The ultimate combination for customer service.
We live in an age of instant gratification. People are not willing to wait in a cue over the phone to have their questions answered. With the introduction of AI we are seeing some important changes. Particulalry, in the way consumers are able to converse with businesses. And we are seeing businesses attempt to find that balance of technology and humans.
Human interaction is beneficial if organizations want to add a more personal approach, with more difficult questions being able to be answered. However, as human agents are only able to deal with a certain amount of consumers in one go, we can see an increase in wait time and staffing costs. Fully automated chats on the other hand are less costly and much faster but there are down sides. Mistakes can still be made and limitations are still there for them to answer the harder more complex questions.
It takes two!
It is no longer sufficient for a business to have a customer service that is simply available when customers reach out with queries. The customer journey needs to begin even before this and that is when chatbots come in. They appear at the right time and ask the right questions to create a welcome engagement between business and consumer. However, as mentioned before there are still problems that come with fully automated chats. Therefore, we must look at the ways technology is able to enhance and improve human support, not take over it.
When working together, technology and humans are able to create a more efficient and frictionless customer service. One example of this is that simple FAQ’s such as “How can I return my item” can be handled by a chat bot, but if the chat reaches a point where it becomes too complicated for the bot it can be seamlessly passed to a human agent.
This can also work the other way around, as human agents can also hand over a conversation to a chatbot to complete a task, such as to complete a payment. This is beneficial as it will help reduce costs with less human assistance needed to complete these interactions.
Our world is now one of connectivity and access to almost anything at our fingertips. Demand for this to translate in customer care is high. Therefore, the benefits of chatbots really come into play as they can give consumers that 24/7 availability and the instant response they are looking for.
Final thoughts
Today we are seeing the technology behind chatbots moving at an advanced rate and with this the progress into them being better at assisting people is becoming more apparent. However, even though the future of chatbots is undeniably full of potential, for now the human interaction side to a customer experience is just as important and the need to utilize both is even more so.
At conversation24 we can help you find that perfect balance! Contact us for more information.
