Automation and self-service can be a critical piece of modern customer service, but call center managers and business leaders should keep a few things in mind to make sure their new automation program sees real success.
Automation, when combined with the skills of live customer service agents, can create a great balance of speed and empathy that will power high levels of customer satisfaction and deliver premier levels of customer service. Finding the right balance between live agent interactions and customer self-service is made easier by keeping these notes in mind:
“Automation, when combined with the skills of live customer service agents, can create a great balance of speed and empathy that will power high levels of customer satisfaction and deliver premier levels of customer service.”
1. Create an Automation & Agent Partnership
No modern technology is capable of delivering the same level of empathy-driven, complex problem solving a skilled, well-trained customer service representative can provide. For layered, complicated call types, live agents are still the best option for a business looking to deliver superior customer experiences. The role of automation in top-tier customer service should be in support of live agents.
When customers call with repetitive or straight forward call types like looking up information in a database, filling out forms, or answering common questions, the best option is to shift those callers to automation and customer self-service. This partnership between agents and automation provides a shorter average handle time (AHT) and faster time to resolution for straightforward inquiries, and lets agents focus on the complex calls where their empathy and expertise deliver the most value without wasting energy on repetitive calls that can burn them out.
2. Start By Automating the Easy Stuff
Almost every call center receives a variety of inbound calls centering around a few easily automated inquiries. These simple, common use cases are ripe for automation. Any innovation project benefits from mapping out which solutions deliver the biggest ROI with the lowest effort, and self-service is no different.
Start by implementing a self-service platform for the highest volume, easiest to automate calls. This will shift as many live interactions to automation as fast as possible. Consider calls like order status in retail, appointment confirmation in healthcare, claims submission in insurance, or FAQ and knowledge bases for almost any industry.
“Consider calls like order status in retail, appointment confirmation in healthcare, claims submission in insurance, or FAQ and knowledge bases for almost any industry.”
3. Consider Automation Platforms Built Specifically for Customer Service
While various businesses are building their own AI, machine learning, and RPA tools, or using generic third party vendors that can deliver generic automation solutions, the best ROI comes from deploying solutions that already leverage automationbuilt specifically for customer servicescenarios.
With so many interactions and hurdles unique to customer service and consumer engagement, working with a vendor with deep industry knowledge and a platform geared for customer service success can greatly accelerate the implementation process and provide more effective automation in the long run. Experts like the team at Zappix have launched a host of call center automation technologies with customers in various industries, identifying and perfecting the best steps for a successful launch over time.
“With so many interactions and hurdles unique to customer service and consumer engagement, working with a vendor with deep industry knowledge and a platform geared for customer service success can greatly accelerate the implementation process and provide more effective automation in the long run.”
4. Look to Improve Over Time
The best customer service solutions should be constantly improving. By staying connected to the voice of the customer and analyzing user behavior and other data gathered from interactions with your customer self-service platform, smart call center managers and business leaders will be able to identify new places automation can be beneficial or where steps in the self-service can be improved.
When businesses start by automating the easy and most common use cases first, it gives managers the opportunity to grow their automation organically — adding it to the most productive and effective use cases as needed. This constant evolution and improvement of the service is one of the most important pieces of the Zappix implementation strategy.
“The best customer service solutions should be constantly improving. By staying connected to the voice of the customer and analyzing user behavior businesses can identify new places automation can be beneficial or where steps in the self-service can be improved.”
In a post COVID-19 world, it’s understandable why every business is looking to add automation to every part of their business. For customer service automation, the road to self-service success can be a little complicated. If business leaders and contact center managers keep these four key points in mind, however, the road to automation ROI will be smoother.