As customers become more likely to switch brands due to poor customer service, top companies must step up their game or risk being left behind. Luckily, innovative new technology is revolutionizing customer support services.
Tech trends like omnichannel communication, ticket tracking automation, face-to-face video chat and AI-powered agents are revolutionizing how businesses provide support services.
Self-service and automation
Companies can provide self-service options through various methods, including customer support portals, emails or live chat. However, the most efficient means is integrating support directly into products themselves – for instance Amazon’s Mayday button allows customers to request help directly within their product experience.
Companies that provide in-product support can save both time and money, while simultaneously increasing customer satisfaction. Companies offering this type of support may make it easy for their customers to find answers by including an FAQ page or knowledge base in their products.
Implementing automation tools that accelerate business expansion can also increase efficiency. Employees can focus on providing better interactions rather than being bogged down with administrative duties. Automating repetitive tasks allows companies to reduce costs and eliminate human error; this approach is especially advantageous when handling high volumes of support calls or emails.
Chatbots
Customers expect prompt resolutions when making inquiries or scheduling events; self-service tools allow companies to meet these customer expectations while cutting down wait times and increasing profitability.
Chatbots use natural language processing technology to offer more tailored answers for simple inquiries, while for complex issues they hand off their query to a human representative who can address it more quickly and comprehensively.
Video chat is an increasingly popular customer support tool, helping agents quickly diagnose problems and offer effective solutions more quickly while offering more individualized service and building rapport with customers. Agents may use video chat to demonstrate products or walk customers through an online form or technical process; agents can also use co-browsing – taking control of customer’s browser for them so as to navigate complex information or instructions more efficiently; host live webinars to reach more people at once with updates about new offerings or promotions;
Virtual assistants
Virtual assistants are an emerging customer support trend worth keeping an eye on. Not only can they assist customers with basic inquiries, they can also take on tasks like scheduling appointments and navigating company policies and procedures. Smart chatbots can even do an effective job qualifying leads by suggesting answers for commonly asked questions (FAQs).
After experiencing longer than average wait times in 2017, customers demand quick resolutions from an empathic team that understands their needs and offers rapid responses across all communication channels so they don’t have to log off and back in again to access help when they require it.
Rather than telling their audience they need to call the help desk for updates about a website outage, companies can reach them with webinars or announcements on social media instead. This approach has proven highly successful at improving customer retention and satisfaction.
Artificial intelligence
Artificial Intelligence (AI) has become an integral component of customer support, from diagnosing issues to providing solutions. AI’s powerful nature enables it to quickly assess and resolve frequent issues without needing human intervention – companies with modern self-service tools will incorporate AI so customers can get help on their own more easily.
AI and machine learning technologies can assist customer service representatives with solving customer service problems by analyzing specific data and context, while creating knowledge base articles or creating knowledge base content.
Artificial Intelligence can alleviate many repetitive, time-consuming tasks for frontline employees so they can focus on helping customers realize more value from your products or services, which in turn improves overall customer satisfaction. If you want to learn more about how smart chatbots and AI can assist your customer support team, take our Trailhead course – starting your free trial right now will have you up and running quickly while increasing productivity by twofold while saving up to 80% in annual costs.
