When you deal with a lot of clients at the same time, managing support requests consistently can become quite challenging. The technology available with service automation software can play a key role in improving the effectiveness of your customer service goals.
Customers expect a quick response time and a professional resolution for any problems they may have with your products or services. There are many platforms available to assist with customer support, and some of these can automate the process.
Although it may seem counterintuitive to remove human interaction from customer support, it can be quite cost-effective compared to an employee having to respond to support tickets straight away. This can prove valuable to your business as these support systems are always running, enabling 24/7 support when you need it the most.
What is service automation?
Service automation is the process of integrating a software platform into your business’ infrastructure. It has the power to automate commonly performed tasks, although many processes within a business are human-centric, the aim is to streamline numerous tasks with automation to provide a seamless user experience.
Why you should automate your customer service journey
Cost-effective
Automating your customer service enables you to drive up your service standards without having to hire extra staff. Being able to automate some of your currently manual processes, will also free up time & relieve some of the workloads of team members ultimately leading to lower operational costs.
1. Improved efficiency
One of the most frustrating pain points for your customers during support is delayed or long response times. If you find yourself in a position where support takes longer than necessary, you only really have two options, to invest in more service agents, or to automate aspects of it.
2. 24/7 support becomes feasible
Sometimes, customers can become frustrated with a lack of response or not being kept in the loop with the progress of their issue. Having the option to send automatic responses and allocate tickets for cases keeps them moving reliably through the process. Furthermore, a simple email acknowledging receipt of their problem and a message letting them know you will be in touch can help bring your clients peace of mind, regardless of the time of day.
3. Minimise human error
Unfortunately, on occasion, human error is inevitable. Even the most seasoned staff will make mistakes, and over time, these errors will quickly add up and eat into the profits of your business. Even if there are expenses with implementing automation, in the long run, they will reduce the quantity of these errors and their cumulative effect which is costing your business both time and money. On top of this, these automations can take repetitive tasks out of human hands meaning they have more time to be more attentive to their remaining duties.
4. One centralised location
Having an organised location to store all your customer records, cases, and their resolutions, can greatly aid in the time required to resolve a future customer’s issue, since many customers have similar issues, it is invaluable having a library of resolutions your team can easily access. Many companies in recent years have opted to have an omnichannel approach to their customer service to deliver a more comprehensive experience.
5. Consistent with your brand
A lot of customer service software platforms have the functionality where you customise the software and add in your own unique branding including logo, colour scheme and more. With automated email responses, you can add in your company's email signature and send it from an individual from the support team.
6. Automated and scheduled messaging
Following on from our last point, a valuable asset to automation is the alerts, messages, and reminders they are capable of. Stay updated when a new case opens with alerts, get reminders to respond to priority cases, as well as the possibility to schedule messages to clients that will be sent at a time and date of your choosing. These automations can also provide an automatic allocation of agents to the cases that need it the most, keeping response times low on urgent instances.
7. Insightful analytics
Businesses can thrive off the data they collect from their consumers, to help them improve customer experience. Using software like this adds another data source with great analytics on the user intent of your clients. You can create meaningful reports with this data to inform future decisions concerning customer service.
How does Zigaflow fit in
Automation is at the core of our CRM; we provide a service ticket system that can be fully automated. With instant email responses to new requests, create tasks, jobs and more instantly to progress a ticket to a resolution. The possibilities are endless, and with the flexibility of Zigaflow, you don’t have to change your processes to fit us, we can change them to fit yours.