Great customer service is vital to a positive customer experience. But with the rise of automated technologies and AI, it’s all too easy to forget about something central to the whole equation: the human touch. Chatbots, automated responses, and telephone trees are all handy ways to streamline customer inquiries and support, but sometimes a real human rep on the line can make all the difference. Here’s what to know.
There’s a Time and a Place for Bots
Despite what the news would have you believe; AI isn’t always the answer. Bots and automation drive efficiency and cost savings for businesses, but when overused or used in the wrong contexts, they can affect customer satisfaction. Bots are great for simple tasks such as:
- Updating personal details
- Activating cards and accounts
- Answering FAQs
- Tracking packages
- Performing basic transactions
Human agents, on the other hand, are vital in situations that involve:
- Solving complex problems or questions
- Reassuring a customer or building empathy
- Providing personal recommendations
- Coming up with creative or innovative solutions
- VIP accounts or large transactions or donations
While both humans and bots provide an important customer service role, organizations need to be mindful of the promise they’re making when a customer gets in touch. After all, 44% of people say they want companies to be more transparent about how to reach a human agent, while 84% want to be treated like a person.
This means being mindful of your contact center workflows. Ensure that customers can easily speak with a human when they need to and know when they’re chatting with a bot.
Using Human Agents Doesn’t Have to be Hard
There are many reasons that organizations love customer service bots. They’re convenient, cost-effective, scalable, and available 24/7. But thanks to rapid technological development, human agents can also meet these requirements.
Take ACD’s one-stop-shop cloud-based customer contact platform. It allows agents to log in anywhere, anytime to offer tailored customer support – and puts key sales and account information right at reps’ fingertips. Not only that, but we also offer a pool of trained, on-demand agents who can help you scale up your customer service offering in times of high demand.
Tech-enabled, human-centered solutions like ours offer:
- Distributed customer service reps working across multiple time zones or shifts
- Reduced IT and local infrastructure costs and investments
- Powerful sales, account, and customer information at a touch
- Real-time call monitoring and analytics for constant improvement
- Smart call distribution depending on customer need
- All-in-one integrated solutions that bring your sales and customer service functions together
With ACD, the tasks that bots are best able to handle get sent to the bots, but all other calls are answered by a human – the way they should be. With us, you can strike the right balance between efficiency and customer satisfaction.
Add a Human Touch with ACD
At ACD, we know that hearing a human voice on the other end of the line can make all the difference. That’s why our turnkey contact center solutions not only deliver customizable workflows to meet your customers’ needs at the moment – but also come with the ability to instantly augment your customer service staffing needs using our pool of trained reps. With ACD, you can put a human touch in every moment. For more information or to improve your existing customer service offer, get in touch!
