Automating customer care is no longer a luxury but a necessity for businesses aiming to scale and provide exceptional service. Efficient automated customer care tools can drastically improve customer satisfaction, reduce response times, and free up your team to focus on complex issues. This article outlines six crucial steps to successfully implement automation in your customer service workflow.
1. Pinpoint Your Customer Service Needs
Before diving into automation, analyze where its impact will be most significant. Are phone inquiries overwhelming your team? Focus on automating with an Interactive Voice Response (IVR) system. High email volume? Implement automated email responses and ticketing. Remember, customers expect omnichannel support. Your chosen software should seamlessly integrate across all communication channels, providing a consistent and reliable experience. Choose agile software that can adapt to evolving customer expectations and changing demands. For instance, if implementing a chatbot increases chat volume significantly, your agents need to transition smoothly to meet the demand. Integrated customer service software is key to managing this dynamic environment.
2. Identify Automable Customer Service Tasks
Your automated system acts as the first line of defense. Focus on high-volume, repetitive tasks that consume your team’s time. Prime candidates for automation include:
- Acknowledging customer messages and gathering initial information.
- Collecting customer data like account numbers for form completion.
- Guiding customers through password resets and account verification.
- Basic product troubleshooting for common issues.
- Automatically triaging and routing support tickets to the appropriate agents.
Automating these tasks frees up your agents to handle more complex issues. Educational platform Degreed, for example, utilized Zendesk to automate tasks, improve team efficiency, and ultimately boost customer satisfaction scores by 16%.
“Automation is improving team efficiency and enabling Degreed to run a lean team during a period of hyper-growth. We’ve come a long way in the last three years, and Zendesk has been a massive part of that success story.” – Kevin Barry, VP of Global Technical Services and Support at Degreed.
3. Recognize Tasks That Require the Human Touch
While automation excels at efficiency, certain tasks require empathy and nuanced understanding. These should remain in the domain of your live agents:
- Complex customer interactions requiring in-depth problem-solving.
- Phone calls from customers who prefer direct communication.
- Onboarding new customers and building relationships.
- Handling sensitive requests like upgrades or cancellations.
By strategically automating routine tasks, you empower your agents to dedicate their time and expertise where it matters most: providing personalized support and building strong customer relationships.
4. Ensure Team Alignment and Training
Successful automation implementation requires a unified team effort. Ensure your customer service team is fully onboard with the changes by:
- Providing comprehensive training on new automation tools.
- Clearly defining roles and responsibilities for managing and maintaining the automated systems.
When everyone understands the new workflow, agents can confidently handle escalated tickets, access necessary information efficiently, and know who to contact for technical support or feedback.
5. Thoroughly Test Before Full Deployment
Avoid potential pitfalls by rigorously testing your automated systems before a full rollout. Ensure your chatbot accurately answers common queries, your automated emails provide relevant information, and your IVR system routes calls correctly. Allow your support team to test the new tools and provide feedback to identify and address any issues proactively. This prevents customer frustration and ensures a smooth transition to the new system.
6. Continuously Monitor and Improve
Automation is not a set-it-and-forget-it solution. Continuously monitor its performance through customer feedback surveys and regular audits of your automated systems. Analyze the data to identify areas for improvement, update knowledge bases, refine pre-written responses, and ensure your chatbot remains responsive and accurate. This ongoing optimization ensures your automated customer care tools remain effective and continue to provide high-quality service.
