Customer Service, today, means much more than providing a support service to customers.
Especially in this last pandemic period, during which online purchases of any type of good and service have grown exponentially, Customer Service has gained an even more strategic importance, in the relationship between Brand and Customer.
Every organization has truly understood the importance of enhancing the quality of the relationship with customers, thus enabling a pertinent, relevant and highly customized Customer Experience.
According to 2021 forecast by Ian Jacobs, Analyst at Forrester:
“Digital customer service interactions will increase by 40%”
Customer Service, the multi-channel evolution
Today's enterprise users and customers aren't just multichannel, they're also increasingly digitally demanding. In an ecosystem of analogical and digital solicitations and demands, the challenge is to beat the competition on support service.
Customer Service industry is experiencing a necessary multichannel evolution. The way in which assistance services are provided is increasingly redefining the customer-company relationship, changing the way of interaction, thanks to the coexistence of new and traditional technologies.
The key is to propose a multichannel customer care, that is to offer more ways of interacting with a company, from classic channels, such as email and telephone, to social networks, up to applications, such as WhatsApp.
In this scenario, a channel that has existed for several years, but which is taking hold today in a pervasive way, are chatbots, or virtual assistants that can automatically interact with customers.
Chatbots are technologies based on mechanisms of machine learning and artificial intelligence, which guide the consumer in solving his problems online, but they are also able to orient his choices during the purchase phase and drive him to the information on the reference products.
That's why chatbots are nowadays adopted in Customer Service field: they provide a first solving approach to customer's questions, relieving human operators from the frustration of answering repetitive questions and managing a large amount of requests.
Customer Service between Human and Virtual: the advantages of chatbots
The increasing digitization of the experience requires, on the one hand, an empathic and personalized approach with each customer and, on the other hand, efficiency and proactivity, so the Brand is decisive and streamlined in omnichannel interactions.
Artificial Intelligence-based technologies, such as chatbots, support Customer Service on multiple levels: the virtual assistant is entrusted with the simplest and most repetitive tasks, while operators specialize in solving more complex and technical requests. Typically, therefore, chatbots flank (and do not replace) the Customer Service with human operators, which remains dedicated to more complex and qualifying activities.
A chatbot, oriented to improve the customer service of a company, is an interaction system that can answer the most frequent questions asked by customers, through automatic interaction, in real time, H24, 7 days a week.
For responding to these types of requests, chatbots use frequent information and resources, stimulating interaction with users. Thanks to the semantic engine, they are able to recognize and answer multiple forms of the same question and can be "trained" to provide immediate answers, not only through text, but also through voice.
Below are the main benefits, related to the use of chatbot in Customer Service field:
- • 24/7 Availability - Giving support anytime, even after working hours, when the team is unavailable. Chatbots can handle customer requests with automated responses, breaking down time zone difficulties, when the company operates in an international context.
- • Immediate responses - Consumers are often annoyed by long waiting times to get a response. Chatbots ensure immediate response to customers, when human involvement is not yet necessary.
- • Orders and Reservations - Chatbots can be used to automate order and appointment reservations, making this process faster and more efficient.
- • Proactivity - It is also possible to use chatbots to propose and promote goods or services. Virtual Assistants can guide customers through navigation and, according to their behaviour, provide promotions or additional content that may be interesting.
Engagent, the chatbot for Customer Service
Engagent, Pat's application solution, governs Customer Interaction and Experience strategies, also for Customer Service.
The chatbot, which can be applied online, on mobile and on other virtual windows of the Brand, combines semantic rules, Machine Learning specifications, multichannel logics and process automation.
A technology created to guarantee a real Customer Experience to the clients and a real added value for the companies that adopt it. Engagent, in fact, has the functions of interaction and dialogue, based on the rules of human language understanding, proactivity, engagement and involvement of the customer, interpreting preferences, needs and navigation behaviours on digital channels.
Engagent acts as a virtual Customer Service operator, being able to answer and, on occasion, to propose what the online customer is looking for.
Pat's solution, in fact, registers a 90% correctness rate in the answers provided, on first level questions, from its customers. This data is absolutely significant, as it implies a reduction of inbound requests on standard channels, such as phone and email, relieving operators and support teams.
Engagent offers 24/7 service availability, in multilingual, multichannel and allows a constant dialogue and engagement with customers.