To keep up with client demand, B2B customer service departments must incorporate digital tools that help them work smarter, not harder. If they don’t, they risk falling behind on service level agreements and damaging their business reputation. To avoid this, many organizations have started relying on automated technology to provide a faster, more reliable customer experience and take a lot of the workload off their agents. Tools that utilize artificial intelligence can completely streamline a support operation and make providing quality service a breeze.
However, there are several guidelines you’ll need to follow when working with customer support automation. Using these tools incorrectly can actually hurt a support team’s performance and end up costing you money. To help you out, we’re going over some essential guidelines to keep in mind.
Understand Where to Automate
Automating every process in your support operation may seem like a logical approach. However, this could lead to unexpected headaches and certainly won’t be cost-effective. Instead, consider what areas could benefit from automation the most and start there. This requires stepping back and looking at your support operation through a wide lens. Look for places along the support cycle where bottlenecks are occurring. These are areas where customer support automation may come in handy. You should also look at response and follow-up times. If agents aren’t able to provide quick service due to a high volume of requests, it’s time to automate. Finally, examine the effectiveness of internal communication between agents. You may be able to implement automated tools that will make things easier.
Enhance Client Outreach
One of the biggest advantages of support automation is it improves the engagement between a business and it’s clients. Make sure you’re using these tools to help your clients communicate with your support team. Incorporating a chatbot that uses artificial intelligence is a great way to speed up the customer service process while also providing relevant, high-quality solutions. When a chatbot aids in a support issue, they can automatically direct clients to additional information in your knowledge base. You should also consider automating the follow-up process so your agents don’t have to manually email clients at the end of a service request. This, along with automated ticketing, will make things much easier for your clients and agents.
Take Advantage of Predictive Analysis
Understanding the habits and behavior of your clients is critical when maintaining a high level of support. Customer support automation tools can help by providing in-depth metrics that you would otherwise have to gather manually. Information such as how a client uses your product and how they prefer to receive support can come in handy. This data will allow your agents to provide proactive service before problems arise. Automated tools will also keep track of client profiles so your agents have the most up-to-date information at all times.
Make Automation Work for You
If your customer service department is having trouble providing a level of support that stands up to the competition, adding automated tools may be the answer. Just make sure to use them where they make sense.
PhaseWare can help by integrating software for B2B customer service into your current operation. Contact us today to learn more.
