Customers across sectors have wanted the same things from time immemorial:
- They want to be acknowledged
- They want their questions answered
- They want good service
- They want to feel valued
Customer service itself isn’t rocket science – but 21st-century customer service demands all of these things at speed, wherever the customer is and whenever they communicate.
21st-century customers:
- Need immediate response
- Are likely to be asking questions remotely
- Expect service 24/7
Customers Are Customers Way Before They Buy Anything!
The 21st-century customer wants to be recognized as a customer before they set foot anywhere near your bricks-and-mortar premises (if you have them) – which, of course, they might never do, even if they become a year-after-year repeat customer.
Chatbots are responsive, courteous and efficient with your enquirers, and are able to treat them as valued customers before they ever become customers. This creates an early feel-good effect which has serious persuasion factor, turning casual enquirers into valued customers for you – online, and automatically.
Chatbots treat enquirers as valued customers by:
- Responding to questions effectively
- Enhancing your brand’s image through courteous communication
- Exercising patience and consideration with enquirers as if they’re already valued customers
Questions Need to be Answered Fast
Today’s customers don’t wait around long enough to tolerate being put into phone queues, however appealing the muzak – and they don’t like to waste time navigating even simple websites to look for contact information or, worse, to fill out enquiry forms. They want answers now.
The good news is, chatbots can do all of this!
Chatbots are pre-programmed to efficiently answer any number of frequently-asked questions, but their real beauty lies in their learning capabilities – the more customers a chatbot interacts with, the more it learns to anticipate and answer customers’ varying needs and questions. And if a question is just too complex to answer quickly online, the chatbot is programmed anyway to refer those questions to human colleagues.
Fast response times mean great customer service, and again, chatbots excel here at turning enquirers into customers.
Customer Service Deconstructed
How do brands and businesses ‘serve’ customers? Put simply, customer service means giving customers whatever customers need. And remember: for chatbots, customer service starts with enquirers, all of whom are treated as valued customers before they’ve become customers.
When chatbots respond quickly to enquiries, as they automatically do, that’s great customer service. Ditto when chatbots answer specific questions, and when they go the extra mile by giving extra related information before the customer even asks for it.
Customer service lies in the effective, timely delivery of exactly what the customer is looking for. This is what makes today’s customers feel valued, and it’s why chatbots are such a lifeline for customer-facing businesses.
