We are surrounded by technology today. It has changed how we talk to others, how we learn, how we read the news, and how we keep ourselves entertained. Not only that, but technology also has an impact on how we work. In particular, advancements in technology are changing customer support.
Supporting customers and responding to their questions and concerns are some of the most important things to do in business. But just how is technology making waves in the customer service space? Well, that is exactly what this article is going to take a closer look at. Without any further ado, let’s go over some of the ways that technology is changing customer support.
The Existence of the Self Service Portal
One technology that already has legs when it comes to changing customer service is a Self Service portal. This is essentially a website or page where customers can search their concern or question, and find the right answers or assistance quickly and easily. All of this can be done without any help from a customer service rep.
The existence of this portal can make it much easier for your customers and users to get answers to some common questions. In addition to greatly speeding up the process of helping customers, it can also save your company time and money. Of course, a self-service portal shouldn’t replace all of your customer service agents but merely complement them. These portals should be simple to use and should include a wide range of questions and responses, to be as comprehensive a resource as possible.
Predictive Analytics Getting Ahead of Problems
Technology is also helping customer service be more proactive, thanks to predictive analytics. Predictive analytics is the idea of predicting the future based on historic data and other analytical techniques. It can help to forecast trends, as well as the behaviors of customers. As you could imagine, this can be very helpful in the area of customer support.
Using predictive analytics can help you potentially address customer pain points and future issues they might encounter before they do. Predictive analytics can also help you be proactive when it comes to addressing the needs of your customer. These analytics can assist in other areas such as churn reduction and making the right recommendations.
In addition to predictive analytics, using any sort of data to improve customer service efforts is a good idea. The more data and research you use in your decisions, generally the better those decisions will end up being. While there are no sure things, using predictive analysis is often more reliable than simply making decisions based on nothing.
Allowing for Much Faster Response Times
Gone are the days where people will wait multiple days to hear back from a company. When people ask a question or voice a concern with a company, they want to hear back quickly. Despite this, the average customer response time is still over 12 hours. There is a lot of room for improvement, and technology can help.
By using live chat and other solutions, you can drastically reduce the amount of time someone must wait before getting their issues resolved. In fact, some customer support solutions (like chatbots or the aforementioned self-service portal) can get people the answers they need immediately, without having to wait. Either way, being able to respond to custom inquiries quickly and effectively can keep them from going to your competition.
In conclusion, customer support is changing a lot, and one of the biggest reasons why is technology. Whether it is helping reduce wait times, improving the quality of service, or helping businesses be proactive, technology is responsible for a lot of the changes in customer support.