Chatbots in the Customer Service – not a threat, but an improvement

Chatbots are widely used in the customer service of companies and some people see this as a threat, both for the customer service staff as for the quality of the service towards the customers. However, a customer service can’t be completely replaced by the bots, the Chatbots will mainly be a good addition to the team and ensure that the customer service can be lifted to a higher level. Are you interested in this topic? Be sure to read this blogpost and discover how Chatbots in the customer service do not pose a threat but rather an improvement.

Routine questions and requests

If you have ever worked in a company’s customer service, you probably know that there are certain routine tasks that can be automated very well. And this is where the Chatbot comes in useful. For example, in the first interaction with a customer, a Chatbot can ask a number of routine questions, this way the bot can receive the necessary information and also answer a number of frequently asked questions. And this helps both the customer and the customer service employee: the customer is helped quickly and does not have to wait, the employee does not have to perform these repetitive, boring tasks and can focus on other tasks where human contact is really needed.

More challenging work for the customer service team

So, Chatbots can be perfectly used for the frequently asked questions and the repetitive standard tasks. And in case they receive a question or request that they can’t manage, they can request the help of a “real” customer service representative. So when it gets too complicated, they forward the customers. This will therefore only ensure that the work of the customer service team becomes more interesting. They no longer have to deal with boring, repetitive tasks but can really use their qualities and focus on valuable interactions with custome

Higher standards

This will mean that a certain amount of work that the customer service staff previously executed, will be done by a Chatbot. However, this also means that their work becomes more challenging, for example work that has more to do with service and sales. So there will be higher expectations of a customer service representative: their work will be more complicated and, with that, higher demands will be made on their competence. While “traditional” customer service work often consisted of asking questions on the basis of a script, the “newer” customer service work consists mainly of second line assistance where they support customers who really need help or want to make a purchase.

Will this improve the service?

Because the team can focus more on customers with more complex requests and questions, they can help them even better and really make the service of the company improve. Customers are satisfied and with this good service you also stimulate their loyalty. The employees work side by side with the Chatbots and when the bot does not understand the question, they step in. This also prevents that customers will get frustrated with a Chatbot experience that does not work. Instead, the employee takes over and turns it into a solution and a pleasant experience for the customer.

So what can be concluded? Chatbots will not take over all customer service jobs but will ensure that customer service will change. They take on certain tasks, which means that customer service staff will mainly focus on different types of work. Hand in hand, the Chatbots and the team can ensure that the customer experience gets even better.