Customer Service Automation vs. COVID-19 – a Vision of the Post-pandemic World

The outbreak of COVID-19 has revised the world we used to know. When it comes to retail, business owners who didn’t have the need to mark their presence nor offer online are now creating online stores in a hurry. E-commerce is in full bloom, as all of a sudden, our offline life has been hacked by the pandemic. When some aspects of our everyday life have gone online, it’s more than certain that new challenges will also affect customer service processes.

When your customer can’t visit you in a store

They’re using other ways to reach you and if you are not available, it’s highly possible that they will look for help somewhere else. One client, especially during times of massive social and retail changes, can make the difference, so you need all hands on deck to keep them satisfied.

Your customers can try to reach you via social media. In this case, you need to be responsive and try not to keep them waiting. These customers’ service channels have two main cons:

• You’re not a chat-bot, therefore it’s impossible to be online 24/7 and answer all the questions immediately.
• Even if you’re online and receive a question or complaint, you may not be prepared to answer it or present a possible solution.

If you’re hiring workers and don’t operate as a sole proprietorship, it can be even harder, as people are staying home now. Although it’s possible to manage remote teams, it may be challenging, especially at the beginning.

Is there any other way, apart from website tickets or social media channels, to keep customer service processes organised and be there for the customers whenever they need you? Meet-and-greet AI-powered virtual assistants!

Automation is gaining traction, and so should your business

Customer service keeps your clients loyal to the brand you create. But have you ever wondered what happens with the clients who are unsatisfied with the services or products you offer? They won’t be interested in a long-term relationship with your company, and, what’s more, they can inform people they know that there are better options than your brand.

You can counteract it by creating a flexible and customer-oriented strategy of presence on the market, and virtual assistants can take customer experience to a level your competitors can only dream of. It’s obvious that clients who invest in certain products or services expect your support and many of them have the same or very similar questions.

With the help of an AI-powered virtual agent, you can automate customer service, which in turn will lead to optimization of cost and time needed to support your clients. Virtual assistants can substitute the human workforce by answering the most common questions, and in case they don’t know answers, they can direct clients to human-operated lines.

High level of responsiveness to support requests not only keeps your clients satisfied, but also enables you to improve your offer by receiving feedback straight from your target groups. Resolving current issues via phone is popular and can become an important part of your omnichannel strategy.

Automation boosts, so should your business

The implementation of automation within business’ activities is quite common among the biggest players. However, it can also be very beneficial for smaller businesses that run their sales online or provide services that require keeping in touch with a client.

People expect to receive help immediately and thanks to AI-powered virtual assistants they can get it – the key is artificial intelligence that learns about your clients needs and performs required actions.

Here’s how virtual assistants can enhance customer experience today and during post-pandemic time:

• Inbound and outbound contact enables you to stay in touch with your customers.
• Virtual agents are flexible and easy to customise, which means you can implement them in no time.
• It understands human language.
• It learns with each conversation.
• Virtual assistants can communicate using personalised voice.
• AI can help you achieve better customer experience.
• You can analyse progress and be flexible with your clients.

Virtual assistants can be fully customised to your needs; therefore, you can create an internal tool that can help you to:

• Inform your customers about important changes within your company. 
• Ask clients to share their feedback over a phone. 
• Answer FAQ promptly and use saved time to scale your business up.
• Automate certain routines, such as payments and order status.
  

Try AI voice agents for customer service

Every business should be human-oriented, however recent months show that the workforce market is changing and technology is becoming even more important in our daily routine than it was so far. The severe impact of COVID-19 on the global workforce is already visible, therefore many companies can benefit from implementing personalised virtual assistants. With the return of normality, whatever it looks like, we will look at online channels of communications in a different way than before. Digital transformation isn’t a thing of the distant future anymore − any virtual assistant will tell you that!

Meanwhile, watch our video case study, in which we present the process of implementing a virtual assistant designed to help people gain more information about COVID-19.