Blog Post | Oct 10, 2023
3 Ways to Make Your Customer Service More Efficient Without the Use of AI
Even though AI is driving rapid changes to customer service, customers have made it clear they want to interact with real people, not bots. Here are practical ways to make your people-based customer service efforts more effective and efficient.
Every day, we see more stories about how sophisticated AI is and its expanding applications for business. In addition to AI-powered chatbots, some companies are using virtual influencers and spokespeople and are even creating totally artificial voices associated with chatbots, so the impression is that you’re talking to a real live human being—which all sounds very impressive … unless you’re a customer.
Overwhelmingly, customers want to be able to talk to a human being, and they know when they’re not. At least 75% of the time, talking to a real person is preferred to automated options. Your customer service is so crucial that 93% of customers will make repeat purchases if they have a good experience—and 50% of customers say they’d drop a company after a single bad interaction.
If you’ve been thinking about AI to enhance your customer service or simply want to create efficiencies, we have solutions that offer the best of all worlds. No bots required!
Provide the Same Professional Training Materials to Everyone
Consistency is key. Of course, you want your reps to use their good judgment and have their unique personalities shine through, but you still need a baseline. Training and continued education can help ensure you all work from the same playbook with the same objectives. Both printed and online training materials can ensure everyone on your customer service team operates from the same script—literally.
Ideally, your training should use a mix of printed material (more authoritative, portable and can help reps retain information) and electronic material (faster/easier/cheaper to update).
Enhance Your FAQs
Your website is the first place many customers seek information about a problem. An FAQ alone won’t solve all your customer service needs, but it’s a good starting place for your customers’ service journey. Besides helping to solve customer issues, a well-written FAQ page can also help drive SEO.
For maximum efficiency, your FAQs should provide answers to real issues your customers are experiencing—and your first step here is reading the reports from your customer service reps to find out what questions come up again and again. Don’t forget though that your FAQs may still leave some questions unanswered, so make it easy for your customers to get in touch with a live person if they’re not finding what they need.
Make It Easier for Customers to Get in Touch (but Control the Process)
It almost sounds counterintuitive, but empowering your customers to choose a channel for initiating customer service will improve the process significantly. You can control the flow with a Customer Service/Contact Us form.
The form should attempt to gather as much information as possible without slowing the customer down too much). Ask for the basics, including:
By asking a few simple questions, you also empower your customer service agents to arm themselves with the information they need to quickly resolve the issue.
We’ve Got Creative Ideas to Help Cut Down on Service Calls in the First Place
In our experience, what drives the majority of customer service calls is a fundamental mismatch between customers’ expectations of a product and the product itself. Using descriptive, full-color product labels and adding video to your website can help—and we have many more ideas that can help you sell to and satisfy more customers! Contact us to learn more.
Overwhelmingly, customers want to be able to talk to a human being, and they know when they’re not. At least 75% of the time, talking to a real person is preferred to automated options. Your customer service is so crucial that 93% of customers will make repeat purchases if they have a good experience—and 50% of customers say they’d drop a company after a single bad interaction.
If you’ve been thinking about AI to enhance your customer service or simply want to create efficiencies, we have solutions that offer the best of all worlds. No bots required!
Provide the Same Professional Training Materials to Everyone
Consistency is key. Of course, you want your reps to use their good judgment and have their unique personalities shine through, but you still need a baseline. Training and continued education can help ensure you all work from the same playbook with the same objectives. Both printed and online training materials can ensure everyone on your customer service team operates from the same script—literally.
Ideally, your training should use a mix of printed material (more authoritative, portable and can help reps retain information) and electronic material (faster/easier/cheaper to update).
Enhance Your FAQs
Your website is the first place many customers seek information about a problem. An FAQ alone won’t solve all your customer service needs, but it’s a good starting place for your customers’ service journey. Besides helping to solve customer issues, a well-written FAQ page can also help drive SEO.
For maximum efficiency, your FAQs should provide answers to real issues your customers are experiencing—and your first step here is reading the reports from your customer service reps to find out what questions come up again and again. Don’t forget though that your FAQs may still leave some questions unanswered, so make it easy for your customers to get in touch with a live person if they’re not finding what they need.
Make It Easier for Customers to Get in Touch (but Control the Process)
It almost sounds counterintuitive, but empowering your customers to choose a channel for initiating customer service will improve the process significantly. You can control the flow with a Customer Service/Contact Us form.
The form should attempt to gather as much information as possible without slowing the customer down too much). Ask for the basics, including:
- The product or service causing the issue
- General information about the problem
- How they’d like to get help (email, chat or by phone)
By asking a few simple questions, you also empower your customer service agents to arm themselves with the information they need to quickly resolve the issue.
We’ve Got Creative Ideas to Help Cut Down on Service Calls in the First Place
In our experience, what drives the majority of customer service calls is a fundamental mismatch between customers’ expectations of a product and the product itself. Using descriptive, full-color product labels and adding video to your website can help—and we have many more ideas that can help you sell to and satisfy more customers! Contact us to learn more.