Last Updated on September 1, 2023 by David
Guest Post by Noah Rue
Customer service has long been considered one of the cornerstones to success in business. Our industrial culture places emphasis on ensuring employees engage in positive consumer interactions. Business leaders invest in resources and training that helps teams to both understand how customer support translates to financial returns, and give them the tools that help them to build meaningful relationships.
One of these tools gaining in popularity is automation. Machine-driven customer support technology currently takes various forms — from robots checking in guests at hotels, to simple email newsletter scheduling. But there has always got to be a balance; we’re still trying to discover ways to use automation while retaining the human touch.
So how are we approaching customer service automation in our current business climate? What challenges do we face, and how can technology help us overcome them? What can we expect to come down the pipeline soon?
Bots
While there are certainly robots in customer service, we’re going to focus on the rise of chatbots. Over the last several years, we’ve not only seen the technology behind them improve significantly but, their accessibility to most businesses has grown. They’ve become a familiar aspect of many of our online business interactions today.
Chatbots are essentially an extension of artificial intelligence (AI), with the software interacting directly with the user through text or audio. They operate by referencing the language input by the consumer against a database to find the most likely answer to their query. The popularity of chatbots is in line with the general adoption of AI across all industries; a survey revealed that 31% of businesses confirmed that they planned to consider its use within the next 12 months. As identified in the resource, banking and finance are two of the key industries utilizing chatbots to assist customers at any time of the day or night.
Part of the drawback of utilizing chatbots is the limited nature of their responses. Consumers don’t tend to get the friendly, personable interactions that they may be looking for. This is likely where we can expect to see customer service bots being taken in the future. Some focus is being placed on blurring the lines between human customer service behavior and the efficiency of AI. Approaches being used include creating a character, being more conversational, and even providing emotional responses. However, perhaps the challenge here is making sure consumers don’t feel deceived; we have to be upfront in our bot usage rather than trying to fool them.
Collaboration
Conversations surrounding technology’s place in industry often come around to the same concern. When are these machines going to put human workers out of a job? However, expectations for many industries are leaning toward the idea that automation will be acting in collaboration with humans, or changing worker’s roles closer to being technicians. So is this evident in customer service automation?
This is already starting to happen. Big data is gaining a presence in customer service, collecting and analyzing information about customers’ needs, behavior, and past experiences. Businesses that use this kind of data analysis are finding that they are better able to understand the challenges that customers typically face, and provide tools for human agents to work with. Data-driven AI virtual assistants help customer service agents to locate the solutions to common issues, rather than keep them on hold while searching. As 75% of the time on most customer service calls is spent on this, access to automated data can result in a significant improvement in efficiency.
As we move into the future, we may expect this collaboration to better prepare human agents, using AI for mundane elements to free up their time for more complex tasks. The automated collection and analysis of data can help to predict what the problems a customer is experiencing are likely to be. With sufficient quality information on how customers have interacted with the brand through past conversations, across social media, and the use of products machine learning will be able to give agents insights on likely problems and their solutions.
The Customer Journey
Customer service isn’t only important for direct interactions such as complaints or sales. It needs to be a central element that is present throughout the entirety of the customer journey. As it is often impractical for human workers to be available every time a customer interacts with the business, automation offers solutions that help customers to feel more connected and appreciated.
We’re already starting to see this to some extent with eCommerce. Many sales platforms are already adapting to users’ data, noting their preferences and directing them to similar or ancillary items. Consumers are holding personalization in high regard, and technology such as apps are increasingly geared toward this. We can provide rewards for loyalty and opportunities for communication seamlessly. Therefore automating the process that leads them through to sales in a tech-enhanced, helpful manner makes a lot of sense. But this can also be bolstered by automating marketing. Using trigger points on the website, companies can also improve the ongoing customer journey by sending automated and personalized marketing emails and encouraging interaction through social channels.
Let’s not forget that the future of customer service is likely to be heavily focused on an omnichannel approach. Consumers expect not only to interact with businesses via their website during their journey, but also via social media, and instant messaging. Therefore automation is likely to be vital in helping customers seamlessly transfer between channels as their needs dictate. Convenience will always be important, and a frictionless communication network that reduces consumers’ needs to click away will be paramount.
Conclusion
Customer service will always be a vital aspect of the success of any business. As our world becomes more automated, we are already seeing examples of how technology can improve the customer experience. The future looks set to lean into the advantages of AI and big data to assist consumers, and help human agents provide better experiences.
About Noah
Noah Rue is a journalist and content writer, fascinated with the
intersection between global health, personal wellness, and modern
technology. When he isn’t searching out his next great writing opportunity,
Noah likes to shut off his devices and head to the mountains to disconnect.