Whether you’re a small business with a single customer service specialist or a large corporation with dozens (or even hundreds) of support team members, we’re almost positive those specialists are busy.
Customer service is more important than ever before, and using automation helps you better deliver top-tier service. Some businesses resist automation in customer service because they worry that it means relying on chatbots instead of the human-to-human experience, but true automation facilitates high-quality service in a way that benefits your customers at every touchpoint.
In this post, we’re going to take a look at five different ways support and service automation benefits your clients.
1. Customer service issues are addressed quickly across all platforms
Today’s customers have high expectations across the board, which can directly impact how they perceive their experience with your business. One of those expectations is speed.
One study found that 90% of consumers want to see “immediate” responses (defined as a response within 10 minutes), and another found that 48% of consumers expect a response on social media within 24 hours.
When you take advantage of automation, you’re able to more easily deliver on these expectations.
On Zapier, for example, we offer several apps that can facilitate timely responses, like having your team receive Slack messages when new tickets come in through Freshdesk or Zendesk. The faster your team knows about customer service requests, the quicker they can address them.
2. Complex customer service concerns can be resolved completely
Some customer questions or concerns are relatively easy to address. If someone needs an update on a shipped package or information about a return policy, for example, those are simple exchanges.
Sometimes, however, customers have complex concerns or issues. Maybe a client using your SaaS software has continually had complex technical issues that need attention, or someone insists their products have repeatedly arrived damaged.
For clients who have more complicated concerns, apps that allow you to automatically create a card or task for incoming support tickets can be a major game changer. Using a system like Trello, your support staff can track progress in resolving a situation, tag in other team members, and attach comments and files as needed.
The more thoroughly and efficiently you’re able to handle customer concerns, the better, and automation can ensure nothing gets missed.
3. Send handwritten notes and welcome gifts to customers for stronger relationships
Relationship building can go a long way in creating a more positive customer experience, and while automation and authentic relationship building haven’t historically gone hand-in-hand, there are exceptions to the rule.
There are tools available like Handwrytten that allow you to send real cards to customers written in pen and ink. With the right Zapier integrations, you can send cards automatically based on triggered actions. For example, you could send notes to new customers, new subscribers, or donors.
Remember that you want your customers to know that they’re valued and cared about; using automation in this way can help convey that.
If you want to send more than just a card, you can also consider mailing out branded swag like t-shirts, stress balls, and notepads. Tools like Printfection can help you facilitate this, and you can use automation to send out branded products according to set actions.
Find more ideas on how you can use automation to streamline your client gifting process and thank your customers.
4. Follow up for omnichannel support
Omnichannel, seamless support is the ideal, and knowing how and when to follow up with your customers is an important part of that.
When you reach out to customers to follow up after a support issue, a few things happen:
They know that your business cares if the issue has been resolved
They get a chance to tell you if there are still problems, which they may not have done without the extra outreach
You get another opportunity to make a connection with the customer
Following up can be difficult, however—your support team likely doesn’t have the time or resources to call or email every person they’ve helped.
Consolidating multiple communication channels automatically to a single tool can help.
You can, for example, set up an integration with Pure Chat and ActiveCampaign that allows you to add new contacts to ActiveCampaign and set them on an autoresponder. You can use these features to create follow-up campaigns that automatically reach out to customers after a chat experience.
5. Offer personalized service at scale
The idea of offering personalized service on a massive scale is intimidating, but automation makes it entirely possible. And the more personalized the service is, the better each individual customer experience will be.
A great example of this would be using a tool like Bonjoro to send personalized videos to clients.
A SaaS company may send a video demo of a product to a client, showing them exactly what features will help with their specific pain points. The tutorial would be custom-for-them and very relevant. It would also help them to feel like a VIP.
There are plenty of uses for this. Nonprofits can send personal thank-you messages to high-value donors, and an event planner can send personalized intros to clients based on their expressed interests.
With Bonjoro integrations through Zapier, you can add new subscribers to your Bonjoro to-do list or automatically send a pre-recorded thank you video to customers on a specific list. You can keep track of all the videos you need to make without worrying that something will slip between the cracks.
Final thoughts
Automation allows your customers to receive faster, stronger, and more well-rounded support across multiple platforms, all because your team is able to stay on top of everything.
Nothing is missed. The entire customer experience is seamless, simple, and convenient while it’s easier for your staff, too.
Consider taking some time to explore how automation can help take some of the burden off your support team while simultaneously increasing the quality of customer service across the board.
By Ana Gotter
Interested in learning more about how support and service automation can benefit your clients? Start your free trial with Zapier or send an email to info@staging.handlservices.com.ng to get started.