The Future of Customer Service

The most forward-thinking and innovative businesses have evolved in parallel with human behaviour, observing changes in consumer preferences that shape how they market, sell, and deliver their customer service.

Regardless of channel or communication tool, great customer service is at the heart of customer retention - and since customer retention is cheaper than acquisition, it’s a crucial mechanism for growth. According to marketing and sales software platform HubSpot, 50% of companies increased their purchasing after a good customer service experience with a brand.

Gill Burgess is the founder of r//evolution, award winning revenue specialists, who help clients to focus on revenue growth strategy, digital transformation and infrastructure, customer acquisition and customer nurturing.

For Gill, the future of customer service lies in automation. By utilising automation tools, Gill states that businesses can become more responsive and accessible.

“Responsiveness is the fundamental element of great customer service, and a point many businesses struggle to optimise,” Gill explains.

“This means looking at applications such as chatbots to transform your customer service efforts, allowing customers to access the information they need 24/7.

“Outside of office hours your chatbot can pick up and handle customer queries, meaning customers can approach your business whenever is convenient for them.”

Gill comments that applications such as chatbots are not only great for responsiveness, but also for analysing data to inform intelligent decision-making.

“By implementing a chat bot on your website, you can improve the quality of your customer service in the long run by gathering data on common customer queries along the way.

“Building up a knowledge base is an effective way to answer common customer queries fast, reducing the need for follow up emails or phone calls with customers. Having a comprehensive knowledge base allows businesses to scale out their customer service efforts, without the need for extra support staff.

On the whole, a knowledge base is a valuable automation tool which can improve the quality of your customer service, creating happy, returning customers.”

In addition, Gill adds that these bots allow organisations to combine customer data, machine learning and AI to deliver unrivalled personalisation throughout the customer journey.

“From simple product recommendations based on past purchases to websites redesigned to tailor an individual customer’s browsing habits, personalisation can improve the customer service interaction and promote overall satisfaction.”

Gill notes that excellent customer service in the digital age spans beyond just web applications and includes other external channel such as messaging applications.
These channels are offering organisations a new space to connect with existing and future customers using real-time, customised customer service bots.

“Social media is a key channel for customer service, and it’s important that your customers are provided with a great experience when they reach out to you.”

Here, Gill refers to a HubSpot report which revealed 60% of customers would rather contact a business via social media rather than via phone.

“Using AI to strengthen your social media customer service efforts allows you to send a response instantly,” Gill comments, adding, “Tools such as SentiOne categorise and automatically assign request to related teams. Plus, it recommends responses based on machine learning allowing that instant response mechanism to delight your customers.”

Although there are many variables that determined whether a brand should invest in automated customer service, such as its target audiences, Gill notes it is difficult to ignore the benefits, and increased popularity, of automated customer service.

“When it comes to automation, customer service can be left out of the conversation, but the benefits of integrating automation into your customer service are hugely valuable for your engagement with customers.

“Without automation, it’s almost impossible to provide an outstanding experience for your customers and retaining them becomes an uphill battle.”

Ultimately, Gill comments that, if implemented correctly, and used in collaboration with ‘traditional’ customer service, automated customer service can provide a powerful and competitive advantage for any business.

“Using automation can transform and, importantly, scale your customer service efforts, allowing you to delight your customers, no matter how they choose to engage with you.”