Relationships matter.

Creating exceptional relationships with customers is critical.

The building blocks of those relationships are conversations. The quality of every relationship is largely determined by adding the strength or weakness of every individual conversation together. The people who have consistently listened intently to you, offered advice when appropriate, and had your best interests in mind have probably become your closest friends and advisors.

The same can be said about relationships with customers. The total relationship with our customers is a summary of every individual conversation during their lifecycle. And while technology is greatly advancing, the majority of people (56% to be exact) still are more likely to return to a company if customer personalization is a high priority.

Yes, there is a time and place for bots in customer support, like answering frequently asked questions, but what happens when your question is a bit more complex? A bot can’t necessarily answer all of your customers’ needs, leading to a frustrating experience. This is where that human element of customer service comes in. Offering a person on the other end of the line empathy towards the problem at hand is valued much more than we tend to think.  

What is the Importance of Customer Support?

Once you have acquired a customer, it’s essential for your business to have a plan in place to retain them. Since an increase in customer retention by just 5% can potentially lead to a revenue increase of 25%, it’s clear that focusing on keeping customers happy can help your bottom line. Speaking of your bottom line, it’s important to also note that 67% of customers are willing to pay more for better customer service.

Here at Incept, we view customer support representatives as the face of the company. Ensure your customers can have the personal touchpoint they need by providing your agents with the training and resources they need to be successful. These resources can range from a chatbot that answers preliminary questions to an FAQ database that helps your agents problem-solve on their own to answer questions more efficiently.

There are 265 billion customer report requests made every year, which provides many opportunities for companies to show continued value to their current or potential customers.

Related Post: How to Humanize CX Strategies in an Increasingly Virtual Workplace

60% of consumers think humans are able to understand their needs better than a chatbot can. Humans are essential for more in-depth problems, but chatbots do have their advantages. Chatbots can help filter through simple problems or requests and help direct your consumers to the answers they need in a timely fashion. Chat flows can be set up in an efficient way to save your human support for more in-depth problems. It can be used to answer simple questions so a human representative has all the context they need to efficiently solve the problem.

Importance of Human Engagement in CX

While chatbots certainly have their place when it comes to customer service, there still remains a need for live agent support. Customers are wanting a more personalized experience when they reach out to a company (such as increased empathy), which is something that a bot can’t necessarily provide without complex coding.

Here’s your reason to increase personalization: 33% of customers who abandoned a business relationship last year did so because personalization was lacking. And like we mentioned earlier in this blog, it’s far more expensive to acquire new customers than it is to retain the ones you already have.

What support requests would benefit from human interaction? Below are a few instances where you may find human support is more helpful and impactful than a bot: 

• Upset Customers

  • When a customer is looking for help and is already frustrated, the last thing you want to do is send them through countless chat flows where they can’t find their answer. It’s best to connect these types of situations to a live agent where they can talk through the problems together and find a solution in the most efficient way possible.

• Complex Technical Issues

  • When products or services are complex and likely have several possible solutions to a problem, a customer is much more likely to want to speak to a human representative. When there’s something not right with a certain account and it isn’t an easy “reset password” answer your customer is seeking, you want to ensure you have a person available to walk your customer through the problem and fix it in a timely manner.

  • A review from one of our customers speaks to this service: “This was the best customer care experience I've had in a very long time. The response was swift and kind. My issue was resolved fully and with clarity about what to expect going forward. I look forward to doing future business with this company.”

• High-Value Customers

  • Customers that are either repeat customers or are spending more money than your average customer typically expect higher-level treatment. This means that when they have a concern, even if it’s something that can be answered on your FAQ page, they likely want to talk to a human and not feel pawned off on a chatbot. Going the extra mile for these clients, in particular, will leave you with happy, loyal customers that will likely bring more business in the future!

When you add that extra human element, you have the opportunity for more personalized CX. This allows your brand to be empathetic towards your customers. What exactly is empathy? Empathy gives you the ability to not only listen to what your consumers are saying but understand why they feel the way they do. It gives you a way to connect further and problem solve on a more personal level. Check out our blog below on ways to achieve empathy in a remote CX world. 

Read: 5 Ways to Show Empathy in a Remote CX World

Human Support Doesn’t Just Mean Phone Support

It’s easy to think of phone support as the only customer support channel for human interaction, but that’s not the case. Live agents are also valued through email, text, social media, and live chat. Even if you can’t hear a person’s voice through the screen you’re using to communicate, a customer is able to generally tell the difference between how a bot types versus a human.

While hotkeys are commonly used to speed up response times on frequently asked questions, an agent isn’t likely to use them 100% of the time simply because not every customer will have the same question. While keeping their messaging on brand, a customer support agent is able to ask specific questions to better understand the customer’s situation, which makes the customer feel heard and treated as a person rather than a dollar sign. 

Conclusion

No matter how much technology advances, humans will still be essential pieces to the customer support puzzle. If you are wanting to ensure a highly rated and personalized customer service offering, please don’t hesitate to fill out the form below and a member of our team will reach out to help.