A business, especially one operating online, can benefit from automated services such as a chatbot, online forms, and the likes. It can address a lot of weaknesses of manual work, such as immediate response. However, when it comes to customer support, human contact should still be available. Here are some of the obvious reasons why:
- Comprehension. While artificial intelligence provides us with the means to provide information to our clients in real-time (i.e., chatbots), such technology has limits in comprehending client concerns. Chatbots can only be programmed to address fundamental questions or concerns. More often than not, clients have questions or concerns that are more than that. Most questions cannot be answered by the answers found in FAQs. Some situations need an in-depth understanding of an actual person.
- Probing. As mentioned above, chatbots or answering machines may be programmed to address basic questions or concerns, but these advancements have limits. If the automatic answers do not satisfy the client, the chatbot cannot probe what the client needs. It may even cause more confusion and frustration. Human customer support is required to probe further, assess the situation, and provide the accurate information or solution needed.
- Empathy. When clients experience inconvenience because of the product or service you offer, having customer service personnel is essential to acknowledge such shortcomings and offer help. Automated customer service cannot establish an emotional connection with the client.
- Retention. In connection with empathy, human customer support’s ability to identify how a client feels can offer services that may help alleviate the frustration or inconvenience they think about the product or service. In cases of angry customers, an actual person may still be able to keep the clients from rejecting the product or service your business offers.
These are only some fundamental reasons why human customer support should not be totally replaced by automation. On the other hand, we should not also totally discount the use of automated customer support. Customer Service will be much better when you utilize both to run your business more smoothly.
Do you agree that customer support should not be totally automated?
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