admin Customer service automation is thriving in the market. Many brands have successfully implemented automation to streamline their processes and saved costs. However, there are still many questions on how to balance automation with a human touch.
When done right, customer service automation can boost your workflow, cut labor costs, and improve overall Customer Experience without a machine-like feel. Let’s cover the details of this process.
What is customer service automation?
Customer service automation is a process that reduces human involvement in customer interactions with your brand. There are two primary reasons why customer service is being increasingly automated. The first driver is the desire to decrease labor costs. The second objective is to improve customer satisfaction and service speed.
Now, lets look at the ways to use customer service automation.
- Chatbots – An Artificial Intelligence (AI) program that can simulate a conversation with a user in natural language and reduces human involvement in customer interactions with your brand.
- Designed Emailers – Email bots can answer Emails and nurture leads. Chatbots provide instant answers and help drive potential customers through the buying journey.
- Knowledge-Base Chatbot– Did you know that 90% of consumers expect an online portal for customer service? Yes, It’s a self-serve online portal with information about your product or service.
- Automated Ticketing – A feature that sends tickets to specific customer service agent based on predefined rules or keywords.
- Social Media Responder – Did You Know, 63% of customers expect companies to offer support via social media? It is a system that automates social media posting and responding. Don’t ignore social media!
- Automated Customer Satisfaction Surveys – It allows sending surveys after a specific action taken by your customer.
These are the most popular types of customer service automation that can help amplify your business.
Customer Service Automation During COVID-19. When and How to Use it Right?
From grocery stores to luxury brands, the COVID-19 pandemic has made a massive impact on most businesses. Due to coronavirus quarantine and self-isolation, retailers are closing their physical stores and moving their services online. The demand for online ordering and delivery is booming because most people prefer staying at home.
Currently, some of the companies have reached to limited delivery in services and some clients receive their orders with a few days’ delay. Some big companies are hiring employees, delivery associates to keep up with the huge increase in orders and deliveries.
To make sure we are on the same page, let’s take a look at some examples.
Amazon plans to hire an additional 100,000 warehouse and delivery workers, along with raising the salary by 2$/hour. And Walmart announced its plans to hire 150,000 new workers through the end of May.
“This past weekend, we saw the highest customer demand in Instacart’s history in terms of groceries sold on our platform.” reported by The San Francisco Chronical about Instacart, a grocery-delivery service.
Not only grocery stores but certain food companies such as Domino’s, Papa John’s, and Pizza Hut are together hiring more than 50,000 new employees due to the coronavirus quarantine. In WQOW TV, Domino’s delivery driver and pie maker Noah Reedy said, “We’ve been a lot busier.” “We’re up 21% overall in sales. As a delivery driver, I’m in and out the door all the time, which is great because people are very appreciative of us and we’re very appreciative of them. It’s every little pizza boy’s dream.”
Meet the rising demand with the right resources!
It is not that only delivery and ordering processes are experiencing a growth but customer service and other client-facing departments are also struggling. Due to online shopping spikes during the pandemic, more people are contacting support with the repetitive questions about ordering, delivery, and working process during COVID-19. But there is another way to meet growing online demands!
Many companies have started looking at automation as a life vest for their services.
Smart automation solutions like chatbots can help companies meet online needs of their customers without having to hire extra workers, extending working hours, or raising salaries.
Here are some of the top retail chatbot use cases during COVID-19:
- Ordering : Chatbots can chat with clients to help make the purchasing decisions and give advice about the product they want to buy. In this way the chatbot can also collect the required data from the customer, like their delivery address, contact, and payment information.
“$112billion projected value of chatbot eCommerce transactions by 2023” Juniper Research.
- Delivering : Chatbots in delivery can answer clients’ questions about delivering during coronavirus and help customers track their orders. Many people asks questions like,“Are you delivering during quarantine?” “Or do you have contactless delivery?” etc and these are repetitive questions. In this scenario, chatbot allows brands to reduce the number of repetitive questions like these. Also, it takes more time for a client to receive the order because delivery services are swamped right now. Chatbots are at rescue! It can help clients monitor their deliveries in real-time and know exactly when they’ll get their parcel. Moreover, chatbots can help businesses save around 30% of customer support costs.
- Pick up : Brands can use chatbots to collect orders from customers, and when it’s ready, the bot can notify the client that they can come and pick up their order. As many companies are experiencing a shortage of delivery personnel and some don’t provide delivery services at all and also, the customers call and wait. But now they don’t have to. They can text a chatbot, see pictures of products, and make an order by themselves. This way, you can keep your business alive during COVID-19!
- Learning about the product : As technology is booming with Artificial Intelligence, IoT, virtual reality, etc., companies can create digital fitting rooms, where customers can “try on” the products that they like. People, with the help of their phone camera and can put on makeup, try on clothes, or even see how cars will look like in real life without leaving their homes.
5 Tips To Streamline Your Customer Self-Service During COVID-19
Customer support is an important factor in brand loyalty, according Microsoft’s study on the state of customer service. If you fail to meet your customers’ expectations, you’re likely to see a higher attrition rate.
These 5 tips can help you streamline your self-service options and increase your customer satisfaction.
– Optimize search functions so users can easily help themselves
– Utilize engaging media to demonstrate what to do next
– Highlight frequently asked questions
– Build a chatbot for 24/7 support
– Keep your content updated
Wrapping it up…
Customer Self-Service Can Improve Overall Satisfaction.
Due to the current COVID-19 outbreak, there is no other way for a brand but transferring all their service online. Customers are fully transitioning to e-commerce. When customers are turning to the digital marketplace, brands have to follow their clients to meet their needs digitally.
To meet the growing amount of online orders and deliveries, companies need to consider implementing automation. By using smart automation and chatbots, companies can save on operational costs, hiring and training new employees. Moreover, they can expand their services to 24/7 without having to raise the salary for their human agents.
The benefits of a Humanized AI Chatbot would be immense for companies. Just like TECHVED ACE, a Humanized AI-Chatbot that helps businesses, companies, enterprises to enhance their customer service. No matter what your industry or domain is, ACE is build to fit all your business requirements and needs. It creates an emotional bond and helps people express themselves. Many businesses have already begun their journey with TECHVED ACE and are enhancing their customer service. When are you opting for it?
Author – Mr. Mohar V, CEO & Co-Founder, TECHVED CONSULTING
Author’s linkedIN profile – https://www.linkedin.com/in/mohar/
Website – https://www.techved.com/
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