Customer expectations shape the future of your business

Acquiring a customer now means building a brand personality that resonates with your desired audience, offering personalized experiences, supporting customers through different channels, and exceeding their expectations. Long gone are the days when a good product or service was enough to supply people’s needs.

Customers today are looking for companies they can connect with, which means they won’t buy from you unless you personalize your offerings to meet their needs. But how can you appeal to a global audience without sacrificing personalization? It all starts by understanding your customers and their needs, highlighting the importance of evaluating customer service trends.

But customer service trends evolve and change over time as customer needs do so. Evolving your business alongside your customers will help you stay competitive, so leveraging innovation with customer expectations is the key to success.

The biggest lesson from 2025 is that innovation must be paired with empathy; if not, you’ll only be wasting resources. To prevent this from happening, you need to listen to your customers, making them a strategic ally. Now, let's share some of the trends in customer support that will help you thrive in 2026.

Customer support trends that will redefine 2026

Customers expect businesses to understand them nearly as closely as on a personal level, and to do so, you need to know how to listen to them. Most of the feedback customers share comes from casual interactions rather than traditional ways, so listen closely to what they are saying. 
Acting on what they are saying proves you are interested in creating experiences they will cherish, which fosters loyalty. In 2026, these will be some of the strategies you will need to implement to create successful support strategies: 

trends in customer service

1. Strategic use of AI to solve customers’ problems

It’s easy to fall under the false promises of AI tools out there, as they practically sell themselves as the magical solution to all of your business problems. Spoiler: They are not! Customers found problems with AI when human efforts are not involved, and businesses are still trying to push AI only to cut costs. 

Thinking of AI as a fast way to save money is a big mistake; instead, businesses need to start using it to solve their customers’ problems. For example, AI bots should solve simple cases and gather information to route complex scenarios to the most appropriate human agent.

Before implementing an AI agent, analyze your customers’ needs and evaluate if they will benefit from it. For example, if response times have increased for repeated queries because your agents are solving complex problems, then AI can benefit both your customers and your business.

But implementing an AI tool is not enough; it needs to be trained as well. Humans should oversee what AI agents do and feed them with information from previous cases so they know exactly how to manage customer issues and exceed their expectations.

Customers need to trust businesses to trust their AI agents. At least 20% of people said that AI in customer service offered no benefit at all, a concerning number considering AI is used by 80% of companies. People use AI for daily routine tasks, and companies need to lean on it instead of fully relying on AI. 

2. Outsourcing businesses need better data security protocols

Historically, BPOs have had negative perceptions due to some companies mistreating their employees and underpaying them to charge cheaper fees from their customers. Challenges faced by BPO companies just keep piling up every day, and in 2025, one of the biggest concerns was data security.

At least 88% of cybersecurity breaches happen due to human error, something unacceptable considering most companies handle sensitive customer data. Customers share data that could potentially expose them to data breaches, like their name, address, and bank information.

Since many companies are actively online and customers buy products and services from them, they should offer protection for their information. 

Hiring an outsourcing provider usually happens when companies want to offer services that are too expensive for them to build in-house teams. They are trusting them with sensitive data, and they expect their trust to be rewarded with data security guidelines. 

But why does outsourcing pose a risk to data security? Companies delegate tasks to third-party providers, and in some cases, they do not oversee their performance, which leads to a lack of control and poor security protocols. 

To prevent this, work together with the outsourcing company to assess their compliance, evaluate potential data risks, create guidelines that prevent them, and establish actions to take if something happens.

3. BPOs will need to centralize AI tools in their offerings

Companies that want to outsource some of their tasks are seeking budget-friendly options that offer multiple benefits. BPOs need to evolve their offerings to stay competitive in today’s marketplace.

Think of it this way, companies have many options to offer new services that go beyond relying on outsourcing. One way is to hire AI tools to perform some tasks. So, how can outsourcing companies compete with AI when its prices are too attractive? One way to do so is by partnering with several AI companies that specialize in different features.

Trying to master everything is a mistake; BPO companies should focus on what they do best and partner with other companies that master what they lack. It is a winning strategy that is sometimes overlooked.

To prevent falling victim to AI, they must stop trying to avoid technology and embrace it, but they need to remember that AI should be implemented when it is beneficial to customers. This is when the fun part begins. The search starts for AI options that offer different features, AI bots, real-time insights, channel-based support, ticket redirection, etc.

Including the best options and AI features in their offerings is key to personalizing the strategy for each customer. Not every customer will need all AI options, so BPOs should start focusing on offering what customers need without having to hire every feature. Offering a centralized space where they smartly combine AI tools that work together will become critical for businesses’ needs.

4. Customer understanding is key to tailoring support offerings

Personalization plays a big role in buying decisions. Customers love it when businesses listen to their needs and act accordingly. How exactly can you personalize offerings when customers have different needs? By segmenting customers. 

Segmenting allows you to group people who have similar needs, and it makes it easier to target ads or specific products to those who need them. To successfully segment your customers, you will need to invest time and resources into understanding what customers need.

Customer support is an important part of understanding your customers. Your team interacts with customers, which allows them to identify patterns. But to get to this point requires a previous understanding of what you are lacking to build a great support strategy.

In that case, data is your biggest ally. Collecting data from customer surveys, customer reviews, comments on social media, etc., is helpful to find the pain points you need to tackle. Once you have identified what they need, you can either build an in-house team dedicated to customer support or outsource this service.

By doing this, you ensure your customer support team focuses on solving your customers' and business problems. Now, through feedback, you will be able to improve your support until it becomes a key differentiating factor.

5. Empathy will be a differentiating factor in a world adopting AI

Customer support’s core is empathy; the whole interaction between a support agent and a customer relies on it. Customer support agents actively listen to what customers say and find a solution based on the issue they are facing. This ability is strictly human because our experience allows us to connect emotionally with another human.

AI can replicate something like this, but they are still far from feeling empathy. The main difference is that they rely on data and previous cases, rather than life experiences. Surely, through data, they can find a quick solution to a customer problem, but the connection experience brought will never be replicated. 

Humans have a unique ability to understand what another person is going through by simply listening and observing their behavior, and through it, they can help them prevent future issues. AI needs to be fed with context and information before it can find a solution. 

AI is still a great tool for customer support when paired with human agents. They will supervise and train AI, feeding it with successful and failed cases so it can recognize what to do.

If companies rely solely on AI, they risk losing empathy, making their support feel disconnected from their customers, and losing their trust. 68% of customers expect companies to show empathy; this shows that even though customers expect fast resolutions, empathy will forever be treasured. 

6. Smart proactive support will help companies stay ahead of customers’ needs

Companies that adopt proactive customer support see up to a 25% increase in retention. This shows the importance of anticipating customer needs and assisting them before they reach out.

Even though proactive support is great and sounds like a life-saving strategy, it must be used with care. There is a fine line between being proactive and being invasive, so you need to leverage when proactive support is needed.

How can you do this? By analyzing customer interactions and evaluating the data they provide, you can identify patterns that can help you assist some customers. It may seem like a lot of work, but you can use technology to help you evaluate large sets of data. Going back to AI, this is one of the most beneficial features they offer, analyzing customer data in a few seconds.

Real-time insights provided by AI are great for identifying those cases where a proactive approach will be helpful. Now, going back to the initial statistic, if you use a proactive strategy, you will increase customer retention, which at the same time boosts your profit.

7. Predictive analytics will provide a holistic analysis of customer data

Following the thread on proactive support, predictive analytics are the core of the strategy. If you can predict customer needs, you can reach out to them before they face an issue. The best way to do so is to analyze every customer interaction and identify subtle messages.

People won’t explicitly say what they are going through most of the time, so actively listening to the information they share makes a huge difference. Again, AI excels at providing predictive analytics and real-time insights when used correctly, hence the importance of training AI tools with data.

Joining forces with technology to analyze interactions and access insights will prevent your company from making past mistakes. Focusing on understanding the story data is telling, instead of seeing plain numbers, to better understand your customers will be key in 2026. 

A holistic analysis helps you evaluate the big picture and determine why customers are feeling a certain way. A holistic approach allows you to understand what you are doing great when customers are satisfied and what you are doing wrong when they are dissatisfied.

8. Customers will not let you know about their bad experiences

Data shows that 91% of unhappy customers leave without ever explaining why, highlighting the importance of evaluating customer interactions to understand the entirety of your support. 

As we mentioned on the importance of holistic analysis, knowing why a customer acts the way they do will help you identify your areas of improvement. Customers expect companies to make their lives easier by reducing their required efforts. Taking this into consideration when building your customer experience is needed.

When customers have several options to choose from, they won’t waste their time making their relationship with one company work. If the company doesn’t offer a great product combined with great experiences, they will simply look away and find another option. 

Building a customer-centric culture will help you prevent your customers from leaving. But if you find yourself in the situation where a customer has left, then all you can do is analyze the interactions to find out what went wrong. 

We don’t believe this trend will change in 2026, which is why we recommend that you take your time in making your customers happy. Evaluate data from customer interactions and find overlooked triggers that could make the customer leave, to prevent it from happening again.

9. Transparency will be a key differentiator in 2026

In a world ruled by uncertainty, where people are constantly listening to devastating news and threats from all around the world, people value transparency. Customers expect companies to communicate how they use their data and tell them how they work with it. 

People want companies to include honest and easy-to-understand policies that show their business guidelines. Honest communication is key to earning customers’ trust as it makes them feel safe.

So if you want your company to succeed, you must start by being transparent on each business aspect. Telling the truth behind your product’s origins, how they are manufactured, your business model, the company’s culture, pricing, and more, will make your customers trust you.

Transparency also helps your customers set realistic expectations, which is necessary given that customers’ expectations keep evolving. This prevents misunderstandings and avoids potential issues due to false promises.

10. Overwhelming customers will make them go away

We live in a world where at least 359 million people suffer from anxiety. This can happen due to several factors, but even though you can’t anticipate what triggers anxiety, you can prevent it from affecting your customers because of you. 

One of the most common triggers is feeling overwhelmed. People feel stressed out due to their jobs, house problems, family issues, or monetary problems. So they expect companies to treat them with care and empathy. Something not too common in the fast-paced world we live.

Customers find themselves wanting to take a break from reality by watching videos on YouTube, liking their friends’ posts on Instagram, or laughing at content from TikTok. But when these breaks turn into stressful sessions due to the over-saturation of ads, they start getting disgusted.

When people identify a repeated ad that doesn’t add any value to their life, they will try to block it, only to find new ads popping out. These create a hateful reaction when seeing advertisements, avoiding the companies that are showing ads, making them counterproductive.

People want to see fewer ads when they are using their spare time to see their favorite creators, watch funny videos, use streaming services, or play video games.

We are facing a generation of people who are more open to talking about anxiety and mental health issues, and being exposed to huge amounts of content will overwhelm them when they only want to take a break. 

You need to avoid spamming them with unnecessary content, sending too many emails, asking them repeatedly to fill out a survey, or showing too many ads if you don’t want to be left out.

Why you should prepare to tackle these trends

Surviving in the CX business means adapting to new expectations and offering innovation driven by customer needs. Some of those needs are niche-exclusive, but some others are universal; those are considered trends. These trends set the stage for what you need to do and the way your business must prepare.

Customers today expect businesses to show empathy throughout their entire journey, be transparent, understand them on a level that companies predict their needs, and make their lives easier. For customer service, trust and empathy are more important than ever, so take into consideration the following:

• Personalized service is no longer a bonus; it’s essential. Personalization is more than using a customer’s name and remembering details. It’s all about predicting customer needs, which requires understanding them beforehand. How can you achieve this? By analyzing their entire customer journey and the interactions they’ve had with your company. This way, you avoid sending them unsolicited surveys that will frustrate them and foster loyalty.
• Trust is fragile. Companies are being affected by data leaks and cyberattacks, and customers are worried that their data is not safe. Ensuring protection strategies and honest communication boost their trust. They are not asking for much, just to have a safe experience with your company, provide it, and they will stay loyal to you.
• Operational and proactive AI-augmented support. These models are more efficient and reduce costs by addressing issues before they escalate, leading to better first-contact resolution and customer satisfaction.​ But, there is a catch: not every company needs to include AI in its support. You must first evaluate what your customers need and then decide if AI is a great option for them.
• Employee experience impacts customer experience. This is something not everyone pays attention to. Your employees matter more than you believe. They are the working force behind your business, so you need to pay attention to their needs too. This goes beyond the fact that happy employees create happy customers; this means that showing empathy to them also boosts their loyalty. Employees have enough trouble in their personal lives to be burdened with job issues too. Ensure a safe space for them to enjoy what they do!

In essence, meeting these rising expectations safeguards your brand’s reputation and prepares your business to adapt quickly to market or technology changes, benefiting both topline growth and bottom-line efficiency.

How to adapt to new trends

Adapting to trends requires a business-wide strategy to work. You will need all your departments to work together in order to find the best ways to implement changes based on your customers' needs. Let’s share some of the steps that you can take to prepare your customer support team for 2026:

• Implement centralized data collection tools. This way, you will have one single tool that collects and stores data, preventing scattered information, which causes frustration when people need to repeat their data. Also, prepare strong data security protocols that ensure this tool will be protected from breaches.
• Adopt AI to free up agents’ time. AI should not be hired to cut operational costs only, it must serve a bigger purpose. If you are planning on investing in AI, start small and with low-stakes tasks in a controlled environment in which AI operates. Ask for feedback and implement changes or add more features based on people’s needs. Offer ethical use of AI and see how it benefits your business.
• Double down on personalization by leveraging customer data. Ask your customers to share their data, and then, with their permission, you can use that data to offer dynamic solutions. Real-time analytics anticipate needs and detect dissatisfaction before it escalates.​
• Strengthen data security by updating protocols. Get out there and meet with companies that offer data protection services, meet with them, and let your experts decide which one is the best.
• Focus on training with new technologies. Modern tools allow you to create personalized learning strategies according to each agent’s needs and preferences. Combining these tools with analytics and customer interactions will bring clarity on which topics you need to focus your training.
• Foster a culture of feedback collection. Use interactions to analyze what your customers are saying and ask your employees what they need and what they feel the company could do better. Implementing changes based on that feedback will improve loyalty.
• Create transparent customer communication channels: publish clear service policies, provide easy escalation paths, and use explainable AI scripts so customers always know what to expect and how their cases are being handled.​
• Anchor workforce management in flexibility, allowing you to scale up or down and offer 24/7 coverage without diluting service quality. Use intelligent scheduling, cross-training, and dynamic workloads.​

A company-wide mindset of continuous improvement, led by data-driven insights and customer-centric leadership, positions organizations to not just survive the present customer service but to turn these changes into drivers of innovation and market strength.

Navigating the 2026 customer support landscape

Throughout history, we have endured evolution that allows us to adapt and survive to the world’s changes. Stop thinking evolution won’t reach your business, and start visualizing what your customers are saying. Their needs change as the world changes, too, so if you want a successful business, then evaluating what people need is key.

These trends aren’t the only ones that will show up next year, but these are the ones companies out there believe will be the protagonists. Stay alert to any other customer service industry trends to stay top-of-mind. 

At Horatio, we stay ahead of trends by joining forces with our customers and employees, the 2 main pillars of our company. Their feedback allows us to offer great support to our customers. Contact us, and we will start working on a tailored support strategy to boost your business satisfaction levels.