As businesses are becoming more digital, the way that people interact with brands is also changing. As featured in Multichannel Merchant, a Paypal-commissioned study found out that 80% of consumers transact with businesses using their smartphones. More and more people are using apps to find services and make purchases. Also, businesses can now offer new services on their mobile apps. If not in apps, people search for solutions on search engines and click on the first website they see. These create expectations for new technology to integrate businesses and their customers on a new level. As a result, customer service technology proactively keeps up with these trends, providing businesses with the tools needed to stay competitive. In this article, you will dive deeper into how technologies change customer service and customer expectations—at present and in the generations to come.
How Technologies Change Customer Service Today
Transforms the Roles of Customer Service Representatives
Technology has developed a strategy customer-centric businesses optimize to support customers. They automate and digitize processes, so that customer service representatives can solve problems more quickly. Some organizations go as far as integrating artificial intelligence into their customer service. Here are some examples of customer service technology: live chat, email, tweet, web call, FAQ, and review sites.
Live Chat
Live chat is a new service that allows customers to get in touch with companies in real-time. This is a great way for brands to engage with their current customers and acquire new ones. It doesn’t matter if you are an eCommerce business or a brick-and-mortar store. There are plenty of ways to implement live chat. Seek the expertise of offshore professionals for a practical cost but outstanding results nevertheless.
If you got an urgent announcement about a bug fix on your software or some feature updates, email is your channel. But of course, before you can send a message to your customers all at once seamlessly, you will first need a webmaster that will introduce you to an email marketing service and automation platform. Email automation platforms save time and put your email campaigns in order.
Emails are also a go-to for professionals and business executives, which is why this is a platform that should not be taken for granted.
Tweet
One of the biggest changes in this industry is the advent of social media. Twitter, in particular, has been credited with changing the way businesses talk to their customers. There are certainly some benefits to this change, but there are some potential problems as well. Tweets can help to clarify or resolve most cases of customer service, but in some instances, tweets won’t help at all, especially when customer concerns are too technical to be discussed via tweet. Today’s consumers demand quicker solutions, so this is where the tweets fall short.
However, it’s still crucial because customers can give feedback in the form of tweets and Facebook posts. This means that if you’re not doing a good job, everyone will know about it. Thus, you need to be there for your customers at all times.
Web Call
Web calls are best for e-commerce websites and online stores. People buy on impulse. Thus, you should attend to them as soon as possible, and web calls play a huge role in gaining and retaining customers this time. The top shopping websites in the world even outsource their web call customer service to call centers offshore.
FAQ
One of the most commonly used terms on the internet is FAQ, which is an abbreviation for Frequently Asked Questions. As the name suggests, this is a list of questions that are often asked in a particular context. You will typically see FAQs on a website or an FAQ page. It is a place where you can find all the answers to questions that are commonly asked by someone.
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Alongside these emerging technologies are the artificial intelligence in chatbots and the integration of all the communication channels in a single interface.
Artificial Intelligence
Chatbots can answer repetitive or frequently asked questions of the customers. Because of this, customer service representatives now and in the future would take on the role of programming and training these bots into answering inquiries.
Omni-Channel Customer Support
Gone are the days when customers would only communicate through a single channel. You are visible wherever your online presence is. This means that you should be reachable on those platforms too, or else, you will give your customers a poor impression. Understandably, juggling from one platform to another can be rather exhausting or confusing. This is especially when your customers are using multiple channels at once to contact you. This is where omnichannel customer support becomes the solution.
This type of technology connects every customer communication platform you have and integrates them into an interface. If you are a small to medium business entity, you can just have one or two customer support representatives, and a chatbot.
With an omnichannel customer support platform, you will see all your customer’s messages from across different platforms, in a single chatbox. In a single interface, your customer service representative can receive chats and calls from the same customer, regardless of the channel the customer uses.
Keeping Up With How Technologies Change Customer Service
With digital user manuals, well-executed customer onboarding carousel, and pre-recorded product demos, you might think that customer support representatives are also becoming extinct. The human touch is still necessary, however, the rise of technology also demands more than what we are used to.
Technology and its intelligence don’t make your customer service representative less valuable. Instead, these innovations for customer support encourage your team to take on a more proactive role in the whole process. This new innovative approach will continue challenging your customer service team to be effective in both web chat, and calls. Operating an omnichannel requires both excellent communication skills written and oral. They will also need to get themselves comfortable and more involved with manipulating chatbots, and troubleshooting software issues, to stay relevant and valuable.
Customer Support Means Less Without Social Media Platforms
Even Facebook developed its business suite where you can interact with customers through multiple channels—namely Facebook and Instagram. Social media platforms are supporting businesses because people flock to these platforms for answers and updates. If you’re not optimizing them, you’re missing out. If one of your concerns is the difficulty in handling multiple channels, outsource an IT expert that can make omnichannel customer support happen for you.
Your Customer Support Remains Mediocre Without Data
Customer support also involves informative blog content or video content that aims to make your customer experience hassle-free and favorable. Information like the number of monthly visits, the number of repeat visits, the average stay, and the total spending are necessary. These let you see if you are getting rewards from your efforts, and help your team understand their performance. Without the basis of data, you are limiting your organization from what you can improve more to stand out in today’s digital transformation.
Also, by checking analytics and customer feedback, you will see which channels you should prioritize more, your response time, and what else you can work on to increase customer retention.
Technologies Provide Flexible Training
Through software, customer service representatives can train themselves independently. They can choose to focus on areas they need to improve more. Virtual training done in a well-designed software for employees will allow users to work first on the technical, knowledge-base, or soft skills sections—whichever they prefer.
Conclusion
Allowing customers to get instant answers and solutions from smart integrations and software developments—that is how technologies change customer service. Technology, without a doubt, encompasses everything that is used to provide ever-effective customer service. At the end of the day, the best customer service technology can increase sales, efficiency, and satisfaction.
