers that is to get their case sold. So what we call first call resolution or resolution rate. That is the most important and it's the most important driver for customer satisfaction and customer loyalty, which is like the ultimate goal and hanging on to the customers for as long as possible. But it's difficult to measure. It's much easier to just measure how fast you answer the phone. So maybe this is some kind of explanation. But there is a potential here. I truly believe that there is potential to take a broader look on the KPI. Not only look on the answers, speed, the rate, but to look on what is happening in the call and how satisfied are the customers with the call and how we use the case. It's also quite interesting to see that 16% on even measure customer satisfaction. And that's a quite big thing. I mean, at the same time, we see that the most popular way of measuring customer satisfaction as an example is by using email. So let's say the barrier for entry or to start doing it is not that high. You don't need any advanced tools or something. But I don't know, Björk, do you have any idea why this is the case? Or does this differ a lot from B2C company? Absolutely. It's a very big difference. So my hypothesis is that it's all about the how the dialogue with the customers. So a lot of companies, they have a contact person and other companies, of course, have a customer service team. So maybe we don't measure the satisfaction with a contact person the same way. It's a speculation. But to know why your customers are satisfied and how satisfied they are is extremely important in B2C. So one should imagine it's also very important for the B2B customer service after. So also here, a potential to improve, I think. Yeah, I agree. I mean, there is a I would really recommend everyone to start measuring customer satisfaction because it's so important, especially in times like this when you want to achieve earned growth, meaning I mean, you want to have happy customers recommending you staying longer, buying more services. Yeah. Less likely to shurn, extremely important. I mean, measuring it is so easy to get started. Also one thing, if you also if you have an ongoing survey, you can also get feedback back from customers that are maybe not happy that day or something went wrong in the interaction with customer service. So you have an opportunity to correct it and make the customer loyal and satisfied again. So without any kind of measurements, you're like left kept in the blind. So so yeah, strong recommendation for us from us to measure customer satisfaction on a regular basis. So I guess that this finding is really surprising to anyone. We all hope to get help from technology and the customer service is really no different from anyone else. And many teams actually looking forward to riding the wave of new tech to help satisfy customers. So hopefully this is actually a cost saving tactic. So that it replaces the manual processes with digitalization. So could you tell us a bit more about this? Sure. I mean, this graph really highlights that there are two clear reasons for why you should invest in tech or why people, I mean, companies really invest in tech. And I mean, one thing being saving resources, saving money. And that is linked directly to the sea level. I mean, that is, can we save cost, be more efficient? So that's a rational way of investing in tech. Often a way to quantify the impact you're, you know, to cover for the cost of buying or implementing new tech was very positive to see. I mean, that's a quite rational decision, but it's quite interesting to see that the majority, 59 percent is actually investing in tech to improve customer satisfaction and customer experience, which is amazing to see because this is investing in the future. As we mentioned in the last slide, that really, let's say, making sure that we keep customers happy so we can have them to stay longer to recommend more. So this is really about increasing revenue. So the one thing is saving cost, increasing revenue is actually the most important factor. So is this any comments to that? Yeah, it's a very, very interesting question. So we see that the new generation, the young, of course, the young professionals are much more accustomed to tech or new tech than maybe the older generation like me. So so so that development is maybe very natural. But to see that so many want to to invest to improve customer satisfaction is it's very it's interesting. It's it's it's thrilling. And I guess the battle about the future customers will be in that area where you provide solutions that can can enable the customers to be more efficient to to help themselves, maybe. Is this something that you believe is different in the B2C sector? Answers? What? Yeah, and I have I have data from from the Nordic markets and the trend to invest to improve customer satisfaction is even higher. Driven, of course, by the young generation who is who is yeah, linked to their phones in a way that my and my generation never have been so so putting self-solute service solutions into the to the to the smartphones is absolutely super important for B2C customer service organizations. Interesting, talking about new tech. When we looked at the B2B market and we couldn't really see a chat bot revolution. And a couple of years back, this was really hot topic. But we could see it. I mean, less than 20 percent of claim they will invest in a chat bot until 2025, almost 30 percent of already or will invest in a chat with a human person. And I mean, the remaining 50 percent may claim they will not invest in chat at all. And is this is this what should I say? Is it a huge difference as well from the B2C sector? Did this was a shocking result? Yeah, yeah, I think a little bit because so the biggest to know me right now, it's of course called chat the GPT. If you have a webinar or a course with chat the GPT in the in the headline, then it will be sold out in no time. So everybody is very curious. Everybody has tested it. And it's it's possible to like see the huge potential. But without enabling a written dialogue with with the customers or a channel for written interaction like like like chat, it's difficult to harvest the benefits. So my my my expectations was that this would be much higher. But as a small business consultant company person myself, I see that a lot of my suppliers don't offer that kind of solution. So so, yes, it's a big difference towards the B2C. Market maybe has something to do with the investments, the complexity, the the things you have to do to succeed with the chatbot. But yeah, I was surprised to see it. Could it be the case that I mean in the B2B world that the products or services that you sell is maybe more complex and more tailored solution that needs a human being to actually solve issues or maybe. And this is maybe talking about something we will talk about later. But but the chatbot interacts very nicely with web pages and we see and we will see later that the web pages are are important. So so it's a little bit. Yeah, already, you know, exactly announcing her. So yeah, so this is a channel that is actually growing in popularity. And it's not as trendy. We don't hear it that much about it in comparison. And it looks like the website is just becoming in a really important service channel for many European B2Bs. And why do you think that is? Is this a trend that it does seem to be quite far behind the B2C market? Why do you think that is the case? Hmm, I mean. Just an idea here or a reflection is that I mean, chatbots are usually just assistants and they can often be swapped for a search field on a website. And I mean, with ChatBT as well is actually on a web site with where you're where you're interacting with it. So perhaps there's an overlap here. And the answers you want to have is, I mean, the chatbot usually helps you navigate and points you to a website. And as search fields or search tech gets better, you can often get everything directly on the website. And also the website must also be able to support more with upsell offers could be upsell, cross-sell, more more licensees or additional products, services, etc. So that could be one thing. I don't know. Absolutely. Absolutely. And this is it really engaged me. So I will try to have a clear argument. So so we know from recent studies in the B2C market that 60 percent of the people of the customers calling the call center has been on the web page before they called. OK, but this means that the actual number of people that that has visited the web page is much higher because we must assume that a lot of them find what they need. So let's say let's say maybe 80, 90 percent. All private customers have been to the web page before they call the customer service. So I think this is a is a fundamental driver with especially the people between the 30 and 50s were busy with children and the time. I can't mess it has it in the region. So they are very busy. So if they if there is a possibility they can solve the issue themselves, they would like to do it. And where do you solve the case? Where do you find the information on the web page? So so I think this is very, very important is that essential part of what we call the customer journey. It's been very important in the private bit to see market for a long time. And now we just I believe that the B2B will just continue to invest in great websites. And I mean, as a marketer, I also see a need to invest in the web because it's not only the support channel is also often a revenue channel. So so having merging these two experiences and touch points makes a lot of sense. It's all right. So we already know that customer service is not an easy job. And it turns out it's actually getting even harder. And the survey did show that European B2Bs are really struggling to find suitable employees for the customer service teams and for the customer centres. Why is this a concern, do you think? So I mean, given the importance of customer service teams to improve customer satisfaction and strengthen customer relationships, it's clearly a headache if we don't have time that people care of this task. And I mean, I'm sure you have some ideas here, because I mean, you're really deep into the field of customer service and especially into B2Cs. I don't have any good answer here to why this is the case because this is clearly, let's say, what should I say, a role of the future. This is really an area where you can grow and provide a lot of value. You build relationships with customers. You need to, I mean, you're unable to solve tasks. I mean, you're a super appreciated colleague or team member. So why wouldn't everyone want to work as one? So my again, I'm a hypothesis but who is successful in customer service? It's an empathic, efficient, team-oriented, positive people. Yeah, and with those four criteria, everybody's sweating for these people. And you see in the Nordics, for instance, where the population is getting older and the health industry needs tens and hundreds of thousands of people. So we are all competing for the same talent. So I think that this is very easy for them to find new jobs. They are very demanded, they have very demanded skills. So I think this is something that every company, every business to the business contact center has to deal with in some way. Does this differ from the B2C as well? No, no, it's exactly the same. Exactly the same. Because I was actually during the lunch, having some reflections on this topic, if it could be the case that there were other needs. I mean, in B2C, there might be a high volume of tickets. It could be, I'm thinking about insurance bank, where you get a lot of frequency of the houses. You could maybe automate more things, while in B2B world, again, it could be more complex. I mean, it could be everything from a machine or a robot manufacturing line or some software that has some problems that you need to solve. So you might need different kind of personalities, but I agree with your four criteria of people who are successful in customer service teams. So okay, what can companies do to overcome this? That's a very good question. But just a comment on what you said, because a lot of business to consumer contact centers has made big investments to get rid of that, like transactional tasks sold by webpages or chatbots. So they are left with the complex value creating interaction with the customer. So I think the work situation, business to business, business to consumer contact center is getting more and more similar. But what can you do? That's the big question. You can of course pay a little bit more. You can make the job more interesting, adding, of course, challenges and making sure that it's possible to grow inside the position. But something I'm very concerned about or it's deep to my heart is that you don't, you must make sure that the best people isn't placed in projects or in offices. You need to have the best project thrive and grow in interactions with the customer. So job design and hard work over time, I think that is the key here. So customer service is essential for building lasting relationship. I mean, that certainly comes as no surprise to us at Super Office, but it is really great to have it confirmed. And even especially when it comes to CEOs leading European B2B as well and how they also feel this way. So could you tell us a bit more about the results and what this actually means? Yeah, so this was one of the questions. And we could see that customer service leaders, they agree that customer service teams are essential in building a positive reputation about the company and building and maintaining long lasting customer relationships. So it's absolutely crucial to improve what we in the business world talk about lifetime value of customers essentially. So these teams are super important. They are also often the touch point that is most frequently used by the customers when getting in touch. I mean, they are so important in maintaining the relationship. And it's not everything we do agree on in Europe, but on this subject we are in total agreement. Customer service is very important for the businesses and in building lasting relationships with the customers. And in the study we could see that 60% claim that the customer service teams can positively impact sales and 20% even let their customer service teams to sell. So clearly a transition from cost center to a revenue center, which is also why it needs to get the right focus, attention and funding etc to be that kind of team. And well, I do feel like I've learned a lot. There's so much else as well, right? Yeah, I mean, there is a lot in the report and we only covered some highlights. I mean, in the report you can also find insights into what kind of software tools the B2B companies are using. I mean CRM, it's a robotic process automation, what channels customers are using the most and the least, predictions for the future up to 2025, what kind of team setups they have. So, and there's a lot. So you should really go download it at superoffice.com and feel free to also reach out to us at Superoffice or customer trends. Absolutely. Absolutely. Thank you so much for joining us today. Hopefully you learned a lot as well. Thank you. Bye bye.