Technology has certainly come a long way in the last century. Ever since the creation of telephones, enabling long-distance communication; businesses have seen newer outreaches to provide customer service through the application of social media, live-chat and chatbots.
You’ll find the twang of robotic speech come from a variety of avenues, your bank’s options menu on the phone, speaking to a personal assistant tool like Siri or Alexa. Technology is continuously advancing, which in turn creates newer business-minded innovations.
In this article, we’ll discuss whether artificial intelligence “A.I” could spell the end of traditional customer service channels and what this could mean for your business.
Classic Customer Service
We know excellent customer service when we experience it, but nailing down the perfect formula is often discussed, not as easily executed. Your staff are human as are your customers; the line that bridges the “customer is always right” gap often blurs.
Although, the power of customer service is unquestionable. One study found that 70 per cent of unhappy customers whose issues resolved in their favour would stick with the business.
After all, there’s enough written about customer service management; you could fill a small island worth of reading material. Your business might be fine with the way it tackles customer experience so far, yet, there’s always room for improvement. Does that lie in using a chatbot?
Chatbot Customer Service
A common trope associated with A.I is the fears they’ll become too intelligent and “take over” humanity. While this makes for good entertainment, sparking numerous books, films and television around the subject; the idea isn’t without credence.
Technology has already taken over a vast majority of job roles in that of agriculture, manufacturing and transport. Gone are the days of manual switchboard operators, connecting the nations phone lines. Modern problems require modern solutions which make tasks as these reliant on computerised technology.
How Do Chatbots Work For Businesses?
When it comes down to customer service, a human voice makes a big difference down the phone line. Similar to the old adage that the most critical element of customer service is in the human element. Robots aren’t especially skilled in the art of empathy.
While this still rings true, recent data compiled from Facebook revealed how 56% of people would instead message than call customer service. Circumstances like this, chatbots make a great first responder to a customer query.
Chatbots themselves can be placed on your social media handles or integrated into your companies website. You would generally program a chatbot with specific “keywords” or phrases that relate to questions your customers or prospects would ask.
Human Intelligence vs. Artifical Intelligence
One industry’s call centres most at risk are in retail, with e-commerce making a dent in the landscape, many brick and mortar businesses are teetering on the edge of extinction. Springing forth from the advent of some high-profile closures in the UK, big businesses have decided to choose between two different styles of service.
For the more complex queries and tasks at hand, big businesses are downsizing and crafting higher-quality workspaces. While for more straightforward questions, the benefit of a chatbot provides an opportunity for 24-hour service response.
So from a business perspective, the technology isn’t quite at the level to deal with complex customer queries; think more of it more like a customisable FAQ. Chatbots work great cost-wise and for pre-emptively answering common questions surrounding your business.
However, After last years astonishing demo of google duplex, an artificial personal assistant that simulated human speech; eyes are on the landmark growth in artificial communication. With the computerised personal assistant able to easily book a hairdressing appointment as if it was an ordinary person.
What does tech like this say for the future of customer service?
Will Chatbots Replace Classic Customer Service?
Despite growing concerns about where representatives stand in a growing technological culture, telephone calls still amount to 68% of customer service small business queries. Unsurprisingly it’s an innate desire to speak with someone human that makes a significant impact within the customer journey: that and the human ability to cognitively deal with more robust customer queries.
However, both can work alongside each other. Take, for example, with live chats.
Live chats enable both customers and employees to interact through a chat window, easily operated using chatbots and real agents. Various companies offer different packages to suit all kinds of businesses. For the majority of small business owners out there this could get pricey. Ideally, it might be best to hold off on integrating a purely automated workforce.
It’s difficult to speculate whether artificial intelligence will take a stronghold over customer service in the future, but, it’s more than likely the human element will co-exist with the artificial one.
Providing For Small Businesses
For small business owners like yourselves, after racking your heads on the do’s and don’ts, why not take a step out to focus on the essential supplies needed to keep your business running smoothly.
- Keep staff and visitors happy with a quick stock up on your washroom supplies like soap, toilet tissue or the odd paper towel?
- Have a fast response ready to an unfortunate spill with the help of our extensive range of spill kits, ranging from general purpose, chemical spills and more!
- Fit your washroom with the very best in hand drying technology or provide a unique baby changing facility for any new parents who come to visit.
Visit Direct365 Supplies today and find out for yourself how over 1,600 customer reviews later, we earned the title of a “great” score on Trustpilot.
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