How to Better Serve Customers Who Would Rather Talk to a Chatbot Than You

Research shows that only 29 percent of Millennials prefer to talk on the phone when it comes to customer service. That means the remaining 69 percent would rather speak to an automated chatbots to get their problems resolved instead of talking to a live agent.

If you want to keep your customers happy, one way to do it is to add call center technology that makes self-service fast and easy. Much like self-checkout at the grocery store, you’d be essentially providing your customers with a way to get things done on their own. Let’s take a look at that scenario and a few more ways to keep your customers coming back.

1. Adding Call Center Technology

Call center software that supports automated and live communications across multiple channels — mobile, social media, e-mail, chat, SMS and voice — can improve operational efficiency. It can help make your customers’ lives easier by allowing them access to self-service tools they need to solve their problems quickly and easily without the hassle of dealing with a live agent.

Chatbots go beyond automated voice response by understanding customer intent and answering open-ended questions, which helps improve success rates for more sophisticated tasks. Improving the customer experience should be a top priority and chatbots can help you accomplish that because customer experience is built on every positive interaction.

2. Offer Discounts and Specials

Periodically offering your customers discounts and specials can keep them happy and coming back over and over again. Who doesn’t love a good sale or deal? When people are able to save money on the things they love and at the places they shop the most frequently, they’re more likely to buy more than they need and also more often. Send out e-mails notifying your subscribers about any deals you have on a periodic basis, such as during the holidays. Also, make sure your chatbots are able to convey these special discounts and sales to your customers when they interact with them.

3. Be Responsive

When your customers do call or reach out to you on social media or via chat, make sure you’re being as responsive as you can be. That means responding to any inquiries as quickly as you can, even if you can’t find a solution right away. Tell your agents to let your customers know that they’ll do their best to resolve their issues and get back to them in a reasonable amount of time. It’s better to respond with an “I’ll get back to you on that” than with no response at all. If your customers are communicating with chatbots, make sure they’re able to provide the same appropriate response so that your customers feel important and like their needs are being met.

4. Analyze Customer Feedback

Gathering customer feedback is essential to understanding your customers’ needs, and analyzing that feedback can help you figure out what you should do to improve. Checking customer satisfaction forms or surveys can help you find flaws in your processes or design, especially when it comes to issues with your chatbots. If your customers are all complaining about the same things, you know it’s time to find a solution that works for everyone. Try to figure out what obstacles or issues your customers are facing when dealing with customer service, interacting with your chatbots or when using your website.

Taking the Next Steps

Chatbots are a great way to address your customers’ questions and concerns without the need for a live customer service agent. Using call center software that supports chatbots can help enhance the customer experience and free your agents up to perform other important tasks. Consider adding call center software and technology that makes self-service fast and easy for your customers because, after all, they should be your number one priority.