Salesforce, a leading company in AI-powered customer relationship management, has released its latest State of Service report. The report offers insights from more than 5,500 service professionals across 30 countries, including 100 from Singapore. The findings illustrate a significant shift in viewing customer service as a crucial revenue driver rather than a cost centre.
Service professionals emphasise revenue generation
According to the report, 80% of service professionals in Singapore expect customer service to increasingly contribute to revenue this year. This shift is supported by the growing use of AI to enhance personalised customer interactions, facilitating effective upselling, cross-selling, and customer retention strategies.
In the face of economic pressures, the Singapore Business Federation’s National Business Survey identified revenue growth (76%) and cost reduction (62%) as primary concerns for business leaders. Service teams are positioned to play a vital role in addressing these goals through innovative strategies and advanced technologies.
Leveraging AI and data to enhance service
To address the growing demands of service without compromising quality, 90% of service professionals in Singapore are now either using or evaluating AI. With plans to ramp up AI investments this year, these professionals are implementing AI for automated summaries, customer-facing intelligent assistants, and responsive service enhancements.
Additionally, 97% of professionals using AI have noted substantial time savings, underscoring AI’s effectiveness in streamlining tasks and allowing agents to focus on more strategic initiatives.
Data integration is also a priority, with 72% of professionals stating that improved access to data from other teams would boost support capabilities. Furthermore, 87% of the company’s investment in data integration this year is increasing, focusing on equipping both human agents and AI systems with necessary resources.
Adapting to increasing customer expectations
With customer expectations on the rise, 65% of service professionals expect a higher case volume next year, and 81% note that customers have become more demanding. This challenging environment is driving service teams to continually innovate and adapt to effectively meet these demands.
Gavin Barfield, Chief Technology Officer and Vice President of Solutions at Salesforce ASEAN, highlighted the critical role of AI in transforming customer service: “Service teams cannot afford to miss the moments in the overall customer journey to build stronger relationships and loyalty. Generative AI will allow agents to provide a smoother and more personalised customer service experience, freeing up time to focus on relationship building. At the same time, data and AI is enabling service teams to demonstrate their ability to drive revenue growth through greater efficiency and upsell activities,” he said. “AI is helping customer service agents be more efficient by reducing administrative tasks, which frees up time for them to focus on delivering personalised customer experiences and revenue generation. This will fundamentally shift the role of service teams within businesses from cost centres to profit centres.”
