Customer support is a major expense for most companies. The average team spends a staggering amount of time on repetitive tasks and questions that could be automated. As a result, they’re not spending enough time on human-centric tasks. Because they’re so busy responding to support requests, they don’t have time to think about improving customer satisfaction or seeking customer feedback. Long wait times to speak to customer support teams also frustrate customers.
With automated customer service, businesses can free up their support staff. They can spend more time solving difficult problems instead of wasting their valuable time doing routine tasks like sending out password resets or customer satisfaction surveys. Both customers and employees can have access to an automated help desk to answer questions quickly and accurately. This makes it easier for customers to get help when needed and reduces churn rates for existing customers.
What is support automation?
Customer service automation tools can be used in businesses of any size, from small e-commerce stores to massive software companies managing support for millions of customers.
With artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML), support automation has grown into something much more powerful than just answering support tickets. It can now support complex processes and help employees move through the entire customer support workflow.
Automated workflows connect a company’s support tools with their complete tech stack, allowing for better data analysis and more intelligent problem-solving.
Automated customer service is much faster than traditional help desk methods and customers can access it via self-service 24/7. This provides customers with immediate support, allowing them to save time. Automated support can also supplement parts of the workflow that require a high level of customer-facing expertise.
Automation isn’t about replacing support reps with bots. It’s about providing support at scale and giving your team the tools they need to move from simple tasks like answering routine questions to providing higher-level services like improving customer experience.
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How to use support automation.
Automated customer service works by tracking customer support agents’ processes and then finding the right files, emails, or other support tools needed to complete their work.
By identifying process bottlenecks, support automation enables businesses to streamline team member workflows and improve customer experience by reducing support wait times. Automating repetitive support problems will free support teams up to solve more complex support questions.
An automated system can help your support team save hours, cut response time, and provide customers with excellent service.
To learn more about preparing to automate customer service, read this guide.
Why you need the right tech.
It’s important to identify an automated customer service tool that works for your business.
Automated support tools are constantly improving and evolving, which is good news for companies. However, it can make choosing support tools more difficult than ever.
Start by assessing your support needs and how automation might help you reach them. The following questions can help you identify support automation that works best with your company’s processes and goals.
- Does the support automation support multiple channels? If so, what channels is it compatible with?
- Does the support automation notify relevant team members to answer a ticket or send feedback?
- Is the customer service automation platform easy to use and well designed?
- Will it improve your company’s support workflow?
- Is the support automation cloud-based or built to work on your company’s internal software?
If you use customer service automation for tracking support-related emails and customer conversations, make sure you select support tools that integrate with all major CRM and email marketing platforms.
It is always best to avoid support automation tools that have a single support channel and no integrations with other solutions. This is especially important for SaaS companies that may want to use support automation for marketing.
How can Capacity help with customer support automation?
Many support automation tools aren’t designed with integrations in mind, which can make it difficult to harmonize support across a company’s complete tech stack. That’s why we’ve built an AI-powered support automation tool that integrates seamlessly with the tools that businesses are already using.