Customer support automation, or how to put technology at the service of customer satisfaction

In the family of technological evolutions that enable companies to extend their ability to satisfy customer needs and expectations, I ask for customer service automation.

What does it involve? What are the advantages and disadvantages for the company and its customers? How can processes be automated, and which tools should be used? Appvizer answers all your questions in this comprehensive guide.

See all software Customer Support

What is automated customer support?

Automated customer support enables your customers to solve their problems without having to ask for help from a real person. In other words, automating customer service means using specific tools to optimize external and internal processes so as to facilitate and accelerate the handling of customer issues.

Able to reduce the number of interactions between customers and company staff, automated customer support improves service quality.

The 8 benefits of automated customer support

Developing an automated customer support system is a win-win situation for both the company and the customer. What are the key benefits of automated customer support?

1) Around-the-clock assistance

The first advantage of automated support systems is that they are available 24/7. Able to handle simple, repetitive tasks, these tools lighten the workload of employees, who can devote themselves to more important, complex missions.

💡An essential tool for automated customer support, chatbots answer customer questions at any time of the day or night, instantly.

2) More speed and efficiency

As you know, a company that aims for complete customer satisfaction has every interest in dealing with their issues and concerns quickly and efficiently. In any industry, long response times drive customers to competing companies.

Equally important, efficiency is a determining factor in customer satisfaction. Customers are more likely to place their trust in a supplier able to offer relevant solutions.

Continuously available, automated customer support is responsive. Not only does it reduce waiting time, it also provides consistent assistance. 🙌

3) Reduced costs

As interactions between customers and company staff decrease, so do the costs associated with customer service. Rather than creating positions or replacing employees to handle the ever-increasing number of requests, you can leverage automation tools that are able to address customer concerns.

Freed from time-consuming tasks, your employees can concentrate on urgent or high-value-added missions for your cilents. As time is freed up, productivity increases tenfold.

4) Simplified processes

Customers of the same company have different expectations. While they all want to be able to communicate easily with the company, they don't use the same communication channels. Some prefer e-mails, others phone calls, and still others social networks.

Some customers use not one, but several different channels. To keep your customers fully satisfied, you need to make it easy for them to switch from one to the other, without having to rephrase their request at every changeover.

This is a difficult requirement for conventional customer support. It requires the different antennas to communicate constantly to ensure real-time follow-up.

👉Automated customer support services are specially designed to be deployed across multiple channels. Integrated with your CRM, these tools process all information related to customer interactions to provide a global view and continuous monitoring.

As a result, customers have access to an easy, fast and efficient request handling process!

5) Empowered customers

Customers tend to solve their own problems. Thanks to automated customer support, they don't have to seek human assistance. As well as cutting out the middleman, they can start the process whenever they like.

Free to solve their problems at their own pace, customers feel they save time. The process seems simple and appropriate.

6) Ongoing improvements

Digital tools evolve in line with business needs. And that's just as well, since companies are constantly striving to improve their customer service. As we mentioned earlier, the ability to meet customer expectations is a major competitive advantage.

👉 With scalable software, you can be sure of optimizing the speed, efficiency and consistency of your automated customer service.

7) Fewer errors

If error is human, it's nothing to do with customer service automation solutions. Without these tools, helpdesk staff have to communicate constantly to pass on customer-related information. A simple piece of missing data can result in an error. In the best-case scenario, the customer is forced to repeat information he or she has already transmitted.

👉With automated customer support, these hazards disappear. All information is gathered, including the history of exchanges, to ensure efficient and rapid processing of customer requests.

8) Optimized customer experience

All the advantages offered by automated customer support tend to improve customer satisfaction. With real-time support offering fast, consistent and effective answers and solutions, customers' experience is greatly optimized.

For the company, these improvements translate into better acquisition and retention rates.

And the drawbacks?

Technology may be flawless, but it's not perfect. It's undeniable that customer support automation solutions are revolutionizing customer service. Nevertheless, there are a few drawbacks to consider.

Difficulties in solving complex problems

Efficient customer service solves all kinds of problems. On the downside, some are beyond the reach of customer support automation solutions.

This is the case when requests require a high level of knowledge, or when they concern thorny billing issues. In these situations, the automation solution must enable customers to talk to someone who can solve their problem. If it doesn't, customers will be dissatisfied.

✋Chatbots don't resolve conflicts as easily as humans. To deal with a request made by an unhappy customer, it's therefore better to propose an exchange with a real person.

Lack of human interaction

We saw earlier that some customers wish to deal with their problems autonomously, by requesting the responsive services of a chatbot. But many prefer to talk to humans. It's a fact, robots can't answer every question.

💡For effective customer service, therefore, we shouldn't rely solely on artificial intelligence. Let's also consider the fact that some customers feel frustration at the idea of not having access to human interaction.

Incomplete solutions

It's up to you to configure your customer support automation solution. Its performance therefore depends on your ability to put the whole process in place. Even if you excel at configuration, you won't be able to ignore requests for human interaction, for example.

Similarly, a knowledge base developed to answer questions posed via a chatbot accessible on your website doesn't exempt you from handling requests by e-mail.

A barrier between the company and its customers?

Previously, we talked about incomplete knowledge bases and the need for human intervention to resolve certain issues. If chatbots prevent customers from interacting with real people, contact between the company and its customers is broken. Frustrated, customers are less inclined to forge ties with the company. A climate of trust cannot develop, and the chances of building loyalty are considerably reduced.

Examples of automated customer support

Customer support automation is based on the use of multiple tools to optimize processes. Here are the main ones.

Chatbots

An essential tool for automated customer service, chatbots are perfect for answering common customer queries. Able to solve conventional problems, this robot guides callers towards an effective solution.

👉The chatbot's performance depends on your ability to program its responses.

E-mails

As part of a digital marketing strategy, customer service integrates the automatic sending of e-mails to customers. These follow recent purchases. Their content can include satisfaction feedback or information linked to the use of the product purchased.

Live chats

Live chats put customers in touch with customer service agents. With a direct, real-time connection, Internet users don't have to wait on the phone. They can be sure of getting a response as quickly as possible, and can count on real expertise to solve their problems.

FAQs and knowledge bases

These self-service tools are very useful for customers seeking general information on a company's products and services, or on the company itself. When it comes to specific questions, they save time by browsing these structured databases on their own.

Workflows

Customer support automation isn't just about handling interactions between customers and their dedicated service department. Specific tools can automate workflows to boost efficiency and foster cooperation within the customer service department.

💡With repetitive tasks automated, staff can focus on solving complex problems. At the same time, the automation solution enables an employee to pick up where his or her colleague left off, while accessing the full history of data and interactions linked to the customer request in question.

6 best practices for successful customer support automation

To guarantee complete customer satisfaction, you need to take great care in configuring your customer support automation solution. Here are just a few of the best practices you can adopt to improve your company's customer experience.

Best practice no. 1: Provide self-service options

Remember, Frequently Asked Questions and knowledge bases provide valuable self-service options for customers. Customers can find answers quickly, while customer service staff can focus on solving more complex problems.

✋Please note, however, that the development of these information mines requires prior analysis to define the most common questions and issues.

Best practice 2: Provide access to human contacts

To satisfy all your customers' expectations, you can't just use a chatbot to manage requests. A human person must be available to take care of complex situations. 👤

If you don't allow this direct contact, customers will be forced to formulate their requests by email or voicemail. Forced to wait, they'll surely be tempted to approach your competitors.

Best practice #3: integrate live chat

Live chat is essential to enable customers to get in touch with customer service representatives in real time. The latter prefer this tool to chatbots because they trust humans more to find solutions.

💡On your website, live chat is also useful for analyzing exchanges and identifying common questions. Without these observations, it's impossible to improve the way you handle customer queries.

Best practice no. 4: develop predefined responses

Increase the efficiency of your customer service processes tenfold with predefined answers. Employees can use them during live chats to save time in problem-solving. Saving time means increased productivity and a better customer experience!

👉Always with the aim of satisfying customer expectations, be sure to provide personalized responses to add a human dimension that will be much appreciated.

Best practice no. 5: collect customer feedback

Solicit feedback from your customers to assess the performance of your automation solution. After processing a request, include a question to allow customers to express their level of satisfaction. Don't hesitate to integrate a rating system to facilitate processing of the data collected.

Best practice no. 6: Integration with other tools

Customer support automation software can be integrated with relationship marketing automation solutions to improve the quality of exchanges, share information on personalized services and products, deploy a targeted advertising campaign...

Which tools are right for you?

Rely on the functionalities of customer service software to automate processes and improve the customer experience.

✏️Parmi the most popular, Trengo embeds artificial intelligence to help your teams manage all conversations on multiple platforms simultaneously, from a single dashboard. Its high-performance chatbot handles customer requests automatically.

✏️Également based on artificial intelligence, Zendesk develops multiple functionalities to save time for customer service agents. These include

• Production of survey summaries

• Creation of predefined responses

• Access to multiple channels from a single workspace to respond to all requests

✏️Développé for large enterprises, ServiceNow offers a self-service portal enabling customers to create support requests and obtain information from a help center without having to communicate directly with an agent. Customers can ask questions and share their experiences in community forums.

✏️Outil is a popular customer service tool, and Hiver has been developed to help you handle requests from a single dashboard. Of particular interest is its seamless integration with Gmail, making it easy for businesses to use.

✏️Le Zoho Desk customer support software offers multiple tools and options for automating workflows. Like its predecessors, it features a single dashboard, enabling staff to view all requests simultaneously. Another invaluable feature of Zoho Desk is its ticket management system, which organizes tickets according to specific criteria such as priority, status or due date.

See all software Customer Support

Customer support automation: what's in it for me?

Whatever the business sector, customer support automation software optimizes and accelerates the processes involved in handling customer requests. Service agents are freed from repetitive tasks and can focus on resolving issues that require human intervention.

This optimized organization results in improved service responsiveness, greater efficiency and productivity, and an enhanced customer experience.