Private Sector
The experience of poor customer support is all too familiar. As a customer, you may find yourself on hold for an extended period, with the same monotonous music playing on a loop, and a repetitive message assuring you that your call is “important.” This type of customer service experience may lead you to question whether the company values you.
On the other hand, as a business, you may be limited in your ability to address customer support issues, given the large volumes of calls and increasing staff overheads. This can make it challenging to provide exceptional customer support experiences. In fact, according to Ombudsman Services, bad customer service costs UK businesses over £37 billion a year in lost sales. Businesses are struggling to create exceptional online experiences to meet customers’ on-demand requirements while maintaining proactive engagement, especially in light of the pandemic.
Patience is running thin at both ends, both customers and support staff are facing an uphill battle when managing Tier-1 and Tier-2 support tasks efficiently. These tasks are often repetitive and do not require human intervention. However, with an intelligent workflow powered by artificial intelligence (AI) and natural language processing (NLP), Tier 1 and Tier 2 support can be fully automated, providing a seamless customer support experience.
Customers expect a swift response to their queries. According to HubSpot Research, “90% of customers rate an “immediate” response as essential when reaching out to customer support (60% of customers define “immediate” as under 10 minutes)”.
Not responding in a timely manner affects brand image and perception. A customer is four times more likely to switch to a competitor as a result of poor service. This in turn sparks negative customer feedback and a lack of referrals, making it impossible to acquire new customers. The most common approach companies take to tackle the situation is to hire an army of customer support agents through a third party, which is costly not only financially but brand reputation-wise as well. They have no association or passion for your brand, and they need a lot of support and knowledge on the products or services that you provide to service customers appropriately.
As a result of long, fragmented customer support interactions, representatives might offer irrelevant solutions or provide incorrect, unrelated product recommendations. This is caused by a lack of active listening and not asking the right questions to understand the scope of the problem.
With 84% of customer service agents unable to answer questions, agents often have to transfer calls to other members of staff to help solve customer queries. This mistake is usually the result of siloed communication channels and a lack of employee training. Call transfers are a major player in customer dissatisfaction and nearly 70% of customers are irritated when their call is transferred from department to department.
In today’s market, companies with an omnichannel presence can offer better a customer service experience as users are able to interact with the business through the channel, they prefer on-demand 24/7, anywhere, any time.
The number of businesses offering omnichannel experiences has risen from 20% to more than 80% as they gain a better understanding of customer demands for assistance across multiple touchpoints. However, many businesses fail to meet customers’ omnichannel expectations because they lack the time, resources, and strategy for it.
Beebot Customer Support offers an enhanced customer service experience with on-demand personalised support using an engaging bot interface and real-time chat.
