Category: Business

Chatbots

How Chatbots Will Change Call Center Customer Service in 2017

April 21, 2017
Chatbots? It’s the numero uno buzzword of 2017. Basically, we’re talking about artificial intelligence (AI) that is able to understand human language to enhance the user’s experience. Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft, predicts that “the future of technology lies in human language” and that “conversation is the new interface, and bots are the new apps.”
A chatbot can have a meaningful conversation with a customer. The customer poses a simple or complex question and the chatbot is able to give a sophisticated answer. The tech industry has embraced chatbots with vigor – from large corporates to innovative startups. They all see the inherent value of this technology to their organizations especially in the realm of customer service. But are chatbots a passing fad or here to stay?
Out with the Apps, in with the Chat
 
Chatbots are most certainly here to stay and you will see a swarm of them being deployed across a range of platforms. Thanks to the natural language processor we now have a simple means of interacting with technology. We could say that our digital assistants like Amazon’s Alexa are the forerunners of this chatbot explosion. Siri also serves the function of “understanding” what we are asking for it. They can easily recognize our voice commands. Chatbots, on the other hand, respond to the text. This has been a long road of attempting to get computers to understand the human conversation. Everyone has jumped on board trying to crack the seemingly impossible code to our human language. Since 2014 we have seen chatbots start appearing to the public. There was Microsoft’s Xiaoice and Facebook’s M. The big giants like Google are also developing their own chatbots. Twitter has their chatbots interacting with customers automatically with their new welcome messages and quick replies. Large tech companies are even assisting smaller businesses with creating their own chatbots as there is a race to see who will control the platform for all chatbots. This basically means that we are sure to see an acceleration of this automated technology erupting across the web this year.
 
The Employee That Never Sleeps
With pattern recognition and machine learning the chatbot can understand a customer’s typed commands or questions. If you are a business that deals with customers on a daily basis you are well aware that there are certain questions and issues that come up all the time. Your chatbot is never going to sleep so it can handle these basic questions from your customers with ease. They can reply in real time to the customers needs raising your customer service level in the process. Your chatbot will be your best customer support agent in 2017. The movement to elevate customer experiences with “botsourcing” of basic communication is catching on like wildfire.
 
The Rise of the Call Center Chatbots?
So why would a call center, that doesn’t “sell” a product or run a chat messenger, put time and resources into building their own chatbot? The most practical use is to improve customer service. At call centers, when there is a high call volume, we frustrate our customers with long wait times and many abandon the call and head over to our competition. If you had a chatbot that could handle all of the low touch requests you could see a drastic reduction in the customer waiting and a surge in customer satisfaction.
A Gartner research study found that “only one-third of customer service interactions will require human interaction by 2017.”
This would alleviate understaffing issues especially for smaller businesses who might not have as large a budget for call center staffing as the big giants. The use of a Chatbot would substantially lower expenses for your call center. With the Chatbot taking care of the easier questions from customers, the agents would be left to offer expert customer service for clients needing more complex assistance. In this new automated digital world that we live in, customer service is the new differentiator. If you are able to offer superior service with the assistance of a chatbot, you will leap ahead of your competition.
There are many tasks that chatbots can do better and faster than humans and they should be sent to work on them straight away. But high-touch interactions still require human communication where your agent is able to spend time completely hearing what your customers ask. Chatbots tackle general communication tasks leaving more time for your agents to truly deliver exceptional service to their customers. You now have the time to do more for your customers not just rely on your chatbot minions to cover the basics.
 
From Trend to Best Practice Overnight
It might seem like a new trend that’s just starting out its life cycle and might take some time to fully take off – but that’s incorrect. In this rapidly ever-evolving digital age – useful automated technology like the chatbot will determine the future communication between customers and companies. They have entered the workplace, they are your new, efficient employees who work 24/7 and keep your customers smiling. At the moment they function as customer service enhancers but their full capabilities have yet to be realized.
2017 might be the year of the Rooster in the Chinese Calendar but in tech terms – it is the year of the chatbot!
Source: Contact Center World

Using Predictive Customer Service to Improve Satisfaction

April 21, 2017
“The customer’s perception is your reality.” Kate Zabriskie
By 2020 the customer experience will leap frog over product and price as the most fundamental brand differentiator according to a Walkerinfo report. Gartner’s findings on the subject reveal that “50% of product investment projects will be driven towards customer experience innovations.” Our customers want more from us. They have higher expectations thanks to their experience with the digital age and all of its gifts of instant satisfaction.
 
I Want It All and I Want It Now!
Our customers have choice at their fingertips. They can look up any product information online and all of the competitor’s prices for the same item/service. Customer loyalty is not a given – you have to earn it daily. There are so many competitors for every single possible product – so you have to stand out in the market. Superior customer service is your new yardstick for success. You might have the better, cheaper product but if you keep a customer waiting for too long they will simply move on. An astounding statistic has popped up saying a whopping 97% of global customers say that customer service is linked to their decision to use or abandon a company’s product or service. They want you to resolve their issue very quickly.
So, how are you going to go about doing that? One way is to accurately predict customer behavior and solve their problem before they even know they have one. This is not crystal ball stuff – it’s common sense.
Predictive Problem Solving
Your agents must know the product backward and forwards so they can answer every possible permutation linked to their questions. When someone calls in they expect that the agent has complete knowledge of your brand and all products/services. They do not care if the agent is outsourced, they only want them to be brand experts. Customers need answers, good ones. They need clarity, accuracy, a calm tone, and excellent timing.
To know the product inside out, your team is going to need training in advance of your latest product launches, updates or modifications. It goes without saying that your product really has to be made with quality and easy to use. Otherwise, your call center is just a complaints line. If you are going to be bringing out a new product, you know there are going to be customers calling in about its new features and how to navigate the functions. Be prepared to answer these predictable questions well in advance. Don’t leave it to the agent to scramble around for new information. Empower your team with solutions to future problems. You will be making it possible for them to deliver excellent customer service.
 
Making Mindreading Mandatory
It is vital to get feedback from agents every day regarding the most common questions asked and problems faced by the customer’s calling in. Create a question and answer folder for instant access for the agents to have a clear, easy to understand the response to complex customer queries. When you are bringing out a new product line/service you should already foresee what potential questions are going to come up for your customer service agents. You know every aspect of your innovation but have you passed that on well in advance? You know what you have in the pipeline, so provide your agents with the best assets possible so that they can deliver unbelievable customer service. The client will feel like the agent has read their minds.
 
“Being on par in terms of price and quality only gets you into the game. Service wins the game.” – Tony Alessandra
Bestselling Behavior
It’s time to get proactive. Forward thinking companies are going to catch the brass ring. If you can predict what your customer is going to need resolving, you will exceed their expectations when they call in. Don’t get so wrapped up in cost saving techniques and reducing call waiting times. Put issue resolution at the top of the list in 2017.
P.S. A little prediction…” reactive customer service is a disaster; real-time customer service is becoming the norm but the future is faster than real-time customer service. Customer service teams should get ready for a world of automation.” Steven Van Bellegham, best-selling author of When Digital Becomes Human
Source & Credit: Contact Center World
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