Technology has vastly improved many areas of business, from marketing, online orders, finding businesses online, and more. One key area technology can significantly help to improve is customer service.
For businesses, offering more than simply the product or service you provide is key for a more positive, well-rounded experience. When paying for a service, customers will expect support and positive interaction alongside any product they receive.
Being sure to improve this level of service as much as possible will help to improve your reputation as a brand and business, too.
The truth often can be that, even if you have the most exceptional product or service, it won’t matter if your customer service is terrible. Customers are more likely to forgive a faulty product if exceptional customer service makes up for it than return to do business with a company that provided negative customer service, despite their winning product.
Improved customer service can therefore help to build a positive experience, encourage returning customers, and also retain a customer if any issues need to be fixed.
There are many ways companies can work to improve their customer service, but one key area to achieve that can be technology and software.
Here are six ways modern technology can seriously improve your customer service.
1. Live Chat
With constant evolution of tech comes the growing expectation consumers (and people in general) have of instant contact and replies. When faced with a problem regarding a purchase, consumers will naturally want a resolution as quickly as possible — and because consumers now know how quickly messages can be received and replied through technology, they may expect that from a business.
This means any delay in response — such as an automated email explaining a 3-day wait — may be less than acceptable to a customer in a dilemma.
This is where live chat can be a huge boon for any business. Simply having a live chat feature can be well-received by many customers, even if they have to wait in a queue to be responded to, simply having the option of live chat can be seen as a plus.
Offering live chat capabilities for your customers means that queries can be resolved quickly, and your customers can feel as though their needs are attended to whenever they need it (especially if you offer 24/7 live chat).
2. Social Media Conversations
If your business is active on social media platforms (which it ideally should be), this is a gateway for improved communication with your customers. In this day and age, it’s also very likely that consumers with a feedback issue will take to public posting to make the issue known. If this happens, it’s in a business’s best interest to respond publicly, too, so that other consumers can see how you have positively dealt with the situation.
Social media can make it very easy to speak with and address problems your consumers may have. While it may not be the main channel of communication for customer service response, having the option for consumers to send a direct message or query comment is beneficial.
3. Delivery Route Planning Apps
One key area of customer service these days is the delivery expectation. With online shopping comes a higher demand for fast delivery times, which often includes next day delivery expectation, depending on the product.
To make your delivery service more organized, choosing to plan delivery routes through an app can significantly help your business to provide a better service. If you can offer real-time tracking information on a shipment, your customer will greatly appreciate that.
Not only that, but delivery route planning apps can help your business to optimize routes for drivers and save on time and resources.
4. Self-Service Pages
Good customer service doesn’t always mean your consumer has to speak to anyone. Offering solutions that consumers can find for themselves can be a plus.
Self-service pages mean you can offer a detailed list of problems and their solutions for your customers to browse themselves. This could be displayed on your official website or in another capacity — as long as it’s easy to find and use.
These self-service pages may also include forums or topics which other consumers can interact with and provide help amongst each other.
5. Provide an Extensive List of Options
The more options you have for customer service, the better, and a lot of these options should be online options. A lot of consumers these days will expect customer service options that don’t require them to speak over the phone with anybody — although including that as an option is still a good idea.
The following choices can be made available to improve customer service potential:
- A designated customer service email address, or subcategories of customer service contacts depending on the query
- Live tracking services
- Live chat options
- Direct messaging
- Website inquiry form
- Contact delivery number
- Address for written inquiries
- Fax number
6. Query Tracking
Sometimes, a consumer may try all channels of communication if they have a query. It will look more professional for your business if you can keep track of all queries relating to a single customer. This way, your customer will feel more attended to and won’t be expected to repeat themselves or start from scratch if you answer one query when they’ve already explained the problem in a high number of other queries.
Therefore using software to keep all queries tracked will be a benefit.
What Does Technology Mean for the Future of Customer Service?
The ways in which technology and software can work to improve customer service will only continue to grow. The ability to communicate more quickly and efficiently regarding queries — such as increased live chat capabilities for immediate responses instead of waiting for an email — will likely develop to provide even faster responses.
With the increased ability for remote working and remote contact, too, customer service can be provided more thoroughly from anywhere in the world. The development of AI technology is also likely to help improve services by working alongside business professionals and customer service individuals.
