Companies that provide customer support are discovering new ways to utilize technology. Social media, chatbots, real-time messaging, and CRMs are all gaining momentum in today’s digital world, and each of them has unique advantages. To make the most of each of them, businesses should learn how to use these new tools to their best advantage. Here are a few tips for customer-facing staff:
Social media
The most important thing to remember when using social media to interact with customer service is to be responsive. Social media users expect to hear back from businesses quickly. Good customer service is quick, helpful, and polite. Whether customers are making complaints or praising you for great service, they’ll appreciate a quick response. Providing direct contact information will also make communication easier and reduce the chances of other customers interjecting.
While it may be tempting to take on the role of a human being in customer service, companies should never be afraid to admit they’re not perfect. The fact is that social media can improve customer satisfaction and loyalty. Almost one billion messages are exchanged between individuals and businesses every month on Facebook Messenger alone. And 70% of people plan to message businesses more in the future than they do today. And they’re doing it at scale, too.
A social media platform like Hootsuite can also be used to monitor customer satisfaction. By measuring CSAT or NPS scores, companies can see if social media is improving or detracting from customer satisfaction. Topic clusters allow companies to identify larger trends such as defective products. Another way to measure the effectiveness of social media customer support is through the deflection rate, a measurement of how far customers push the conversation through other channels.
If your customers are already using social media, you may want to use it to interact with them. Determine the purpose of your social media campaign. If you’re purely using social media to interact with your customer base, you’ll have to spend a significant amount of time managing them. The initial investment may be worthwhile, but the returns will be smaller over time. However, social media is an excellent tool for reaching new customers and interacting with existing ones.
Chatbots
While there are many advantages to using chatbots in customer service, there are also some risks to this type of automated interaction. Early adopters of chatbot technology did not fully consider the risks associated with automated conversation. Microsoft’s chatbot, for example, tweeted racial slurs. Facebook’s “weather cat” chatbot, Poncho, is also known to offer bizarre answers. As such, organizations managing digital assets should consider adding specific policies and procedures to protect themselves from liability.
Initially, most companies relied on passive interaction with customers to handle customer service cases. However, today’s customers are largely Millennials. While traditional customer service is still relevant, companies can’t afford to use it for every interaction. Investing in AI chatbots is a good way to stay ahead of the competition and show customers that they matter. Chatbots can be used in a variety of customer service interactions, from order inquiries to AI presale assistance.
While menu-based chatbots are fine for simple, frequently asked questions – which make up the majority of support requests – they may fall short in complex scenarios. In addition, menu-based chatbots are slow to provide any genuine value for consumers. Nevertheless, they are a low-cost and easy-to-start solution for customer service needs. There are many advantages to menu-based chatbots.
With artificial intelligence software, chatbots can be programmed to initiate conversations and answer customer inquiries. By ensuring customer interaction and satisfaction, chatbots can be used in the pre-sale and post-sale service areas for businesses. And since chatbots can be used from any location, they can also store a customer’s previous interactions with a company. Some of them even use natural language understanding and machine learning to improve customer service.
Real-time messaging
Customers expect to communicate in real time, whether it’s via messaging on Facebook Messenger or Slack, or directly on your website. With the help of a customer service system that allows you to synchronize the two, you can provide excellent customer care, and save time by using the same interface for both. Real-time messaging is the way to go in customer service. It makes it easier to stay on top of customer inquiries and offers a conversational atmosphere. Messaging apps can also be used to increase engagement and build trust with your customers.
Customers today are also increasingly interacting with companies via social media. Facebook and Twitter are no longer just for racking up likes; now, most businesses have business pages across various social media sites. If a user has a question or wants to know how to use a product or service, he can reach out to Pizza Hut on social media and get the help they need. With these technologies, customer care can be tailored to each customer’s needs and avoid inconveniencing customers.
While technology is helpful in customer service, there are some disadvantages as well. It can improve the experience of a customer and help them solve simple problems. With an extensive database and FAQ section, customers can find the answers they need to solve their problems quickly. Another advantage of technology is that it helps businesses improve customer service by reducing wait times. For example, live chat is available on company websites twenty-four hours a day, which allows companies to serve their customers faster.
Technology is evolving rapidly and is helping to take customer service to a new level. It provides customers with unprecedented opportunities for communication, as well as unprecedented levels of connectivity. As a result, customer service and marketing departments are ramping up their technology programmes to take advantage of this trend. If you’re not yet aware of the benefits of using technology in customer service, start reading this whitepaper today. You’ll be glad you did.
CRMs
The commoditization of services and products has reduced the personal connection between a company and its customers. This is where customer engagement strategies come into play. They focus on the entire customer experience, rather than operational efficiency, while encouraging proactive and anticipatory staff. The resulting knowledge of a customer’s preferences and purchasing history allows firms to improve their products and services. The technology that allows CRMs to work in this way can make the difference between an overall business success and failure.
A CRM is a software system that enables businesses to manage and monitor customer relationships and interactions. By using these systems, a company can stay in touch with its customers, improve profitability and streamline processes. It is particularly useful for small businesses, as it lets business professionals focus on the customer and their needs, instead of managing all of the information about the company itself. CRMs can be used by both companies and individuals.
Some CRMs have built-in intelligence. These enable marketers to automate marketing campaigns and manage customer information from multiple sources. They also enable salespeople to interact with every customer and manage every aspect of their interactions with them in one place. CRMs also enable salespeople to create and share profiles of each customer and generate real-time sales reports. CRMs also enable marketers to improve their customer experience through personalized marketing. The CRM will help businesses understand their customers and anticipate their needs.
The CRM should help business owners analyze their customers’ buying habits and preferences. Customers are not all created equal. Some are profitable, while others provide more insight. Some are loyal and easy to serve, while others act as evangelists and offer valuable insight. These are the “right” customers. A CRM should make it easier for business owners to identify these segments and prioritize them based on profitability or future potential.
Artificial intelligence
As AI gains popularity, companies may be considering using AI for customer service. AI can help companies collect more data, analyze that data, and even perform tasks that a human cannot. AI can also perform menial tasks such as typing out a response to a customer’s query. Small business leaders may be concerned about laying off employees. They might want to try AI for customer service to see if it can improve the customer experience.
One company using AI to handle customer inquiries is True AI. True AI takes care of 70 percent of customer inquiries with the assistance of a human operator. It is still learning how to respond to each customer, and sometimes doesn’t know what to say. Rather than giving an immediate response, True AI offers three responses that are most likely to work – leaving the final decision to a human operator. But it can’t answer all questions – and it may not be up to the task of answering all of them.
AI can be used to identify the right candidates for a particular job. AI platforms can learn from past actions to determine which candidates will fit the position. AI can also help to guide employees to the right tasks. The customer service industry has long struggled with accuracy of results. However, AI can help to narrow down the possibilities of services and improve the accuracy of the results. AI also helps in revising past performance.
In the digital age, the relationship between brands and their customers is undergoing a sea change. Expectations from consumers are higher than ever and companies need to innovate to keep up with the pace of change. Fortunately, some organizations are already jumping on the AI bandwagon. Here are three ways AI can improve customer service:
