5 Ways technology will shape the future of customer service

5 Ways technology will shape the future of customer service

At a time when the economy is in recession due to the COVID-19 pandemic, small- and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) need a clear advantage against their competitors. Customer service can become the crucial element that makes your company stand out above the rest.

By being responsive to customer inquiries, understanding each client’s needs, and providing solutions quickly, businesses can solidify their client base and gain more customers. To provide better customer service, you can turn to technology.

But there’s a growing concern that says technology will replace humans and steal their jobs. This isn’t true, however. Technology will not replace human interaction, but it even brings many benefits to the customer service industry, such as:

1. Increased face-to-face customer service

More and more customers will soon prefer a more personal type of customer service, which is something video communication can provide.

You can use tools like Loom to record videos for your clients. If you need to explain a complex topic to a customer, for instance, you can send a quick video file explaining the matter to them. Walking your customers through a certain topic visually is better than writing a huge wall of text, which may confuse them even more.

You can also hold a Zoom meeting with your clients. For example, you can do product demonstrations via Zoom, so you can answer questions that your clients might have in real time. Real-time face-to-face communication will allow for a more personal customer service, which your customers will appreciate.

2. Smarter chatbots

Chatbots are a popular customer service solution that enables a faster way to answer customers’ queries even if there’s no one in the office to attend to them. However, chatbots today are only programmed with common questions that customers might have, which may not be enough if clients need more help.

In the future, chatbots can be a game-changer for the customer service industry. Through machine learning, chatbots can learn, train, and teach customers without human interaction. Representatives will only need to deal with cases that a knowledge base or a history of customer questions cannot solve. This will ease customer service representatives’ usual load.

3. Personalized customer service training

Customer service training usually involves following a set of procedures on how something is done. But, sentiment analysis tools can reveal that each representative has their own strengths, weaknesses, and techniques in doing their job. This is why personalized customer service training will be a must in the future.

For instance, representatives with a solid technical base can strengthen their communication and interpersonal skills. Meanwhile, those who may have difficulty demonstrating your product can focus more on mastering its features.

Measure your employees’ performance after every training activity and get their feedback. For instance, ask them how you can help them make their exercises easier. This creates a unique onboarding process for every representative.

4. Social media as a customer service tool

Social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram have made it easy to connect to your clients. Not only can you advertise your products on these channels, your customers can also leave feedback. And as marketers spend more on social media advertising, you also have to include social media in your customer service strategy.

To do this, you need to ensure that your team can handle social media interactions. For instance, if someone leaves a query on one of your social media posts, be ready to provide them with the information they need. Or if someone posts a negative product review, you need to attend to them immediately to rectify the issue.

5. New customer service positions

The rapid development of technology will create new customer service positions beyond the typical phone call and chat approach. For instance, augmented reality will create customer service positions who will virtually help customers learn how to use your products and services.

There will also be a need for specialists to provide personalized support to customers. This will allow representatives to hone their skills on a certain product or service.

As customer service embraces technology, your Baltimore, Columbia, or Annapolis business also needs the best managed IT services provider. NetQuest will identify existing and potential network issues and create a plan of action to prevent them from disrupting your operations. To know if you’re ready for managed services, download our FREE eBook or contact us today.

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The adage isn’t “If it ain’t broke, fix it,” is it? Before you skip ahead to picking and choosing which IT services you want and how they’re managed, pinpoint precisely where your technology is falling behind.

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