While the pandemic inconvenienced nearly everyone, it devastated a wide swath of the population. In 2021, customer service leaders will transform their operations to provide proactive and empathetic service to new “critical needs” customers. Customer behaviors and communication preferences have permanently shifted; in 2021, brands will see a 40% increase in digital customer service. Despite increased digitization, voice will become the channel of choice for the ever-increasing number of interactions that require human empathy. In this report, we explore Forrester’s predictions for customer service in 2021.