Business tech is quickly transforming as social networking and online interactions have taken over our everyday habits, both personally and professionally. But in spite of staying connected online, somewhere deep down we all prefer the human touch, especially since the pandemic which led us to living in isolation for months. This is where the online-offline balance comes into play as businesses need to focus on customer engagement and service just as much as they focused on implementing the technology that’ll drive it.
Customer support technology is only worth investing in when you harness it in a way that it propels business, improves brand reputation, increases agent productivity, and helps build stronger customer ties. Organisations now, need to go beyond chatbots and cater to existing and new customers with tools that simplify the customer journey, guide them through the onboarding process and keep them engaged with real people till the very end.
Focusing on the Future of Customer Care Involves:
Understanding the importance of human interaction
Think your client is running into a technical issue or not grasping a specific guidance and afterward being trapped in the rigmarole of interacting with a bot, accepting pre-programmed messages, yet no human assistance. It isn’t the bot’s fault because there’s only so much that a bot can do. Obviously, your customer will get irritated and drop off immediately, unlikely to do business with you again. The requirement for this human assistance has been fuelled by COVID-19 more so, particularly in areas like insurance and banking that depend entirely on online business.
Through our own experience we noticed that when Video based KYC identification was introduced in the banking and insurance sectors, along with a hike in demand for the tool, there was also a growing demand for virtual assistance by real agents. Your customer onboarding journey may start with getting a chatbot to interact with them, but eventually a real agent will need to step in, to connect over an offline call or video interaction. Chatbots cannot process empathy and react accordingly. That’s something unique to human beings.
Creating a bespoke interactive experience
Nobody enjoys the phone ringing incessantly during the wait time, especially not a customer who’s in a hurry to get his work done. Customer service providers (like us and many others) need to incorporate an IVR system that keeps the caller engaged while the agent may put him on hold for a while. This IVR system can keep the caller informed about the brand’s various offerings, the various tools they can utilise, or the assistance they can ask for. Callers can be provided with the option to chat in their local language and even receive a welcome message to add a personal touch to the experience.
Ensuring skill-based routing for agents
With current innovation encouraging Video KYC for Banks and other client support tools, calls coming through needn’t simply go to any agent accessible, but can be moved to the one most appropriate to assist. This element, known as skill-based routing, sorts agents depending on their demographics like language, areas, specialised areas and that’s only the tip of the iceberg. After the IVR has connected with the client, the line is routed to the agent most qualified to address the concern. Needless to say, this hoists consumer loyalty.
Offering CRM integration
When your online service tool is integrated with a CRM software, agents have an all-round perspective of caller information, so no matter which agent answers the call, customising the caller experience gets much simpler once all data is easily available on the screen. Apart from personal client information and call logs, agents have access to previous tickets, cases, chat transcripts and other data, which offer a comprehensive view to make client interactions more productive and viable.
Offering new services like instant onboarding, Video kyc and others certainly require new technology that’ll help businesses improve completion rate, conversion rate, overall customer satisfaction and agent productivity.
As we face this new phase of business, we must ensure that these tools and technologies are implemented in our customer service software to do business at its maximum potential and achieve the best ROI possible.